NORTH KOREA
Delegation departs for Iran
A high-level economic delegation was on its way to Iran, state media reported yesterday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since August 2019. The delegation, led by Minster of External Economic Relations Yun Jung-ho, flew out on Tuesday for the trip to Iran, the Korean Central News Agency said.
RUSSIA
Navalny priest suspended
A priest who presided over the memorial service last month for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been suspended from clerical duties for three years, the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement published on its Web site on Tuesday. The diocese did not say what the reason was for the punishment, which forbids the priest, Dmitry Safronov, from giving blessings, wearing the frock and bearing the church’s priestly cross until 2027. Safronov was also to be moved to another church in Moscow to perform the duties of a psalm-reader, it said. “At the end of the period of penance, based on feedback from the place of obedience, a decision will be made on the possibility of his further priestly service,” the statement said. On March 26, Safronov held a memorial service for Navalny, a critic of President Vladimir Putin. Navalny died in a penal colony in February.
JAPAN
Moon lander wakens again
A Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) moon lander woke up for a third time after its main functions survived another frigid two-week lunar night, the agency said yesterday. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its landing precision, touched down in January, but landed at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. However, the probe was revived in late February once the lunar night, which lasts about 14 Earth days, came to an end. Despite facing temperatures as low as minus-130°C, it repeated the feat late last month and transmitted new images back to Earth. JAXA said it had succeeded again in communicating with the probe after it woke up for the third time. It posted on X a new image of the moon’s surface that it had received from the lander.
JAPAN
Fukushima release paused
The release of treated wastewater into the ocean from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was suspended yesterday as a partial power outage affected the site, Tokyo Electric Power Co said. The system to cool reactors remained operational and “no meaningful change” had been detected at plant facilities that monitor radioactivity, it added.
UNITED STATES
Virus fragments detected
Health authorities on Tuesday said that they had discovered fragments of bird flu virus in the nation’s pasteurized cow milk supply during the course of a large study, but the samples likely posed no health risk to humans. An outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has spread among dairy cattle herds throughout the country and infected one human, who had mild symptoms. The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that it had discovered viral particles in “milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves.” However, it said that the samples were run through a highly sensitive test, which is able to detect remnants of the pathogen’s genetic material even if the virus itself was inactivated by the pasteurization process.
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
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
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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