PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Landslide rescuers arrive
Rescue crews yesterday arrived at the site of a massive landslide in the remote highlands, helping villagers search for hundreds of people feared dead under towering mounds of rubble and mud. The disaster struck an isolated part of Enga Province at about 3am on Friday, wiping out swathes of the hillside settlement as villagers slept. “While verified casualty numbers are still pending, people living in the approximately 60 destroyed homes are unaccounted for,” a UN situation report said. So far, at least four bodies have been recovered, said a UN official based in the capital Port Moresby. A rapid response team of medics, military and police began pouring into the disaster zone yesterday morning after a journey complicated by the rugged terrain and damage to major roads.
INDIA
Heatwave hits election
As people participate in the next-to-last phase of voting in the world’s largest election, temperatures were forecast to surge to 47°C in the capital, New Delhi. More than 111 million people in 58 constituencies across eight states and federal territories are eligible to vote in the general election’s sixth phase, which recorded a turnout of 10.82 percent in the first two hours of the 11-hour poll. The overall turnout in the same phase of the last elections in 2019 was about 63 percent. “There is a concern, but we hope that people will overcome the fear of the heatwave and come and vote,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer P. Krishnamurthy said. The Election Commission has deployed paramedics with medicines and oral hydration salts at polling stations in Delhi, which have additionally been equipped with mist machines, shaded waiting areas and cold water dispensers for voters. In some parts of the northern state of Haryana, people residing near polling booths also pitched in to help voters beat the heat, handing out cold drinks, dry fruits and milk free of charge.
MEXICO
Hijackers steal avocados
Highway bandits made off with more than 36 tonnes of avocados, federal prosecutors said on Friday. The Attorney General’s Office said the avocados were stolen in two separate robberies in the western state of Michoacan, Mexico’s main producer of the fruit. In both cases, armed men stopped freight trucks carrying about 18 tonnes each, and stole the shipments. Avocado growers have long been targeted by drug cartel extortion demands in Michoacan, but hijackings of entire shipments are rare.
UNITED STATES
Sean Kingston arrested
Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother allegedly committed more than US$1 million in fraud in the past few months, stealing money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, documents released on Friday said. Kingston, 34, and his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, have been charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, arrest warrants released by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said. The two were arrested on Thursday after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Turner was arrested in the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing. Kingston, who had a No. 1 hit with Beautiful Girls in 2007, is being held at a California jail awaiting his return to Florida. His mother was being held on Friday at the Broward County jail on US$160,000 bond.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
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