RUSSIA
No new nuclear pact: report
Moscow will not sign a new treaty with the US to replace the agreement limiting each side’s strategic nuclear weapons that expires on Feb. 5, 2026, the Izvestia newspaper reported yesterday, citing an unidentified senior Russian source. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is the last remnant of efforts to slow the nuclear arms race between the former Cold War superpowers and increase transparency by imposing verifiable limits on the number of weapons. President Vladimir Putin last year suspended Russian participation in the treaty due to US support for Ukraine, although Moscow has kept to the warhead, missile and bomber limits imposed by the agreement, as has the US. The source said that the US was supporting Kyiv and so there could be no new treaty.
INDIA
Climate activist detained
An environmental activist was detained by police outside New Delhi at the end of a month-long climate protest march on foot from the Himalayas, his colleague said yesterday. Sonam Wangchuk, 58, and about 100 of his supporters were taken into custody on Monday night when they were intercepted by police on a major highway leading into the city. The group had walked nearly 1,000km to demand more attention to climate change issues in their mountainous home region of Ladakh, on India’s frontier with China, and more political autonomy for the territory. They had planned to hold a peaceful rally today coinciding with the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi until they were prevented from entering the capital. “We have been detained at the police station and we are not being allowed to meet our lawyers,” group spokesman P. Namgial said. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the detentions as an “unacceptable” breach of the protesters’ rights.
YEMEN
25 feared dead in bus fire
A bus carrying young students with their teachers yesterday caught fire in suburban Bangkok, with 25 of those on board feared dead, officials and rescuers said. The bus was carrying 44 passengers from Uthai Thani province to Ayutthaya for a school trip when the fire started at about noon in Pathum Thani province, Minister of Transport Suriya Jungrungruengkit told reporters at the scene. Minister of the Interior Anutin Charnvirakul said officials could not yet confirm the number of fatalities, as they have not finished investigating the scene, but based on the number of survivors, he said 25 people were feared dead. He added that the bus was still too hot for them to get inside safely. Bodies were still inside the bus hours after the fire.
SOUTH KOREA
Ms Universe aspirant fails
An 81-year-old model fell short in her bid to become the oldest Miss Universe contestant after competing in the South Korean pageant against much younger rivals. Dressed in a beaded white gown, the silver-haired Choi Soon-hwa on Monday strutted across the stage and performed in a singing contest at the Miss Universe Korea pageant at a hotel in Seoul. She missed out on the crown, but did take home the “best dresser” award. Han Ariel, a 22-year-old fashion school student, won the contest and is to head to Mexico City for the Miss Universe pageant in November. Hours before the pageant, Choi, a former hospital care worker who began her modeling career in her 70s, said: “I want people to look at me and realize that you can live healthier and find joy in life when you find things you want to do and challenge yourself to achieve that dream.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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