JAKARTA: Dipping their fingers in halal ink to prevent double voting, Indonesians cast their ballots tomorrow in a bitterly contested presidential election, with the main rival to incumbent Joko Widodo already threatening to challenge the result over voter-fraud claims. The Muslim-majority nation’s biggest-ever polls – with more than 190 million
SINGAPORE: Nearly 100 academics worldwide have expressed concern over Singapore’s proposed law against “fake news”, warning it could threaten academic freedom and hurt the city-state’s ambition to become a global education hub. The government this month unveiled a bill containing tough measures, including powers for ministers to order sites like
SHANGHAI: The world’s rarest turtle has moved a step closer to extinction after a female specimen died in a Chinese zoo, leaving behind just three known members of the species. The Yangtze giant softshell turtle, believed to be above 90 years of age, died in Suzhou Zoo on Saturday, according
Nepal will send a dedicated team to Mount Everest this climbing season to collect garbage and retrieve bodies littering the world’s highest peak, officials said Thursday. Decades of commercial mountaineering have turned the mountain into the world’s highest rubbish dump as an increasing number of big-spending climbers pay little attention
MELBOURNE: A security guard is dead and another man is fighting for his life after a drive-by shooting outside a popular Melbourne nightclub, police said yesterday, amid a spate of gun violence in Australia’s second-largest city. Police said four men – three security guards and a patron waiting to get
CAIRO: In a major archaeological discovery, Egypt on Saturday unveiled the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty official adorned with colourful reliefs and well preserved inscriptions. The tomb, near Saqqara, a vast necropolis south of Cairo, belongs to a senior official named Khuwy who is believed to have been a nobleman
HONG KONG: High up in the hills above Hong Kong, Yip Ki-hok uses nothing but his bare hands to remove a honey-filled nest of swarming bees – a remarkable skill he learned after the hardship of China’s famine years. While most new beekeepers buy insects from those with already established
SYDNEY: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s father yesterday called on Australia to bring his son home, saying he was shocked to see his son’s condition after his arrest in London last week. John Shipton – who was secretary of the Wikileaks Party when his son tried to run for a senate
KABUL: A fresh round of violence gripped Afghanistan on Saturday and explosions shattered weeks of relative calm in the capital Kabul, one day after the Taliban launched their annual spring offensive. The bloodshed comes as the US pushes for a peace settlement with the Taliban, and ahead of a new
KATHMANDU: A small plane veered off the runway and hit two helicopters while taking off near Mount Everest yesterday, killing three people and injuring three, officials said. The accident happened at Lukla airport which is the main gateway to the Everest region and is reputed to be one of the