TUNISIA
Prez candidate arrested
Police yesterday arrested presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel, a member of his campaign said, amid growing fears among rights groups and the opposition that prominent rivals to President Kais Saied would be excluded from the race. The electoral commission was yesterday to announce the final list of candidates for the Oct. 6 vote. Police had arrested Zammel at his home at about 3am on suspicion of falsifying popular endorsements, Mahdi Abdel Jawad said, adding that “the matter has become absurd and aims to exclude him from the election.” The commission and the Ministry of the Interior did not immediately comment.
NORWAY
‘Spy whale’ found dead
A beluga whale that was suspected of spying for Russia after being discovered in Norwegian waters five years ago has been found dead, said nonprofit organization Marine Mind, which had been monitoring the whale. The body of Hvaldimir — a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin — was spotted floating in the sea by a father and son fishing in the south over the weekend, public broadcaster NRK reported. Hvaldimir was wearing a harness with what appeared to be a mount for a small camera when he was first found in 2019 near the island of Ingoya in the north, about 300km from the Russian maritime border. The harness was stamped with “Equipment St Petersburg” in English. The whale was very interested in people and responded to hand signals, leading the Norwegian intelligence agency to presume he had been held in captivity in Russia as part of a research program before crossing into Norwegian waters. Moscow has never responded to the allegations about Hvaldimir.
POLAND
State burial for war dead
The nation yesterday held a state burial of the remains of more than 700 victims of Nazi Germany’s World War II executions that were recently uncovered in the so-called Valley of Death in the nation’s north. The observances in the town of Chojnice included a funeral Mass at the basilica and interment with military honors at the local cemetery. The remains of Polish civilians, including patients of an asylum, were exhumed in 2021 to this year from two separate sites near Chojnice. Historians have established that the Nazis, shortly after invading Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, executed some of the civilians. Other remains are from an execution that took place in January 1945, when the Germans were fleeing the area. The nation lost 6 million citizens, or a sixth of its population, of which 3 million were Jewish, in the war.
AUSTRALIA
Sex abuser pleads guilty
Former childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith, 46, yesterday pleaded guilty to raping, sexually abusing and exploiting dozens of girls under his care in 12 locations in Australia, as well as Pisa, between 2003 and 2022. It took Judge Anthony Rafter more than two hours to read out the 307 charges against Griffith in the Brisbane courtroom, where several victims and their families had gathered, state broadcaster ABC said. Griffith was first arrested in 2022 for making child sexual abuse content. A year later he was charged with 1,623 offenses against 91 children. However, some charges were dropped and the ABC reported that yesterday charges related to about 60 children. Many of the victims were under the age of 12. Griffith is in custody and is to be sentenced at a later date.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
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