Opposition skipping Guinea referendum
CONAKRY • Voters in the West African state of Guinea were being called to the polls yesterday for a bitterly disputed referendum that critics say is a ploy by President Alpha Conde to stay in power.
Mr Conde is proposing a change to the Constitution to codify gender equality and introduce other social reforms. But his opponents fear the real motive is to reset presidential term limits, allowing Mr Conde, 82, to run for a third spell in office later this year - a scenario that his government has not discounted.
Guinea's large opposition parties are boycotting both the referendum and a parliamentary election that is taking place at the same time.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Thai Ecstasy haul in 2019 largest in 5 years
BANGKOK • Thailand saw its worst situation of Ecstasy smuggling last year, with a total of 230,544 pills seized - the largest number in the past five years. The drugs came mainly from Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Slovenia, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday.
The country's Narcotics Control Board said most recent seizures of Ecstasy pills from last October were from major drug syndicates in the Netherlands, suggesting they were trying to broaden markets in more Thai provinces. Since October, the authorities have seized 105,382 Ecstasy pills, delivered from European countries, in 15 cases, the board said. Twenty suspects were involved - 15 Thais and five foreigners.
8.56m people living alone in South Korea
SEJONG • South Korea saw the number of single-person households grow sharply over the past 10 years in the wake of declining marriages, a higher divorce rate and an increasing number of senior people residing alone.
The number of single-person households came to 8.56 million out of 22.56 million households last month, data from the Ministry of Interior and Safety showed.
They took up the largest percentage - 37.9 per cent of the total, an all-time high. The portion of those residing alone was 34 per cent in February 2015 and 32 per cent in February 2010.
THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
