JAPAN
Thousands told to evacuate
Authorities yesterday told tens of thousands of people to evacuate the quake-hit Ishikawa Prefecture as “unprecedented” rains triggered floods and landslides. A dozen rivers in the region had burst their banks by 11am, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism official Masaru Kojima said. Three people were missing in Ishikawa, public broadcaster NHK reported, two of them carried away by strong river currents. At least one person was missing further north in Wajima, and rescue workers were trying to confirm a report of another person missing, a local official said. The cities of Wajima and Suzu, and the town of Noto, ordered about 44,700 residents to evacuate, officials said.
VIETNAM
Activist released early
Prominent climate activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong has been released early from jail, her husband said yesterday, hours ahead of a visit by Communist Party General Secretary To Lam to the US. A second high-profile detainee, dissident Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, was also released, his friend and former human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh said. In September last year, Hong was sentenced to three years in prison for dodging US$275,000 in taxes related to her environmental group. She was one of five environmentalists jailed for tax evasion, in what activists have called a campaign to silence them.
AUSTRALIA
Murder suspect arrested
A 65-year-old man has been arrested in Rome over the “horrific, frenzied” 1977 murder of two women in their home in Melbourne, Victoria Police said yesterday. The bodies of Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were discovered at their house in Easey Street, Melbourne, on January 13, 1977, with multiple stab wounds. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference the 47-year-old crime was the state’s longest and most serious cold case. The suspect, a dual Greek-Australian citizen, had been living in Greece where he was protected by the country’s statute of limitations, Patton said. Police waited for him to leave the country and he was finally arrested on Thursday at Fiumicino airport.
UKRAINE
EU, US prepare aid, loans
The US is preparing a US$375 million military aid package for Kyiv, breaking a months-long trend towards smaller packages for its military operations against Russia, two US officials said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans for Brussels to lend Ukraine 35 billion euros (US$39.11 billion) backed by revenues of frozen Russian assets and promised to help Ukraine “keep warm” ahead of a third winter of war with Russia.
ICELAND
Police kill polar bear
A rare polar bear that was spotted outside a cottage in a remote village was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities said on Friday. The bear was killed on Thursday afternoon in the northwest after police consulted the Environment Agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson said. “It’s not something we like to do,” he said. The bear was rummaging through the garbage at a summer house, when a woman called for help. Polar bears are not native to Iceland, but occasionally come ashore on ice floes from Greenland, Icelandic Institute of Natural History scientific collections director Anna Sveinsdottir said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN