World news in brief
Sailor in famous VJ Day photograph dies
The sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of the Second World War has died aged 95. George Mendonsa fell and had a seizure at the assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he lived with his wife of 70 years, his daughter Sharon Molleur told The Providence Journal.
Mr Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on 14 August 1945. Known as VJ Day, it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States.
Mr Mendonsa planted a kiss on Ms Friedman, whom he had never met. The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt was first published in Life magazine and became one of the most famous photographs of the Second World War.
Mr Mendonsa served on a destroyer during the war and was on leave when the end of the war was announced. When he was honoured at the Rhode Island State House in 2015, Mr Mendonsa spoke about
the kiss. “I saw what those nurses did that day and now back in Times Square the war ends, a few drinks, so I grabbed the nurse,” Mr Mendonsa said, according to WPRI-TV. AP
Bolivia: 24 dead after bus collides with dump truck
A passenger bus crashed head-on with a dump truck in southern Bolivia yesterday, killing at least 24 people and injuring 12 more. The accident occurred in dense fog on the high-plains highway connecting Potosi and Oruro, about 220 km (135 miles) south of the capital.
Police said the bus was en route to Oruru from the town of Villazon on the Argentine border. Police Col Jose Pizarro told state television that the cause of the accident was under investigation. Two buses collided on the same highway in January, killing 22 people. AP
Saudi crown prince orders release of 2,100 prisoners
Saudi Arabia’s embattled leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has reportedly announced the release of 2,100 Pakistanis from the kingdom’s prisons during a visit to Pakistan. Pakistan is the first stop on an international tour which is widely regarded as being part of an attempt to rebuild his reputation after the murder of the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s information minister, said on Twitter the Crown Prince had “ordered the immediate release of 2,107 Pakistani prisoners”, after a request by Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan.
The fate of thousands of Pakistani workers locked up in jails across the Middle East is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, where there is a perception the prisoners are mostly poor labourers who have no real legal recourse. Huge numbers of Pakistanis travel to the Middle East every year, with many working on construction sites or as domestic helpers. Reuters
Croatia: body of missing woman found in sister’s freezer
The body of a Croatian woman who disappeared in 2000 has been found more than 18 years later in her sister’s freezer. Jasmina Dominic was last seen at the turn of the millennium when she was 23 years old.
Her family took until 2005 to report her missing and had previously told police she was living overseas. But police officers found her remains inside a freezer in the hallway of the family home in the village of Pavlovec, northeast of the capital Zagreb, on Saturday.
Officers have arrested Ms Dominic’s sister, 45-year-old Smiljana Srnec, and ordered a post-mortem examination be carried out on the body. Police said they believed Ms Dominic had been murdered.
Australian political parties hacked by ‘state actor’
A “sophisticated state actor” was behind a cyberattack on the Australian parliament’s computing network, the country’s prime minister has said. Scott Morrison did not identify the state behind what he described as a “malicious intrusion”, that also affected the network of major political parties, on 8 February.
A joint statement from House of Representatives speaker Tony Smith and Senate president Scott Ryan said at the time there was no evidence that data had been accessed in the breach, but politicians were advised to change passwords. Mr Morrison revealed yesterday that the computer networks of the government parties – the Liberal Party and the Nationals – as well as the opposition Labour Party had also
been affected.
Australia’s security agencies were securing those systems and protecting users, he said. “Our cyber experts believe that a sophisticated state actor is responsible for this malicious activity,” Mr Morrison said. AP