08/06/2026

MONDAY | JUNE 8, 2026

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Pope Leo laments ‘flames of polarisation’ Royal Palace in Madrid.

Hunt for funeral venue gunman SYDNEY: A manhunt was underway in Sydney yesterday after shots were fired at the venue of a planned funeral for a prominent underworld figure killed in Vietnam. Purported leader of Sydney’s so called “Coconut Cartel” Lorenzo Lemalu was shot dead last month outside a seafood restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese police arrested two suspects, both of Samoan nationality, who later admitted to the killing in a televised confession. Footage emerged yesterday of a gunman in a car firing shots at a venue slated to host Lemalu’s funeral in Sydney’s west. The video on a social media channel sharing updates about the city’s underworld showed a man firing an assault rifle while another tells him to aim for the venue’s windows and laughing. Police said no-one was wounded and they later found an abandoned car linked to the shooting set alight. The funeral was held at a prominent Sydney mosque yesterday, national broadcaster ABC said. Regular Sydneysiders have found themselves in the crosshairs of escalating gang violence in Australia’s largest city this year. In February, elderly grandfather Chris Baghsarian was found dead after being kidnapped in what police said was a case of mistaken identity. Neither Baghsarian nor his family had any underworld connections and the kidnappers were instead targeting the relative of a man linked to the west Sydney-based Alameddine crime network, police said. Leading Australian criminologist Vince Hurley has warned the city’s organised crime groups are becoming “more reckless”. – AFP

Over a million people filled the streets of Madrid and one of its main squares yesterday morning to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo as he made his way to an open-air Mass in what was expected to be the largest event during his week-long visit to Spain. People waved flags and shouted, “Long live the pope” as Leo was driven in the popemobile down Madrid’s main thoroughfare Paseo de la Castellana toward Cibeles Square, where he was due to preside over the Mass. Some tossed flower petals as he arrived in the square. Some 1.2 million people were in the square and its surrounding streets, the Vatican and local organisers said. “May Madrid remain a welcoming and inclusive city, where social life is inspired by genuine human values,” Leo wrote in a guest book as he was handed the key to the city by its mayor. – Reuters

o Pontiff urges leaders to stop dividing electorates MADRID: Pope Leo has urged global leaders to stop dividing their electorates with “sterile simplifications” to gain popularity and called on them to listen to the world’s cries for peace, in a forceful speech opening a week-long tour of Spain. Leo said before touching down in Spain on Saturday he hoped the tour would set an example to the world about respecting “every human being”. “Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarisation seems to have grown rather than diminished, and human dignity continues to be violated,” Leo said in a speech before King Felipe VI at the

“I invite everyone to set aside the divisive and polarising narratives of your societal reality and history, so as to overcome sterile simplifications through the fruitful appreciation of complexity,” he said. Technology was partly to blame for creating an environment which magnifies prejudices and weakens critical thinking, Leo said. He drew on Spain’s history as an example of peaceful co-habitation between religions and cultures, making reference to how Christians, Muslims and Jews cooperated during medieval times to enhance human knowledge by translating Arabic texts into Latin, Spanish and Hebrew at the School of Translators in Toledo. “Your own history suggests that a culture of encounter, not confrontation, is what fosters stability and prosperity,” he said.

Seoul nominates first female prime minister SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has chosen Han Seong-sook (pic) , the country’s minister for small and midsize businesses and startups, to be prime minister, the presidential office said yesterday. medium-sized enterprises,” Kang said. The role of prime minister is largely ceremonial and administrative under South Korea’s presidential system.

Han, a former chief executive of online portal giant Naver who spent most of her career in the internet industry, took up her current post upon the inauguration of the Lee administration. Referring to outgoing Prime Minister Kim, Kang expressed the presidential office’s gratitude for his service in the post, saying the government’s policy results could rightly be attributed to Kim’s performance. Earlier reports said the Prime Minister’s Office has formed a team in advance to help the prime minister nominee prepare for her parliamentary confirmation hearing. – Reuters/Bernama

If approved by parliament, Han would become South Korea’s first female prime minister in 20 years. Han, who had also previously served as chief executive of South Korean internet giant Naver, is expected to lead the country’s AI transformation, South Korea’s presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said at a press briefing. “Han will be able to transform South Korea’s economic growth – driven by the semiconductor boom and rising exports – into inclusive growth that reaches everyone, including small and

Kosovo holds another snap election PRISTINA: Kosovo headed to the polls in a parliamentary election yesterday, the third in just 18 months, as no one party has been able to gain a strong enough majority to pull the Balkan country out of a political crisis.

Europe’s youngest and one of the poorest nations has aspirations to join the European Union but has had no functioning government for much of the last year as its fractured parliaments failed to elect first a speaker and then a new head of state. No opinion polls have been conducted recently but analysts predict victory again for Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s Vetevendosje party. However, he will still need to reach a compromise with opposition parties to secure the two-thirds majority required to elect a new president, they say. Kurti’s party won 51.1% of the vote in the last election in December, up from 42% in February 2025, but could not agree with other parties on a candidate for the largely ceremonial presidency, triggering the dissolution of parliament in April and another snap election. The repeated elections have delayed reforms and the flowing of much-needed EU funding. Kosovars are keen to see the end of the political deadlock as they seek higher salaries and more affordable goods to benefit from a growing economy. “The political elite needs to be ready to reach an agreement. There has been a very deep division caused over recent years, and this must come to an end,” said Fatos Selimi after casting his ballot in capital Pristina.

A voter registering

before casting her ballot at a polling station

in Pristina yesterday. – AFPPIC

coalition groups are competing for seats in the 120-seat parliament. About 2.1 million voters are registered – more than Kosovo’s 1.6 million resident population due to a large diaspora, which is based mostly in western Europe. – Reuters

Like all parties in Kosovo, it has a pro-Western orientation. It also opposes further concessions to Serbia, with which relations remain strained. Kosovo’s election commission has said more than 900 candidates from 17 parties and three

The EU has urged politicians in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, to create strong institutions that can deliver the reforms needed to join the bloc. Kurti’s party first came to power in 2021 with a more nationalist, welfare-focused agenda.