NEPAL
Fifty missing after landslide
Rescue teams yesterday recovered the first body from about 50 people missing after monsoon rains triggered a landslide that swept two buses off a highway and into a river. The force of Friday’s landslide in central Chitwan District pushed the vehicles over concrete crash barriers and down a steep embankment, at least 30m from the road. Chitwan Deputy Chief Administrator Khimananda Bhusal said that about 50 people remained unaccounted for, revising down the number of missing from the 63 reported on Friday.
AUSTRALIA
‘Back off,’ Moscow: Albanese
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday told Moscow to “back off,” after Russia criticized the arrest of a Brisbane-based couple accused of spying. Moscow is engaging in “espionage here and around the world,” Albanese said. “Russia can get the message: Back off,” he added, speaking at an event in Brisbane. Albanese was responding to criticism by the Russian embassy after police on Friday said they had charged a 40-year-old woman and her 62-year-old husband — both Russian passport holders — with preparing for an espionage offense. The Russian embassy in Canberra wrote on X that the arrests and media coverage were “intended to launch another wave of anti-Russian paranoia in Australia.” The couple, who were arrested on Thursday, are accused of accessing national security-related material from the military.
NIGERIA
School collapse kills 22
A two-story school collapsed during morning classes on Friday in Plateau State, killing 22 students and sending rescuers on a frantic search for more than 100 people trapped in the rubble, authorities said. The Saints Academy college in the Busa Buji community collapsed shortly after students, many of whom were aged 15 or younger, arrived for classes. A total of 154 students were initially trapped in the rubble, but Plateau police spokesman Alfred Alabo later said 132 of them had been rescued and were being treated for injuries in various hospitals. Twenty-two students died, he said.
MALDIVES
Accused minister released
A former climate change minister detained last month on allegations she performed “black magic” on the president was released yesterday, police said. Fathimath Shamnaz Ali Saleem was arrested along with her sister and another person in the capital, Male, and resigned from her post shortly afterward. Local media reported she was accused of performing “black magic” on President Mohamed Muizzu to win favor from his new administration. Police had asked for an extension of her detention twice, but yesterday they had no reason to hold her any longer — although the case was still ongoing. Police and authorities have not confirmed or denied the nature of the allegations against Shamnaz, and a criminal court has heard the case behind closed doors. Sorcery is not a criminal offense, but it does carry a six-month jail sentence under Islamic law.
UNITED STATES
Five escape hot geyser
Five people escaped a hot, acidic pond in Yellowstone National Park after the sport utility vehicle they were riding in went off the road and into an inactive geyser, park officials said on Friday. The passengers escaped the 41°C water on their own after the crash on Thursday morning and were taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said in a statement.
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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