GEORGIA
Election results confirmed
Hundreds of opposition supporters in Tbilisi yesterday protested as the poll commission rubber-stamped the ruling party’s victory after last month’s controversial parliamentary vote. The Georgian Dream party won 53.93 percent of the votes against 37.79 percent garnered by a union of four opposition alliances, the Central Election Commission said. The final results give Georgian Dream 89 seats in the 150-member parliament, which the opposition deems “illegitimate” and has refused to enter. The commission’s session was disrupted when an opposition representative splashed black paint on the face of its chair, Giorgi Kalandarishvili.
UNITED STATES
Plane struck by bullet
A Southwest Airlines plane preparing for departure at Dallas Love Field airport was struck by a bullet at about 9:50pm on Friday and had to return to the gate, the airline said in a statement yesterday. “Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was set to depart for Indianapolis when a bullet apparently struck the right side of the plane, just below the flight deck, as the crew was preparing for takeoff,” a Southwest spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. “No injuries were reported. Law enforcement authorities have been notified and the plane has been removed from service.”
UNITED STATES
T-Mobile hit by China hack
T-Mobile’s network was among the systems hacked in a Chinese cyberespionage operation that gained entry into multiple US and international telecoms, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Hackers linked to a Chinese intelligence agency breached T-Mobile as part of a months-long campaign to spy on the communications of high-value intelligence targets, the Journal said, without saying when the attack took place. It was unclear what information, if any, was taken about customers’ calls, the Journal report said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jeff Beck guitars go to auction
More than 130 electric guitars, amps and other pieces of musical equipment that belonged to English guitar legend Jeff Beck are to go on sale in London next year, Christie’s said on Friday. Beck, who rose to fame with The Yardbirds, was hailed as a great alongside the likes of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. He died last year aged 78. The auction includes one of his most recognizable instruments: the 1954 “Oxblood” Gibson Les Paul depicted on the cover of his 1975 instrumental album Blow By Blow. Its value is estimated at ￡350,000 to ￡500,000 (US$441,472 to US$630,675), Christie’s said.
UNITED STATES
Second oarfish found
For the second time this year an oarfish, a rarely seen deep sea fish that has historically been considered a harbinger of doom, washed up in California. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, reported that one of its students last week found the specimen about 2.7m to 3m long on a beach in Encinitas. The creatures, which have long, ribbon-shaped bodies, typically live in an area of the deep sea called the mesopelagic zone, where light cannot reach. They are sometimes called “doomsday fish” due to their mythical reputation as predictors of natural disasters. A 3.7m oarfish was found dead floating off San Diego in August. Oarfish have only been documented washing up in California 20 times since 1901, Ben Frable, a fish expert with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said at the time.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
RSS