FIJI
George Speight pardoned
Former coup leader George Speight was yesterday granted a presidential pardon and freed after spending 24 years in jail on treason charges. The Corrections Service said that the businessman-turned-putschist was formally granted a pardon along with six others. He was granted clemency on the recommendation of a Mercy Commission that was set up to deal with politically sensitive cases. Speight, a businessman, led a 2000 coup that held then-prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry and lawmakers hostage for 56 days.
NEW CALEDONIA
Two killed during raid
Two people were shot dead during a police operation overnight in the French territory, where unrest began in May between indigenous Kanaks and French loyalists, French media reported yesterday. That brought to 13 the number of people who have died since the start of the crisis that was sparked by a voting reform that was suspended in June.
PAKISTAN
Family forgives officer
The family of a blasphemy suspect killed in custody has forgiven the police officer accused of killing him, saying on Wednesday that they would not press charges “in the name of God.” Abdul Ali, 52, also known as Sakhi Lala, was allegedly shot dead last week in a police station in Quetta by police officer Saayd Mohammad Sarhadi, who had accessed the facility by pretending to be Ali’s relative, police said. “We will not fight the case,” Ali’s son Muhammad Usman told a news conference, sitting with another brother and elders from his tribal clan. “We have forgiven the police officer in the name of God.” One of the elders, Faizullah Noorzai, said that the tribe would disown Ali. “We and our families are the kind of people who would sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Prophet Mohammed and his respect.”
UNITED STATES
Train joyrider arrested
Police have arrested a teenage girl they say was one of two people who took an empty New York City subway train on a brief joyride before they crashed it and fled. They are looking for a male companion they believe was also pictured on the train. Surveillance photographs released by the New York Police Department on Tuesday showed one person dressed all in pink, including a pink shower cap, and another in a blue tank top. Police arrested the 17-year-old girl on Wednesday. They have charged her with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. The pair boarded an unoccupied train parked at the Briarwood subway station in Queens just after midnight on Thursday last week and somehow got it running, police said in a news release. They crashed it into another parked train and ran, police said. No injuries were reported.
UNITED STATES
Wagon incident hurts 25
About 25 children and adults were injured on Wednesday when a wagon carrying them overturned at an apple orchard in Wisconsin. The children, parents and chaperones were on a field trip to the orchard in Lafayette when one of two wagons being pulled by a tractor turned sideways and rolled over, Chippewa County Sheriff Travis Hakes told reporters. Hakes said the tractor was traveling at a low speed when the wagon rolled over while going downhill. Three people sustained critical injuries, while injuries to five others were considered serious.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
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