PHILIPPINES
Lost hikers rescued
Four foreign hikers who had been missing for days in a mountainous area in the central part of the country were rescued yesterday, local authorities said, a day after their two companions were found safe. The six-person group, which included German, British, Russian and Canadian nationals, had set out on Wednesday for what was to be a four-hour excursion in an area of the Negros Oriental province, which officials said was hit by a downpour. Philippine Army personnel found the hikers in a mountainous area thick with vegetation, investigator Leo Gil Villafranca said. “They told the army they got lost due to the fog,” he said, adding all the hikers were residents of the province.
NORTH KOREA
Kim vows support for Russia
Leader Kim Jong-un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official in Pyongyang, state media said yesterday. Friday’s meeting between Kim and Russian Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu followed a South Korean intelligence assessment late last month that North Korea had likely sent additional troops to Russia after its forces sustained heavy casualties fighting in the war. North Korean and Russian state media said Kim and Shoigu reaffirmed the willingness of the two countries’ leaders to “unconditionally” uphold a major mutual defense treaty reached at a summit last year in Pyongyang, which pledges mutual assistance if either country faces aggression, according to the reports.
TURKEY
Protest erupt across nation
Protests on Friday erupted across multiple cities as people rallied against the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor and top rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, despite the leader’s stern warning that street protests would not be tolerated. In Istanbul, police used pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets to push back hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a barricade in front of the city’s historic aqueduct and threw flares, stones and other objects at them. Police also broke up demonstrations in the capital, Ankara, as well as in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, resorting to forceful measures at times, according to images shown on the private Halk TV. Thousands marched in several other cities calling on the government to resign, the station reported. At least 97 people were detained nationwide during the protests, Minister of the Interior Ali Yerlikaya said.
UNITED STATES
Woman kills dog in airport
A woman drowned her dog in a Florida airport bathroom and then boarded an international flight after she was prevented from bringing the white miniature schnauzer with her because of a paperwork issue, authorities said. The woman was arrested in Lake County on Wednesday on a charge of aggravated animal abuse, a third-degree felony. She was released on US$5,000 bail. “This act was intentional and resulted in a cruel and unnecessary death of the animal,” an arrest affidavit from the Orlando Police Department said. The investigation into the death of the nine-year-old schnauzer named Tywinn started in December last year when a janitor found the dog in a trash bag in a bathroom stall at Orlando International Airport, along with a companion vest, collar, rabies tag, a dog travel bag and a bone-shaped dog tag with the woman’s name and phone number, investigators said. The dog was identified by its implanted microchip and a necropsy determined that Tywinn had been drowned.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
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
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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