BRAZIL
Lula recovering in ICU
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is recovering in an intensive-care unit (ICU) after undergoing surgery for an intracranial hemorrhage, the Sirio-Libanes hospital said in a statement early yesterday. The procedure was performed after the 79-year-old leftist leader felt headaches doctors believed resulted from a fall at home in October. Lula, who traveled from the capital, Brasilia, for treatment in Sao Paulo, is “well, under monitoring in an ICU bed” after the bleeding was drained, the hospital said.
GHANA
Opposition wins presidency
Opposition leader John Mahama won Saturday’s presidential election with 56 percent of the vote, defeating ruling party candidate and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who earned 41 percent, the Electoral Commission said on Monday. The tallies confirmed victory for the National Democratic Congress party’s Mahama, a comeback for the former president that ends eight years in power for the New Patriotic Party. Bawumia already quickly conceded defeat on Sunday, acknowledging Ghanaians wanted change after his government failed to shake off widespread frustration over high costs of living.
AUSTRALIA
Tomahawk missile tested
An Australian warship has test-fired a US Tomahawk cruise missile, officials said yesterday, hailing a “major milestone” in the nation’s decade-long plan to beef up its fleet in the face of an Asia-Pacific arms race. HMAS Brisbane fired the Tomahawk on Tuesday last week off the US west coast, the government said in a statement, making it one of only three countries alongside the US and Britain to acquire and fire the missile. Canberra plans to buy more than 200 Tomahawk missiles to arm some of its warships.
RUSSIA
German ‘saboteur’ arrested
A German-Russian citizen has been arrested by Russian police for allegedly preparing to “sabotage” a rail line on orders from Kyiv, local news agencies quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying yesterday. The man, born in 2003, is accused of having “prepared the sabotage of a section of railway line in the city of Nizhny Novgorod with an explosive device” in return for a “financial reward” by Security Service of Ukraine, an FSB statement said.
FRANCE
Internet firm fined US$53m
The nation’s largest Internet operator Orange was yesterday fined 50 million euros (US$53 million) for sending unsolicited ads disguised as e-mails to customers of its e-mail service. “Internet access and e-mail service provider Orange used its e-mail service to introduce advertisements between e-mails” that resembled e-mails, said Louis Dutheillet de Lamothe, deputy head of privacy watchdog CNIL. Advertisers are required to obtain permission before sending material to a person’s e-mail address and CNIL considered Orange’s actions were equivalent to that even if the e-mail addresses of users were not utilized.
CHINA
Ex-agriculture head arrested
Former minister of agriculture and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary Tang Renjian (唐仁健) has been arrested for suspected bribery, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in a statement yesterday. The case, which has been concluded by the National Supervisory Commission, is being further processed, it said. Tang, 61, was removed from the leadership roster of the ministry’s Web site in May and expelled from the CCP six months later.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
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