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.
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
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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