PAKISTAN
Polio police escort killed
A police officer traveling to guard polio vaccinators was shot dead yesterday, police said, on the first day of a nationwide immunization effort after a year of rising cases. The officer was to guard vaccinators in the area of Jamrud town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when he was killed, local police official Zarmat Khan said. “Two motorcycle riders opened fire on him,” he said. “The constable died instantly at the scene.” Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts. The nation recorded at least 73 polio infections last year compared with six in 2023. “Despite the incident, the polio vaccination drive [due to last a week] in the area remains ongoing,” Khan said.
AUSTRALIA
‘Terrorgram’ sanctioned
Canberra yesterday imposed sanctions on extreme right-wing online network “Terrorgram” as part of its efforts to combat a rise in anti-Semitism and online extremism. Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) said the government’s action would make it a criminal offense to engage with “Terrorgram” and help prevent children from becoming caught up in far-right extremism. “Terrorgram is an online network that promotes white supremacy and racially-motivated violence,” Wong said in a statement. “It is the first time any Australian Government has imposed counterterrorism financing sanctions on an entity based entirely online.” Offenders face up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines, she said. The government also renewed sanctions on four right-wing groups: the National Socialist Order, the Russian Imperial Movement, Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base, Wong said. It also renewed sanctions on four right-wing groups: the National Socialist Order, the Russian Imperial Movement, Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base, Wong said.
SOUTH AFRICA
President defends land move
President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday said he looked forward to engaging with Donald Trump after the US president said he would cut off funding for South Africa, citing land confiscations. Trump on Sunday said, without citing evidence, that “South Africa is confiscating land” and “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly” so he would cut funding until the matter was investigated. Ramaphosa last month signed into law a bill to make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, despite objections by some parties in his coalition government. “South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated any land,” he said.
SOUTH KOREA
Samsung chief cleared
Samsung Electronics chief Jay Y. Lee was yesterday cleared again of a raft of charges linked to a controversial 2015 merger that prosecutors claimed was designed to seal his control of the tech giant. Lee was orginally cleared of the charges in a trial last year, but prosecutors appealed the verdict. “The evidence presented was not sufficient to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt,” court documents said. Lee was cleared of charges including stock price rigging, breach of trust, and accounting fraud. They relate to the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T — a construction and engineering firm — and Cheil Industries.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DISASTROUS VISIT: The talks in Saudi Arabia come after an altercation at the White House that led to the Ukrainian president leaving without signing a minerals deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations today on resolving the three-year conflict would see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelenskiy’s disastrous White House visit last month. Zelenskiy yesterday said that he would meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team.” At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US
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