ASIA
Record meth seizures: UN
A record 190 tonnes of methamphetamine was seized in East and Southeast Asia last year, as organized crime groups boosted production, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said yesterday in its annual report on synthetic drugs in the region. Drug trafficking has affected Southeast Asia for decades, with Shan state in Myanmar the leading source of synthetic drugs in the region. Much of it is produced in illegal labs in areas controlled by ethnic minority armed groups near the border with Thailand, a major transit route. The UN office said that drug gangs are changing their recipes to increase their output. “Organized crime groups are lowering the production costs and scaling up production by using non-controlled chemicals,” UNODC Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Masood Karimipour said in a statement. Greater production is enabling bigger shipments which are driving down prices, he said.
PERU
Boluarte accused of bribery
Attorney General Juan Carlos Villena on Monday accused President Dina Boluarte of accepting bribes in the form of Rolex watches. Villena “presented a constitutional complaint against Dina Boluarte as the suspected author of passive corruption,” his office wrote on X. The scandal erupted in March with the discovery of a trove of undeclared luxury Rolex watches and jewelry in the president’s possession. Boluarte last month told prosecutors the watches had been loaned by a friend, Ayacucho Governor Wilfredo Oscorima. She is being investigated on suspicion of “passive corruption” for receiving improper benefits from public officials. The attorney general’s accusation, presented to Congress, does not amount to an indictment, because the president has immunity while in power. A congressional committee must now debate the accusation before the whole chamber does so. Ultimately, it would be up to the courts to decide whether to put her on trial after her term ends in July 2026.
UNITED STATES
Slingshot ‘terror’ arrested
An 81-year-old man who investigators say terrorized a southern California neighborhood for years with a slingshot has been arrested, police said. While conducting an investigation, detectives “learned that during the course of 9-10 years, dozens of citizens were being victimized by a serial slingshot shooter,” the Azusa Police Department said in a statement. The man is suspected of breaking windows and car windshields, and of narrowly missing people with ball bearings shot from a slingshot, the statement said. No injuries were reported. The man was arrested on Thursday after officers served a search warrant and found a slingshot and ball bearings at his home in Azusa, police said.
AUSTRALIA
Naked runner arrested
A man accused of running naked down the aisle of a domestic flight, knocking down a flight attendant and forcing the plane to turn back, was arrested by police at the airport, officials said yesterday. The incident happened early in a Virgin Australia flight on Monday night from Perth to Melbourne. Flight VA696 returned to Perth airport due to a “disruptive passenger,” an airline statement said. Australian Federal Police officers were waiting for the plane and “the disruptive guest was offloaded,” Virgin said. “The man was transferred to hospital for assessment, where he remains,” a police statement said. Police expect to order the man by summons to appear in a Perth court on June 14.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS