CHINA
Marriage registrations drop
The government, which has been releasing a slew of measures to bolster the nation’s sagging population levels, recorded a drop in marriage registrations for the first nine months of this year, official data released on Friday by the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed. For the first three quarters of the year, 4.747 million couples were registered nationwide, a year-on-year decrease of 943,000, a Reuters calculation of the data showed. Last year, 5.690 million marriage registrations were recorded for the first nine months, an increase from 2022. Growing economic uncertainty and rising living costs across the country have forced many young couples to delay marriage, a troubling sign for lawmakers who have been pushing policies to boost a shrinking population.
COLOMBIA
No species deal at COP16
The world’s biggest nature conservation conference closed in Cali on Saturday with no agreement on a plan to ramp up funding for species protection. With other successes under its belt, the 16th UN Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity was suspended by its president, Susana Muhamad, as negotiations ran almost 12 hours longer than planned and delegates started leaving to catch flights. The exodus left the summit without a quorum for decisionmaking, but convention spokesman David Ainsworth said it would resume later to consider outstanding issues. “We will continue working because this crisis is too big and we cannot stop,” Muhamad said, after declaring the Cali event closed.
EGYPT
Tomb unearthed in Luxor
Archeologists from Egypt and the US unearthed an ancient tomb with 11 sealed burials near the famed city of Luxor, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement on Friday. The tomb, which dates back to the Middle Kingdom (1938 BC to 1630 BC), was found in the South Asasif necropolis, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut on the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor. The joint Egyptian-US mission excavating the necropolis found coffins for men, women and children, suggesting that it was a family tomb used for generations during the 12th Dynasty and the beginning of the 13th Dynasty, Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary-General Mohamed Ismail Khaled said, Items such as jewelry were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads and two cylindrical agate beads framing a hippo-head amulet, the statement said.
MEXICO
Leader of saint cult killed
A local leader of folk saint cult “La Santa Muerte” was gunned down at an altar to the skeletal figure late on Friday, authorities said. Two other people were killed and eight injured in the attack in the city of Leon in Guanajuato state, they added. The saint is often worshipped by convicts, drug addicts and criminals, along with other people who feel excluded or are experiencing difficulties in life. The saint, who is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, is usually depicted as a female skeleton, and is supposed to protect her followers from death. That did not work for “La Madrina Chayo,” a woman considered a leader of the cult in Guanajuato. Prosecutors did not give her real name, in keeping with law, but the nickname “La Madrina Chayo” was used by a faith healer also known as “Chayito.” She, another woman and a boy were shot dead as they prepared the annual Santa Muerte celebration.
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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