JAPAN
West braces for floods
Nearly 200,000 people in western Japan were urged to evacuate yesterday as authorities warned of landslides and floods, while the remnants of Typhoon Kong-rey trickle over the country. The Japan Meteorological Agency said “warm, moist air ... was causing heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in western Japan” partly due to Kong-rey, which was downgraded to an extratropical low-pressure system. Matsuyama “issued the top-level warning, urging 189,552 residents in its 10 districts to evacuate and immediately secure safety,” a city official said. Forecasters said that landslides and floods could affect western Japan yesterday and eastern Japan today.
Photo: courtesy of Mark Longo via AP
UNITED STATES
Celebrity squirrel euthanized
A squirrel named Peanut who was propelled to the heights of Internet celebrity has been euthanized, New York authorities said on Friday, biting a government staffer on the way out. With 537,000 followers on Instagram, the domesticated black squirrel had fans around the world who delighted in his exploits, such as nibbling on waffles and doffing tiny costumes. New Yorker Mark Longo said he rescued the animal after seeing its mother killed by a car, going on to bottle feed the baby squirrel before attempting to release him into the wild. The animal lost part of its tail and returned to Longo, living with him for seven years and starring in posts on the Instagram account peanut_the_squirrel12. “Internet, you WON. You took one of the most amazing animals away from me because of your selfishness. To the group of people who called [the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation], there’s a special place in hell for you,” Longo wrote in an Instagram post. He said he was “in shock, disbelief, and disgusted ... for the last seven years, Peanut has been my best friend.” The Chemung County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement that Peanut, along with a raccoon living with Longo, were possessed illegally, and had been euthanized to test for rabies.
Photo: AFP
PAKISTAN
Lahore air pollution soars
Air pollution in Lahore yesterday soared to more than 40 times over the level deemed acceptable by the WHO, data from IQAir showed. The level of deadly PM2.5 pollutants —particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller — peaked at 610, with a reading above 15 considered unhealthy by the WHO. The air quality index, which measures a range of pollutants, also spiked at 1,067. “We have never reached a level of 1,000,” Punjab Department of Environment Protection and Climate Change Secretary Jahangir Anwar said. For days, Lahore has been enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.
Photo: EPA-EFE
AUSTRALIA
Record-holding croc dies
A 5.48m crocodile that held the world record as the largest crocodile in captivity has died, a wildlife sanctuary said yesterday. He was thought to be more than 110 years old. Cassius, weighing in at more than 1 tonne, had been in declining health since Oct. 15, Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat wrote on Facebook. “He was very old and believed to be living beyond the years of a wild croc,” said the organization, based on Green Island near the Queensland tourist town of Cairns. “Cassius will be deeply missed, but our love and memories of him will remain in our hearts forever.” The group’s Web site said he had lived at the sanctuary since 1987.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
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
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