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.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
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