COLOMBIA
Ceasefire suspended
President Gustavo Petro on Sunday suspended a ceasefire with one of a handful of armed groups with which he hoped to negotiate peace accords, saying its fighters violated the truce by attacking an indigenous community. The government said that starting tomorrow, it would resume military operations against Estado Mayor Central, a group of fighters who broke away from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia when it signed a peace pact in 2016. Indigenous leaders in the war-torn western region of Cauca said an attack by the dissident group on Saturday wounded at least three people and a young student was taken away by force.
MALAYSIA
Google sorry over ringgit
Google Malaysia yesterday apologized for misquoting the ringgit’s exchange rate, after the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) called out its error, saying the tech giant had undervalued the currency against the US dollar. The ringgit, which fell to a 26-year low last month, has weakened about 2.44 percent. The central bank has said the currency is undervalued and does not reflect the nation’s positive economic fundamentals. “We immediately contacted the third party that provides USD-MYR exchange rate information to correct the error,” Google Malaysia said on X. BNM said in a statement on Saturday that Google published “inaccurate” information on Friday and had also done so on Feb. 6.
CHINA
More Chinese tie the knot
The number of new marriages jumped 12.4 percent last year from a year earlier, reversing a downtrend that has lasted for almost a decade as more young people tied the knot after delaying their nuptials due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of newlyweds rose to 7.68 million last year, Ministry of Civil Affairs data released last week showed. This was up 845,000 couples from 2022, but still far below the peak of 13.47 million couples in 2013. Premier Li Qiang (李強) earlier this month pledged that the government would work toward “a birth-friendly society and promote long-term, balanced population development,” as well as reducing the cost of childbirth, parenting and education. The nation’s population fell for a second consecutive year last year, as the record low birth rate and deaths due to COVID-19 accelerated a downturn that officials fear would have profound long-term effects on the economy.
NEW ZEALAND
Kiwis ‘take to the skies’
A flock of flightless kiwi birds yesterday briefly took to the skies, carried across the country in chartered planes on a special conservation mission. The ground-dwelling kiwi is one of the country’s beloved national icons, but it is also one of its most vulnerable native birds. Conservationists have embarked on an ambitious project to restore kiwi populations to the forested hills that surround the capital, Wellington. As part of the project, a flock of 15 kiwis were yesterday coaxed from a sanctuary in the north, then flown more than 500km in two light planes to their new home. Calling it a “milestone moment,” project leader Paul Ward said: “I never thought we would see kiwi fly.” The bird vanished from Wellington’s hills about 150 years ago, as predators were introduced and land was cleared for the growing city. The kiwi transfer was the first by air, but the project has been releasing adult birds around Wellington since 2022. Ward estimates about 75 kiwis now live around Wellington, a figure he hopes to double by May.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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