INDONESIA
Mount Ruang erupts
A volcano erupted several times in North Sulawesi Province, forcing hundreds of people to be evacuated after it spewed lava and a column of smoke into the sky. Mount Ruang, a stratovolcano, first erupted at 9:45pm on Tuesday and twice again in the early hours of yesterday, the country’s volcanology and geological agencies said. There were no reports of any deaths or injuries, but more than 800 people were evacuated from two villages on Ruang Island to the nearby island of Tagulandang, state news agency Antara reported. The first eruption pushed an ash column 2km into the sky, with the second eruption pushing it to 2.5km, said Muhammad Wafid, the head of the geological agency.
JAPAN
Snake delays train
Even small delays in Japan’s much-vaunted bullet trains are rare and more unusual still are snakes on board holding up shinkansen services. On Tuesday evening, a passenger alerted security to a 40cm serpent lurking on a train between Nagoya and Tokyo, resulting in a 17-minute hold-up. It was unclear whether the animal was venomous or how it ended up on the train, a spokesman for Central Japan Railway Co said. “It’s difficult to imagine wild snakes somehow climbing onto the train at one of the stations. We have rules against bringing snakes into the shinkansen, but we don’t check passengers’ baggage,” he said. The train was originally scheduled to go on to Osaka, but the company used a different train for the trip, causing a delay of about 17 minutes, he said.
UNITED STATES
Scooter shooters kill one
Four people were shot — one fatally — on a street corner in the Bronx, New York, on Tuesday evening by people riding on mopeds, police said. About 10 shots were fired after two scooters pulled up to the intersection after 6pm and passengers on the back of each pulled out guns, Assistant Police Chief Benjamin Gurley said. Three people standing on the street corner, ranging in age from 23 to 37, sustained gunshot wounds to their legs. The fourth, a 29-year-old man, was hit in the legs and chest and later died, Gurley said. “The perpetrators wore masks and hoodies to block their identities and then they fled on the scooters northbound,” Gurley said. One person was taken into custody for questioning on Tuesday, but Gurley said police were unsure if that person was involved in the shooting.
UNITED STATES
Bob Graham dies
Former senator and Florida governor Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, has died. He was 87. Graham’s family announced the death on Tuesday in a statement posted on X by his daughter Gwen Graham. “We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, dedicated public servant, and even more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather,” the family wrote. Bob Graham served three terms in the Senate and made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, emphasizing his opposition to the invasion of Iraq following the Sept. 11 attacks. He perfected the “workdays” political gimmick of spending a day doing jobs from horse stall mucker to FBI agent, and kept a meticulous diary, noting almost everyone he spoke with, everything he ate and the TV shows he watched.
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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