PHILIPPINES
Doctor wins award
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, a Vietnamese doctor who has helped seek justice for people affected by “Agent Orange” — a defoliant dioxin used by US forces during the Vietnam War — was among this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards announced yesterday. Nguyen carried out extensive research into the long-term effects of Agent Orange, which she first encountered in the late 1960s as a medical intern when she helped deliver babies with severe birth defects as a result of the lingering effect of the highly toxic chemical, the awards body said. “Her work serves as a dire warning for the world to avoid war at all costs as its tragic repercussions can reach far into the future,” the Magsaysay foundation said. Other winners included Indonesian Farwiza Farhan, for her work to help lead a group to protect the Leuser Ecosystem on Sumatra Island; and Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki for his work to create animated films for children.
ARMENIA
Lightning strikes plant
A lightning strike on Friday caused the shutdown of the nation’s single nuclear power plant, Interfax news agency reported yesterday, citing local authorities. The plant was hit at 9:55pm and was disconnected from the grid, the report cited the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure as saying. The plant is about 25km outside the capital, Yerevan. “The reason was a lightning strike, which caused the station’s safety systems to switch it into safe shutdown mode,” the ministry said.
IRAQ
ISIS members killed
A joint operation by US and Iraqi forces killed 15 members of the Islamic State (ISIS) group in western Iraq, Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Friday. The raid targeted Islamic State leaders and was carried out on Thursday morning, resulting “in the death of 15 ISIS operatives” with “no indication of civilian casualties,” CENTCOM said on X. It said the Islamic State group members were “armed with numerous weapons, grenades and explosive ‘suicide’ belts.”
GERMANY
Stoltenberg defends Ukraine
Ukraine was fully within its rights to launch its offensive into Russia’s Kursk border region as an act of self-defense, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told German newspaper Die Welt. “Ukraine has a right to defend itself and according to international law, this right does not stop at the border,” Stoltenberg said in an interview published yesterday. “The Russian soldiers, tanks and bases there [in Kursk] are legitimate targets under international law.”
UNITED STATES
Suspect dies in crash
A man suspected of abducting a nine-year-old girl from a New York City supermarket and sexually assaulting her in his car was killed on Friday when he crashed while fleeing police, authorities said. Officers tried to pull over the 64-year-old suspect’s car in the early afternoon in Queens, New York Police Department Assistant Chief Jason Savino told a news conference. With police in pursuit, the driver ran a stop sign and struck another vehicle. He died at a hospital. The driver of the other vehicle sustained minor injuries. Police said the man approached the girl in the Key Food store Thursday evening while her grandmother was using the restroom. He told the girl to get in front of him, grabbed her hair and “forcefully” led her outside, Savino said. He then pushed the girl into his car, drove a short distance, assaulted her and left her on the street.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, US President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science. Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor in a White House
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei yesterday on a regional tour to drum up support ahead of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term. Venezuelan authorities have offered a reward of US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of Gonzalez Urrutia, who insists he beat Maduro at the polls in July last year and is recognized by the US as Venezuela’s “president-elect.” The 75-year-old fled to Spain in September after being threatened with arrest by Maduro’s government, but has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in as
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