INDIA
Tank sinks, killing five
Five soldiers were killed when a military tank they were traveling in sank while crossing a river in Ladakh, which borders China, officials said yesterday. The tank sank early yesterday due to sudden increase in the water levels of Shyok River during a military training activity, an Indian army command center statement said. The accident took place in Saser Brangsa near the Line of Actual Control that divides India and China in the Ladakh region, it said. Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh called it an “unfortunate accident.”
IRAQ
Five bombs found in al-Nuri
The UN has said it discovered five bombs in a wall of Mosul’s iconic Great Mosque of al-Nuri, planted years ago by the Islamic State group, during restoration work. Five “large-scale explosive devices, designed to trigger a massive destruction of the site,” were found in the southern wall of the prayer hall on Tuesday by the UNESCO team working at the site, a representative for the agency said late on Friday. “The Iraqi armed forces immediately secured the area and the situation is now fully under control,” UNESCO said. One bomb was removed, but four others “remain connected to each other” and are expected to be cleared in the coming days, it said.
UNITED STATES
Crew ‘not stranded’: NASA
The first astronauts to fly Boeing’s troubled Starliner are not “stranded” at the International Space Station, NASA said on Friday despite having no clear timeframe for bringing them home. In an unusually defensive press call, officials attempted to put a positive spin on where things currently stood after weeks of negative headlines due to the spaceship’s delayed return. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off on June 5 following years of delays and safety scares affecting Starliner. They docked the following day for what was meant to be a week-long stay, but their return has been pushed back multiple times because of thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that came to light during the journey. “Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said. The pair were “enjoying their time on the space station” and “our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time,” he added. Before that can happen, ground teams need to run more testing to better understand the root causes.
UNITED STATES
Comedic actor Mull has died
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including Roseanne and Arrested Development, has died, his daughter said on Friday. Mull’s daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.” Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr’s boss and Michael Keaton’s foe in 1983’s Mr. Mom. He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game Clue, which, like many things he appeared in, has become a cult classic. “He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and — the sign of a truly exceptional person — by many, many dogs,” Maggie Mull wrote on Instagram.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS