BALKANS
Blackout hits four nations
A major hours-long power outage on Friday hit much of the southern European region as it sweltered in an early heat wave that sent temperatures soaring to more than 40°C. Montenegrin authorities said that an outage that lasted for several hours in the country’s power distribution system left almost the entire nation without electricity, while similar problems were reported in the coastal areas of Croatia, and in Bosnia and Albania. Nada Pavicevic, a spokeswoman for Montenegro’s state power distribution company, described the outage as a “disturbance of regional proportion,” and said authorities were still working to determine what happened. The exact cause of the outage was not immediately clear as the regional power grid has been overloaded for days because of overconsumption and the use of air-conditioning in high temperatures. Bosnia’s state power company said the outage there was caused by problems in a regional distribution line, while Albania’s state power company said the “extreme heat” caused the problem. Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Albania share the Adriatic Sea coastline and the power grids in the region remain interconnected, decades after the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
SWITZERLAND
Richest UK family sentenced
A court on Friday sentenced to jail four members of Britain’s richest family, the Hindujas, branding them “selfish” for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion. Lawyers for the members of the Swiss-Indian family — who were not present in court — said they would appeal the verdict. The defendants were acquitted of human trafficking, but convicted on other charges in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at ￡37 billion (US$47 billion) by the Sunday Times. Prakash Hinduja, 78, and his wife, Kamal Hinduja, 75, each got four years and six months, while their son, Ajay Hinduja, 56, and his wife, Namrata Hinduja, 50, received four-year terms, the judge ruled. They were convicted of “usury” for having taken advantage of their vulnerable immigrant staff to pay them a pittance. During the trial the family were accused of bringing servants from their native India and confiscating their passports once they got to Switzerland. Prosecutor Yves Bertossa accused the Hindujas of spending “more on their dog than on their domestic employees.” The family paid the household staff about 325 francs (US$364) a month, up to 90 percent less than the going rate, the judge said.
UNITED STATES
‘Fake elector’ case dropped
A Nevada judge on Friday dismissed an indictment against six Republicans accused of submitting certificates to the US Congress falsely declaring former US president Donald Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election, potentially cutting from four to three the number of states with criminal charges pending against so-called “fake electors.” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said he would take the issue to the state Supreme Court after Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus ruled that Las Vegas was the wrong venue for the case. “The judge got it wrong and we’ll be appealing immediately,” Ford told reporters. The judge called off the trial, which had been scheduled for January next year, for defendants including Nevada Republican Party chairman Michael McDonald, Republican National Party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid and Republican national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
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