FRANCE
Mayotte braces for storm
Residents of Mayotte yesterday braced for a storm expected to bring strong winds and flash floods less than a month after the Indian Ocean archipelago was devastated by a deadly cyclone. The territory was placed on red alert on Saturday in anticipation of the passage of Dikeledi, a storm forecast to skirt about 100km south of Mayotte. It hit the northern coast of Madagascar as a cyclone on Saturday evening and weakened into a severe tropical storm, but is expected to regain intensity as it moves toward Mayotte. It could be reclassified as a cyclone by this morning, Meteo-France said.
THAILAND
Killed for gratitude: suspect
A man accused of killing a former Cambodian opposition lawmaker in Bangkok said he committed the crime to repay someone who helped him during a tough period in his life, police said yesterday. Ekkalak Paenoi on Saturday confessed to the crime in a livestream video after being charged with premeditated murder and unauthorized gun ownership. Lim Kimya, a former lawmaker for the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, was gunned down on Tuesday last week by a motorcyclist as he arrived in Bangkok by bus from Cambodia with his French wife. Ekkalak — who Thai media have said was a former marine — was arrested in Cambodia on Wednesday, before being extradited to Thailand on Saturday. “The shooter said he took this job to pay a debt of gratitude to someone who had helped him during a tough period after he was sacked from the navy,” said Attaporn Wongsiripreeda, a senior police official in Bangkok. Some Thai media reports said he was paid 60,000 baht (US$1,727), but Attaporn told a local broadcaster that Ekkalak claimed he did not receive payment.
FRANCE
Dozens injured in tram crash
Two trams on Saturday collided in a tunnel in a rare accident in the eastern city of Strasbourg, injuring dozens of people, authorities said. The collision occurred near Strasbourg’s main train station, one of the busiest in France outside Paris. Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarot said that “probably around 36” people were injured in the accident, while authorities later put that figure at 68. A video posted by a witness on social media showed a chaotic scene with the two trams significantly damaged in a tunnel near the station. One of the trams appeared to have derailed as a result of the impact, the cause of which has yet to be established.
SCOTLAND
Captured lynx dies
One of four lynx thought to have been released illegally in the Highlands died within hours after it was captured, wildlife authorities said on Saturday. The medium-sized wildcats extinct in Scotland for hundreds of years were spotted in the snowy Cairngorms National Park last week, raising concerns that a private breeder had illegally released the predators into the wild. The lynx that died was one of a pair captured on Friday. “This unfortunate development just serves to further demonstrate the folly of abandoning these amazing animals in the wild, with no preparation or real concern for their welfare,” Royal Zoological Society of Scotland head of conservation and science programs Helen Senn said. Wildlife experts have speculated that the cats were released by someone who took matters into their own hands because they were frustrated by the slow process of securing government approval or an opponent who wanted to create problems that would block the reintroduction effort.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS