UKRAINE
Missile hits Reuters staff
A member of the Reuters team covering the war in Ukraine was missing and two others were hospitalized after a strike on a hotel in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Saturday. In a statement, the news agency said that the Hotel Sapphire, where a six-person Reuters crew was staying, was hit “by an apparent missile strike.” Three other staff members have been accounted for, it said. “We are urgently seeking more information, working with the authorities in Kramatorsk, and supporting our colleagues and their families. We will give an update when we have more information,” it added. The General Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Telegram that it had opened a “pre-trial investigation” into the strike.
PAKISTAN
Bus crashes kill 34
At least 34 people were yesterday killed in two separate bus accidents, including 12 pilgrims who had been trying to reach Iran, rescue officials said. At least 22 people, including a child, were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine near the town of Azad Pattan on the border between Punjab province and Kashmir, said Farooq Ahmed, a spokesman for Rescue 1122 emergency services in Punjab. In a separate incident, 12 men died when their bus crashed into a ravine on the Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan, after being prevented from crossing into Iran. On Saturday, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan.
FRANCE
Arson suspect arrested
Police on Saturday arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in what officials suspect was a terror attack, Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said. “The suspected perpetrator of the criminal fires at the synagogue has been detained,” Darmanin wrote on X, adding that officers who made the arrest came under fire. Police earlier said they were hunting for a man who, draped in a Palestinian flag, was believed to have set fires at a synagogue and triggered an explosion that injured an officer in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte. Interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal earlier visited the site of the attack along with Darmanin. “We narrowly avoided an absolute tragedy,” he said, adding that “if the synagogue had been filled with worshippers ... there probably would have been human victims.”
THAILAND
Authorities raid bitcoin mine
Authorities raided an illegal bitcoin mine west of Bangkok after residents complained of frequent blackouts in the area for more than a month, local authorities said yesterday. Police and officials from the Provincial Electricity Authorities raided the house in Ratchaburi town on Friday. “We found bitcoin mining rigs, pointing to people using this house to operate a mine and using power they didn’t fully pay for,” chief district security officer Jamnong Chanwong said. Records showed that electricity consumption in the house was large, but they had paid for very little of it, he said. Jamnong said his team tried to enter the house on Thursday, but a guard denied them entry. They then returned with a search warrant and found most of the equipment had been moved. The house had been rented by a company for about four months, but the power outages began last month when the mine likely became fully operational, he said.
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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