MALAWI
VP’s plane likely ‘crashed’
An airplane carrying Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima might have crashed in dense forest, but it has not yet been found, the military said yesterday. Search-and-rescue operations had been hampered by foggy weather around the Chikangawa Forest, which was affecting visibility. Chilima, 51, was aboard a military aircraft with nine others that left Lilongwe, the capital, at 9:17am on Monday. The plane had been scheduled to land at Mzuzu airport at 10:02am, but was unable to land due to poor visibility and was ordered to return to the capital, President Lazarus Chakwera said in a televised address to the nation on Monday. Aviation authorities had failed to make contact with the plane since it went off the radar.
THAILAND
Rare elephant twins born
An elephant has delivered a rare set of twins in a dramatic birth that left a carer injured after he tried to rescue one of the newborns. The 36-year-old Asian elephant named Jamjuree gave birth to an 80kg male at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal north of Bangkok on Friday night. However, when a second, 60kg female calf emerged 18 minutes later, the mother went into a frenzy and attacked her new arrival. “We heard somebody shout: ‘There is another baby being born,’” veterinarian Lardthongtare Meepan said. An elephant keeper, also known as a mahout, moved in to prevent the mother from attacking her newborn, and took a blow to his ankle in return. “The mother attacked the baby, because she had never had twins before — it’s very rare,” said Michelle Reedy, director of the Elephant Stay organization, which allows visiting tourists to ride, feed and bathe elephants at the Royal Kraal center. Jamjuree has now accepted her calves, who are so small that a special platform has been built to help them reach up to suckle.
THAILAND
Caged animals die in fire
Hundreds of caged animals died yesterday after a fire struck Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the most famous markets in Bangkok. The fire was reported early in the morning and quickly swept across more than 100 shops in the market’s pet section, the Bangkok government said. Officials said it took them about an hour to bring the fire under control. There were no reports of human casualties, but local media reports said the fire killed several hundred animals, including puppies, fish, snakes, birds and rabbits, kept in cages and locked inside the shops. The cause of the fire is being investigated, said Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who visited the scene after the fire.
INDONESIA
Comedian gets 7 months
A court in the Muslim-majority nation has handed a comedian a seven-month prison sentence for blasphemy after he made a joke about the name Mohammed, a local legal official said yesterday. Aulia Rakhman, a comedian from Lampung Province on Sumatra Island, was found guilty of spreading hatred through stand-up jokes at an event in December, Lampung prosecutor’s office spokesperson Ricky Ramadhan said. He reportedly made a joke at a cafe in the provincial capital, Bandar Lampung, about how names like Mohammed — inspired by Islam’s founding prophet — had lost their positive connotations due to the sheer number of badly behaved Indonesians who share them. Aulia was found guilty last week, but the verdict only came to light yesterday. “The defendant admitted and regretted his actions, behaved politely at the trial, and the defendant has never been convicted,” Ramadhan said.
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
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long
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