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.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
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