NEWS IN BRIEF-2025-03-08

Gang gunfights in Ecuador leave 22 dead

GUSYAQUIL, Mar 07: At least 22 people have been killed in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil after rival factions of a drug trafficking gang exchanged gunfire, highlighting the worsening law and order situation in the country before a presidential race. Another three people were wounded in the violence, the police said in a statement as the death toll increased from 19 to 22 on Friday.

Police said the gunfight erupted on Thursday after opposing factions of a gang called Los Tiguerones, one of the most powerful in this formerly peaceful country, were caught in a dispute. Guayaquil’s El Universo newspaper described the killing as a “massacre”, adding that the gangs were fighting over the territories they control. — Al Jazeera

Japanese barber, 108, crowned world's oldest

TOKYO, Mar 07: A 108-year-old Japanese woman has been certified the world's oldest barber, Guinness World Records said-and she has pledged to keep working until at least 110. Shitsui Hakoishi, born in 1916, decided to become a barber at the age of 14 when a friend's mother asked if she wanted to become an apprentice at a hair salon in Tokyo. She still holds her own scissors, and took part this week in a celebration ceremony reportedly attended by her two children, an 85-year-old daughter and an 81-year-old son. "I'm very happy. My heart is full," she said at the ceremony in Nakagawa, a town in the eastern region of Tochigi. Guinness World Records told AFP on Friday that the oldest barber category is split into male and female categories, but the oldest male barber-Anthony Mancinelli, who worked in New York until at least 107 years old-has now passed away. Hakoishi married in her early 20s and opened a salon with her husband, but he was conscripted during World War II and died. — AFP

UN crew member killed in attack in South Sudan

JUBA, Mar 07: A United Nations helicopter was attacked and a crew member killed in South Sudan while attempting to rescue soldiers on Friday, in an incident described as a possible war crime. A fragile power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar has been threatened in recent weeks by clashes between their allied forces in the northeastern Upper Nile State. The UN Mission in South Sudan said its team was attempting to extract members of the South Sudanese army from the area when their helicopter came under fire, killing a crew member and seriously injuring two others.