04/08/2026

TUESDAY | AUG 4, 2026

7

Suu Kyi meets Red Cross official

Court acquits former India wrestling chief NEW DELHI: A court here acquitted the former head of the Indian wrestling federation yesterday of charges of sexual harassment and stalking. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, 69, had been accused by female wrestlers of groping and demanding sexual favours. The case triggered weeks of demonstrations in 2023 led by top wrestlers, including world championship winner Vinesh Phogat and Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who demanded Singh’s removal as the head of the Wrestling Federation of India. Singh’s lawyer, Rajiv Mohan, said he had been “honourably acquitted”. The court reached its verdict after finding “inconsistencies” in statements and “contradiction on major issues”, he said. Singh’s supporters set off firecrackers and showered him with flower petals while chanting slogans after the ruling. “I had said that day that I would hang myself if found guilty,” Singh told reporters. “Today, I am walking free after being honourably acquitted.” Prosecutors said they would examine the court’s decision and would take “appropriate action” before higher courts. Delhi police charged Singh in 2023 with sexually harassing and stalking women wrestlers after months of mounting pressure from protesting athletes. – AFP Police station blast kills 17 PESHAWAR: At least 17 people were killed in a blast outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, a rescue group and a regional police official said. The explosion took place in the Kabal area of Swat, a district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A pro-police rally of local residents was taking place in the same area on Sunday, but it was not immediately clear whether the rally was the intended target. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group claimed responsibility for the attack. At least 34 people were wounded, according to a spokesperson for Rescue 1122. The rescue official said the death toll rose to 17 from 14 after three victims died in hospital. The victims included seven police officers and 10 civilians. Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif expressed “deep grief and sorrow over the blast”. The police said an operation had been launched to arrest anyone linked to the attack. Militancy in Pakistan’s border areas has risen sharply in recent months, targeting mainly the military and police. The Pakistani government blames Afghanistan, accusing it of providing support to militants. The Afghan government has denied the accusations. – Reuters

government to allow independent verification of her well-being. In late April, authorities said that she had been moved to house arrest. Following a meeting between Myanmar’s foreign minister and counterparts from Asean in Bangkok last month, Thailand’s top diplomat Sihasak Phuangketkeow called for access to Suu Kyi “so that we can be able to verify the claims” of her good health. But the new administration has so far been reluctant to provide access to Suu Kyi, including a May request by the Philippines to allow an Asean special envoy to meet the detained leader. The daughter of the country’s independence hero General Aung San, Suu Kyi was held under house arrest for a total of 15 years under a previous government at her family residence on Yangon’s Inya Lake, where she famously gave impassioned speeches to crowds of supporters over the metal gates of the property. – Reuters

After a marathon run of secret trials following the coup, Suu Kyi was sentenced to 33 years, convicted of charges ranging from corruption and inciting election fraud to violating state secrecy rules. Her allies maintain the charges were politically motivated and aimed at sidelining Suu Kyi, arguably the most popular politician in the country of 51 million people. The sentence was later reduced to 27 years, and further cut by one sixth in April, leaving her with 18 years still to serve, according to a member of her legal team. Suu Kyi’s son, Kim Aris, said last December that he had little information about her health – receiving only sporadic, secondhand details about his mother’s heart, bone and gum problems – and not heard from her in years, fearing she could die without him knowing. Myanmar’s administrations has repeatedly said Suu Kyi is in “good health”, even as international pressure has grown on Myanmar’s

Naypyitaw, government spokeswoman Khine Khine Soe said in a message via Telegram. The ICRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In two of the four photographs provided by the spokeswoman, Suu Kyi, dressed in traditional Burmese attire, is seen with Baecque in a sparsely furnished, wood-panelled room containing only two chairs and a desk. In another photo, offering a rare glimpse inside what appears to be her residence, Suu Kyi is seen cutting a birthday cake inscribed with her name, with a clothes rack and storage boxes visible in the background. A fourth photograph is a close-up of the cake, inscribed with “Happy Birthday Aunty Suu 19.6.2026”. Reuters was not able to independently verify the location and the date when the pictures were taken. No earlier version of the pictures was found posted online before yesterday.

There were 236 people on board the vessel when it left Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, for Makassar on Sulawesi island on Sunday morning, search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit said. Nanang told Kompas TV 229 people had been rescued alive and five bodies were also recovered. “Mathematically, only two that have yet to be evacuated. We are confirming this data with the shipowner,” he said. Numbers provided by officials have fluctuated wildly. The last toll given on Sunday was 41 people missing and five dead from a total manifest of 271 people. Arman Asmara Syarifuddin, an East Java police official, told Kompas TV yesterday some 28 people were still missing. The reason for the discrepancy was not clear. The fire broke out on Sunday morning as passengers were eating breakfast, survivor Muhammad Abdul Karim told reporters in Surabaya after disembarking from a rescue vessel. “Initially, the smoke entered the information room, the sleeping quarters. And then explosions happened,” he said. The blaze originated in the stern, sending passengers fleeing to the bow where they were all given life jackets, Muhammad said. He said he jumped overboard with an elderly man as the fire came closer, YANGON: Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi met a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Myanmar government said, as regional countries press for access to the 81-year-old. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been in detention since February 2021 when an elected civilian government led by her was ousted by Myanmar’s military in a dawn coup. Since then, Suu Kyi’s exact whereabouts and health conditions have been difficult to determine, with no foreign leader or envoy having publicly met her. Suu Kyi met Arnaud de Baecque, resident representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Myanmar in the capital o Nobel Prize winner detained since 2021

Survivors recall blasts before ferry fire SURABAYA: Survivors said yesterday they heard blasts moments before an Indonesian passenger ferry caught fire, killing five passengers and prompting many to jump into the sea, with some still missing more than 24 hours later.

Survivors Arif Hidayat and his wife Denik Rohana at Tanjung Perak port in Surabaya yesterday. – AFPPIC

night to find survivors even as estimates of the number of missing people kept changing. Most evacuees were taken back to Surabaya, a six-hour boat ride from where the ferry ran into trouble. Bambang Susilo, 36, said he felt the blaze come closer to the bow of the ferry and the floor getting warmer, convincing him and a female passenger to jump into the sea.

and saw flames engulfing “almost all” of the ferry as he looked back. “The waves were big and the ship coming to save us was quite far. Those were our fears when we were about to jump,” said Muhammad, who was rescued drifting at sea in his life jacket about seven hours later. He said he had not seen any lifeboats aboard the ferry. Rescuers worked through the

“We had no choice but to surrender” to our fate, he told reporters at the Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya, where he was waiting to retrieve the body of a colleague. Bambang and five other survivors had swum to the nearest rescue ship, some 5km from the blazing ferry. Another rescue vessel was deployed yesterday to help find the missing, said Nanang. – AFP

Heavy rain, floods batter southern India, 11 killed KOCHI: Heavy rains and floods battered parts of southern India over the weekend, killing at least 11 and displacing thousands in the state of Kerala, and setting off a landslide that killed at least three in Karnataka. The death toll in rain-related incidents rose to 11 by Sunday and nearly 7,700 people were evacuated to around 275 relief camps across Kerala. Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan said yesterday he would be meeting district officials to review

Heavy rains also forced closures of many schools across the state, while the government postponed a state level teacher recruitment exam. In Karnataka, heavy rains triggered a landslide that killed a couple and their son on Saturday. – Reuters

relief camp arrangements. On Sunday, he said clean-up operations had begun in flood-affected areas. The state is likely to see strong winds and moderate rainfall in some areas, the state’s disaster management authority said.