JAPAN
Police search for attacker
Police were yesterday searching for the attacker who fatally stabbed a junior-high school student and wounded another at a McDonald’s restaurant, local media reported. The teens were in line to order at about 8:30pm on Saturday when the attacker entered the fast-food restaurant in Fukuoka Prefecture’s Kitakyushu and wordlessly stabbed them both, national broadcaster NHK reported. They were rushed to a hospital where the girl later died. The other victim, a boy, survived and told police he did not know the man who had stabbed them, NHK said. It was not clear whether the girl knew the man, who remained at large yesterday. Dozens of police have deployed to find the attacker, described as a man who appears to be in his 40s, Television Nishinippon reported.
IRAN
Singer arrested after concert
Authorities have arrested a female singer who performed a virtual concert on YouTube, a lawyer said. Parastoo Ahmady, 27, was arrested in Sari City on Saturday, lawyer Milad Panahipour said. On Thursday, the judiciary had filed a case regarding Ahmady’s concert performance, in which she performed wearing a long black sleeveless and collarless dress, but no hijab. She was accompanied by four male musicians. Ahmady had posted her concert on YouTube the day before. “I am Parastoo, a girl who wants to sing for the people I love. This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately,” she said. The online concert has been viewed more than 1.4 million times. Panahipour said that he did not know the charges against Ahmady or her place of detention, adding that two musicians in her band were arrested in Tehran on Saturday. Separately, a court has sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in prison for working at a US-funded radio outlet, his lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, wrote on X on Saturday.
FRANCE
Oldest Miss France crowned
A 34-year-old flight attendant from the French Caribbean island of Martinique on Saturday became the oldest contestant to win the Miss France pageant. Angelique Angarni-Filopon clinched the crown thanks to a rule change that permitted women older than 24 to participate, as well as those who are married or are mothers. “In 2011, a young woman aged 20 finished first runner-up in the Miss Martinique competition. Today, it’s the same young woman aged 34 who stands before you to again represent Martinique, its diaspora as well as all the women who were once told that it was too late,” she said on winning the competition, which was broadcast by TF1.
UNITED STATES
Trump wins ABC News case
ABC News is to pay a US$15 million settlement to resolve a defamation lawsuit brought by president-elect Donald Trump, court documents filed on Saturday showed. The lawsuit stemmed from on-air comments made by top anchor George Stephanopoulos, who said Trump was found “liable for rape” during an interview with US Representative Nancy Mace that aired in March. The settlement require ABC News to donate US$15 million to a fund dedicated to “a presidential foundation and museum” for Trump. The news organization and Stephanopoulos would also issue public apologies saying they “regret statements” made about Trump during the aforementioned interview, and the broadcaster would pay an additional US$1 million in attorney fees. Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse — a different transgression from rape under New York law — in a case filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
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