LITHUANIA
Four to quit landmine pact
NATO members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plan to withdraw from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel mines due to the military threat from Russia, the four countries said yesterday. “Military threats to NATO member states bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased,” the countries’ defense ministers said in a joint statement. “With this decision we are sending a clear message: our countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our security needs,” they said. The planned withdrawal would allow an effective protection of the region’s borders, Lithuanian Minister of Defense Dovile Sakaliene said in a separate statement. Finland in December said it was also considering pulling out of the international agreement.
Photo: Reuters
UNITED STATES
Births at four-decade low
The number of births declined in 2023 to the lowest level in more than 40 years, continuing a decades-long trend toward smaller families. Total births fell 2 percent from 2022 to 3.596 million, said a report released yesterday by the National Center for Health Statistics that confirms preliminary data published last year. Americans have been putting off parenthood because of sky-high health costs for themselves and their children, said Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at the Ohio State University. General political, economic and even climate uncertainty have also contributed to the delays, she said in an interview. Large drops among women aged 15 to 24 were likely due to prioritizing education over parenthood, she added. The average age for a first-time mother rose to a record 27.5 years, the report said. The total fertility rate was 1.6 births per woman — a pace that has generally declined since 2008 by 2 percent each year, meaning the nation would have to rely on immigration to sustain current population levels.
THAILAND
Visa-free stays may be cut
The nation plans to halve the number of days it allows foreign tourists to stay without visas to 30 days as it cracks down on travelers exploiting the waiver to engage in illegal businesses, Tourism and Sports Minister Sorawong Thienthong said. Since July last year, the nation has allowed passport holders from 93 countries to stay up to 60 days. The reduction to 30 days has been agreed in principle by various ministries, local media outlets reported on Monday, citing Sorawong. The Association of Thai Travel Agents had expressed concerns over the growing number of foreigners illegally working or doing business in the country, while the Thai Hotels Association said the long visa-free period might be partly to blame for the increase in condominium units being illegally rented out to foreign guests, the Bangkok Post reported.
AUSTRALIA
Stinky beaches closed
South Australia closed two beaches after dead fish and an unusual off-white foam washed ashore while surfers reported feeling unwell, officials said yesterday. A microalgal bloom created by unusual weather conditions was suspected to have sickened humans and marine life, as well as creating the foam that has covered hundreds of meters of coastline, South Australian Environment Protection Authority principal scientific officer Sam Gaylard said. Waitpinga Beach and Parsons Beach have been closed to the public since Monday in response to a “fish mortality event in the area,” the Department for Environment and Water said, adding: “The beaches will be re-opened as soon as possible.”
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
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