JAPAN
Mongooses eradicated
The nation has wiped out all mongooses on a subtropical island, officials said, after the animals ignored the venomous snakes they were brought in to hunt and preyed on endangered local rabbits instead. About 30 of the venom-resistant predators were released on Amami Oshima, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the late 1970s to keep down the population of habu, a pit viper whose bite can be deadly to humans. However, the snakes are mostly active at night when mongooses prefer to sleep and the toothy mammals turned their ravenous appetites to local Amami rabbits, drastically reducing their numbers. The rabbits only live on Amami Oshima and one other island and are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list. The mongoose population had exploded to about 10,000 by 2000 and authorities began a program of eradication. The government declared the island mongoose-free on Tuesday, almost 25 years after the start of that program and nearly 50 since the ill-fated initiative began.
Photo: EPA-EFE
SOUTH KOREA
Leaders slam N Korea
The leaders of South Korea and New Zealand during a summit in Seoul yesterday condemned North Korea’s weapons program and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. President Yoon Suk-yeol and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also agreed to work toward elevating bilateral ties, the presidential office said. “It is more important than ever for countries that share values, including South Korea and New Zealand, to form solidarity at this critical juncture, where challenges from authoritarian forces continue, with the war in Ukraine and military cooperation between Russia and North Korea,” Yoon said in his opening remarks.
Photo: Reuters
BANGLADESH
Thousands of Rohingya flee
About 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from across the border with Myanmar in the past few months, escaping escalating violence in Rakhine State, an official said yesterday. The violence has intensified as fighting between Myanmar’s ruling junta and the Arakan Army continues to worsen. “We have information that around 8,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh recently, mostly over the last two months,” said Mohammad Shamsud Douza, a senior official in charge of refugees for the government. “Bangladesh is already overburdened and unable to accommodate any more Rohingya.”
Photo:AFP
UKRAINE
Foreign minister resigns
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the speaker of parliament said yesterday, as part of a major government reshuffle. The announcement came a day after several other ministers resigned in a significant government reset. Kuleba is the most senior of the ministers to offer to step down.
ECUADOR
Prison director killed
The director of a prison was killed in an armed attack on Tuesday and two officers were wounded, the Latin American country’s prison management service said. “Three administrative officials of the Center for Deprivation of Liberty ... were victims of an armed attack” on the road to Coca city, the SNAI prisons agency said on WhatsApp. Alex Guevara, director of the prison in Sucumbios Province, “unfortunately died due to the attack,” it said. Two other workers who were with him were wounded. SNAI said that police are investigating the incident.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
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