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.
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
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