INDIA
Nuclear sub plans approved
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved plans to construct two of a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines among the six the navy plans to make, two defense officials said on condition of anonymity, in a project estimated to cost about 450 billion rupees (US$5.4 billion). Faster, quieter and capable of longer underwater stays than conventional diesel-powered craft, which makes them more difficult to detect, nuclear-powered attack submarines rank among the most potent naval weapons in the world. Only a handful of nations make them, including China, France, Russia and the US. The new submarines are to be built at the government’s shipbuilding center in the port of Visakhapatnam. Conglomerate Larsen and Toubro is also expected to join the project, one of the officials said.
EGYPT
Cairo rejects Sudan claims
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied allegations by Sudanese paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, at war with the army since April last year, that its military has been involved in the conflict. The war between Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces and the regular military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has killed tens of thousands and caused the world’s largest displacement crisis. In a video posted online on Wednesday, Daglo accused the Egyptian air force of carrying out strikes targeting his forces near Jebel Moya, a key area south of Khartoum. In a statement issued later that day, the ministry denied the allegations “regarding the participation of the Egyptian air force in the battles taking place in brotherly Sudan,” it said.
MALAYSIA
Death penalty commuted
A former police officer convicted of murdering a Mongolian translator yesterday won an appeal against his death penalty, with the federal court commuting the sentence to 40 years in jail. Azilah Hadri, 48, was one of two bodyguards to then-
minister of defense Najib Razak convicted of shooting in 2006 Altantuya Shaariibuu, and then blowing up her body with military-grade explosives near Kuala Lumpur. His accomplice, Sirul Azhar Umar, fled to Australia in 2015, where he was held in immigration detention until his release in November last year. Azilah had filed the appeal after the nation passed a law last year that allows judges to commute death penalty sentences. Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat noted that Azilah’s appeal for a lighter sentence was also backed by the victim’s father, as she revised the penalty to 40 years behind bars and 12 strokes of the cane. Altantuya’s killing was linked to a scandal that allegedly saw kickbacks doled out during a 2002 deal to purchase French submarines, on which the Mongolian national worked as a translator.
JAPAN
Nuclear reactor to shutter
Kansai Electric Power Co yesterday said it would shut a nuclear reactor after finding a “tiny” hole in a pipeline, threatening to increase fossil fuel requirements to fill any electricity shortfall. The No. 3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture was to be closed for inspection, the utility said in a filing, which did not provide a timeline for the shutter or restart. The hole was discovered in a pipe used to release water to the sea from the cooling system. Kansai Electric has canceled a tender to sell a cargo of liquefied natural gas for December delivery following the incident, traders with knowledge of the matter said. The tender was to close yesterday.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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