MYANMAR
Hottest April recorded
Myanmar recorded its hottest-ever April temperature of 48.2oC, the weather office said yesterday, as the nation bakes in a heatwave. The mercury hit 48.2oC in the town of Chauk in central region of Magway on Sunday, the highest temperature in April since records began 56 years ago, the agency said in a statement. The same day temperatures hit 40oC in commercial hub Yangon and 44oC in Mandalay, it said.
KENYA
Forty die after dam collapse
Police said at least 40 people have died after a dam collapsed in the nation’s west yesterday morning. The floodwaters swept through houses and cut off a major road, police official Stephen Kirui said. The incident happened after the Old Kijabe Dam in the Mai Mahiu area of the Great Rift Valley region that is prone to flash floods, collapsed and water spilled downstream. Ongoing rains have caused flooding that has killed nearly 100 people and caused the opening of schools to be postponed. Heavy rains have been pounding the country since the middle of last month and the Meteorology Department has warned of more rainfall.
THAILAND
Activist gets more jail time
The Criminal Court in Bangkok yesterday sentenced a leading democracy activist to another two years and 20 days in prison on royal insult charges. It is the latest charge leveled against prominent human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, who now faces more than 10 years in prison. He is currently in jail after being sentenced in January to four years in prison over three messages posted on Facebook in 2021, adding to the four years he was already serving for a prior lese-majeste conviction. Critics say the government has used the strict legislation to silence dissent, prosecuting scores under a tough law that protects King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his family. The Criminal Court sentenced Arnon over his calls at a Harry Potter-themed rally in 2021 to amend the nation’s royal defamation laws. He was found guilty of four charges including violation of lese-majeste, defying the emergency decree and using a loudspeaker without permission, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said.
FRANCE
Boy stabbed to death
A 15-year-old has been stabbed to death in the latest case of teenage violence, and the alleged attacker and his mother have been arrested, prosecutors said on Sunday. The latest victim was killed in a brawl in the central town of Chateauroux late on Saturday and died in hospital the same evening, regional prosecutor Agnes Auboin said. The suspect, also 15, was arrested about two hours after the fight and taken into custody, Auboin said. There was evidence suggesting that the 37-year-old mother of the suspect might have been involved, she said. The victim, an apprentice chef and son of a restaurant owner, was accompanied by a friend, also an apprentice, at the time of the incident, a source close to the case said. Authorities have launched an investigation into voluntary manslaughter. The suspect “has never been convicted of a criminal offense and has no criminal record,” the prosecutor said. However, he had been placed under judicial supervision earlier this month following other offenses. A witness interviewed by Agence France-Presse said the boy was among a group of assailants who had attacked a 22-year-old man in a local park a week earlier. The witness said he had “run over and... filmed the scene” to put an end to the attack.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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