THAILAND
Bus crash kills 18
At least 18 people were killed and 23 injured yesterday after the brakes failed on a tour bus and it rolled upside down into a ditch, police said. “It was a downhill road and the brakes failed, and the driver lost control of the vehicle before it overturned,” said Colonel Sophon Phramaneehe, adding that those who died were adults on a study trip. There were 49 people on the bus, all Thai, including the driver, he said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
COLOMBIA
Cocaine found in toupee
Police apprehended a 40-year-old man allegedly attempting to smuggle several bags of cocaine concealed beneath a toupee. Police said the suspect was detained at Cartagena’s airport on Monday as he prepared to board a flight to Amsterdam. A scanner revealed the hidden cargo: 220g of cocaine packaged in small bags, strategically placed under what authorities described as a “narco wig.” A police video released on Monday captured the moment an officer, wearing blue gloves, carefully removed the suspect’s wig with scissors, revealing approximately a dozen packets of cocaine.
Photo: AP
AUSTRALIA
Nurse charged over threats
A Sydney nurse has been charged with making threats after she appeared in an online video saying she would not treat Israeli patients. Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with the federal offenses of threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and using a carriage service to menace and harass, police said in a statement. The charges carry a potential maximum penalty of 22 years in prison. Abu Lebdeh and another nurse, Ahmed Rashid Nadir, were suspended from Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on Feb. 12 over an online exchange the night before with Israeli influencer Max Veifer. Abu Lebdeh said she would not treat Israeli patients while Nadir suggested he had killed Israelis. Nadir has yet to be interviewed by police.
AUSTRALIA
Seven charged over salutes
Police yesterday charged seven men who allegedly performed Nazi salutes during a gathering at a club for Croatian expats. Police in Victoria state said that the men had been photographed making the “prohibited gesture” on Feb. 8 at the Croatian Club of Geelong. “The charges follow an extensive investigation into an image circulating online which depicted a group of men performing the prohibited gesture,” police said in a statement. “All seven men have been charged on summons for public display or performance of Nazi symbols or gestures.” Croatian Club president Frank Sarcevic said earlier this month he was “absolutely disgusted in this behavior and extremely disappointed.”
NORTH KOREA
Kim urges military boost
Leader Kim Jong-un called for building a strong, modern army to cope with any war during a visit to the Kang Kon Military Academy, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday. Kim said that the military academy had poor management and operations, saying it failed to meet the ruling party’s pursuit of “modernity and advanced character” in building a powerful army, KCNA said. He laid out tasks to refurbish the facilities and intensify education focusing on practice so that the students would learn about the “actual experiences of modern warfare,” and to master advanced weapons and technical equipment, it said.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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