AUSTRALIA
Dolphin rescue abandoned
Marine experts have given up hope of rescuing more than 150 false killer whales that stranded on a remote beach in Tasmania state, officials said yesterday. Experts were at the scene near Arthur River on Tasmania’s northwestern coast where 157 of the dolphins were discovered on an exposed surf beach on Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said. Unfavorable ocean and weather conditions, which prevented the animals from being rescued yesterday, were forecast to persist for days, incident controller Shelley Graham said. “We have been out in the water this morning and have relocated and attempted to refloat two whales, but didn’t have success as the ocean conditions weren’t allowing the animals to get past the break. The animals are continuously restranding,” she said.
Photo: AFP / Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania
JAPAN
Kishida attacker sentenced
A court yesterday convicted a man who threw a homemade pipe bomb at former prime minister Fumio Kishida at a 2023 campaign event, sentencing him to 10 years in prison, court officials said. Ryuji Kimura, 25, was found guilty of attempted murder in the April 15, 2023, attack on Kishida at a small fishing port in Wakayama, and other crimes.
Photo: AFP
SRI LANKA
‘Drug dealer’ killed
A man accused of being a top drug dealer was shot dead inside a courthouse yesterday by a gunman disguised as a lawyer, police said. Ganemulle Sanjeeva was shot at close range as he entered the dock in a bail hearing at the Colombo Magistrates Court, police said in a statement. Sanjeeva was brought to court under a heavy armed escort by commandos from the elite Special Task Force, who handed him over to prison guards at the entrance. The gunman escaped as Sanjeeva was rushed to hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Photo: AFP
VATICAN CITY
Francis has ‘peaceful night’
Pope Francis, who has been diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, passed a “peaceful night,” the Vatican said yesterday. “The pope spent a peaceful night, woke up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said after Francis’ fifth night at the Gemelli hospital in Rome. Francis was admitted with bronchitis last week after experiencing breathing difficulties, but has since developed pneumonia in both of his lungs.
Photo: AFP
PERU
Cusco stone vandalized
An allegedly intoxicated man vandalized a 500-year-old archeological artifact known as the 12-Angle Stone in Cusco, authorities said on Tuesday. Police said that the 30-year-old man was suspected of attacking the stone with a hammer. He was arrested after the incident, which was recorded on a nearby surveillance camera, police said. Police believe the man, identified as Gabriel Roysi, was under the influence of alcohol or drugs when he took a hammer to the stone, Henry Valdez, the head of Cusco police station, told state news agency Andina. The Ministry of Culture said in a statement that multiple fragments broke off “the emblematic stone structure.” The stone, a popular tourist attraction and landmark of Incan cultural heritage, is part of a wall that made up the Inca Roca palace. Its 12-angled border is described as symbolic of the advanced stonework of the Inca civilization.
Photo: AFP / Peru’s Ministry of Culture
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
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