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.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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