SOUTH AFRICA
ANC loses majority
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party yesterday lost its its three-decade-old absolute majority and would have to find allies if it is to remain in power. With more than 98 percent of the votes from Wednesday’s election counted, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC had just more than 40 percent support, a catastrophic slump from the 57.5 it won in 2019. That marks a historic turning point as the party has enjoyed an absolute majority since 1994. Data released earlier in the day from the Independent Electoral Commission showed that the center-right Democratic Alliance held second place with 21.71 percent, while former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe had 12.6 percent, a surprise score for a party founded just months ago as a vehicle for the former ANC chief.
AFGHANISTAN
Twenty die in boat sinking
At least 20 people were yesterday killed when a boat sank while crossing a river, a Taliban official said. Quraishi Badlon, Nangarhar provincial director of the information and culture department, said the boat sank while crossing a river in the province’s Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people including women and children. The boat was carrying 25 people, according to village residents, of whom five survived. So far five bodies have been retrieved including a man, a woman, two boys and a girl, the Nangarhar Department of Health said in a statement.
GERMANY
Six injured in stabbing
Six people were on Friday wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally, including a prominent critic of Islam, drawing immediate condemnation from the nation’s leaders. The attack, just days before EU-wide elections, comes amid a spike of politically motivated violence in the country. Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser raised the possibility that the assault could have been Islamist motivated. A man with a knife attacked and wounded several people on the market square in the city of Mannheim in the southwest at about 11:35am, police said in a statement. Five of the wounded were participating in a rally organized by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, police said. A police officer who intervened was also stabbed several times in the back of the head, it said. Another officer fired at the attacker and wounded him. “The extent and severity of the injuries are not yet known,” the police said, adding that the identity of the attacker had not yet been determined.
JAPAN
US$300m lost in ‘leak’
Crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin said it had lost about US$300 million in bitcoin in what it described as “an unauthorized leak” from its digital wallet. “We are still investigating details of the damages,” it said in a statement after detecting the “unauthorized leak” at about 1:26pm on Friday. “We have already taken measures to prevent the unauthorized leak, but we have also implemented restrictions on the use of some services to ensure additional safety,” the exchange said. DMM Bitcoin did not give details on the “leak,” but global cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainalysis said it was one of the biggest crypto hacks. “Today’s hack of Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin for $305M worth of bitcoin is the biggest hack since Dec 2022 and the 7th largest crypto hack ever,” Chainalysis wrote on X, adding that it had labeled the funds as “stolen.”
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
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
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
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