World News Quick Take

Hubert Aiwanger, the leader of a conservative party that has become a mainstay of Bavarian politics and who sought to expand its influence across the country, has been found dead at a Berlin hotel. Berlin police and prosecutors said the body of Aiwanger, who was Bavaria’s deputy governor and the southern state’s economy minister, was found in his hotel room in the center of the capital on Wednesday evening. An investigation into the cause of death was opened. News agency DPA reported, without naming sources, that the 55-year-old Aiwanger had planned to make a speech on Wednesday afternoon at the opening of a Berlin office of his party, the Free Voters, but pulled out of the event for health reasons. Aiwanger is survived by his partner, Free Voters politician Tanja Schweiger, and two children.

Hubert Aiwanger, leader of the populist Free Voters party, attends a swearing-in ceremony in Munich, Germany, on Oct. 31, 2023.

Photo: Reuters

SOUTH KOREA

Military deployed to Hormuz

The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it would deploy maritime patrol aircraft and an explosive ordnance disposal team to waters near the Strait of Hormuz as part of a mission to help keep the waterway open. The announcement comes as Seoul maintains it would not deploy troops to intervene militarily in the Iran war, while seeking to protect commercial shipping and energy supplies through one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. The ministry confirmed reports that the government plans to expand the operational area of its Cheonghae anti-piracy naval unit, which protects commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, to waters near the Strait of Hormuz, a ministry spokesperson said. The official said the reinforcement is strictly for noncombat purposes and the unit would operate independently of allied forces.

UNITED STATES

Gunman kills woman at bank

A gunman on Wednesday plowed a car into a courtyard on Citibank’s sprawling Tampa, Florida, business campus and opened fire with a rifle, killing a woman before a security guard fatally shot him, authorities said. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office did not give a motive for the shooting or say whether the gunman and his lone victim knew each other. The attack sent workers scrambling as the suspect crashed his car among outdoor tables where people were eating lunch, then started shooting, said Deputy Chief Frank Losat said. The gunman fatally shot the woman before a security guard confronted him in a cafeteria, he said. They exchanged fire, and the guard killed him, Losat said. The attack occurred on a day when “VIPs” who do not normally work at the complex were present for a “quarterly review,” Citibank vice president Dzien said.

THAILAND

Giant rodent discovered

A giant rodent weighing about 30kg roamed what is now southern Thailand 33 to 35 million years ago, scientists said, after identifying a previously unknown species from two fossilized teeth. The ancient animal, which one geologist on the team called a “giant rat,” was among the largest known from the Paleogene Period, offering new clues about how early rodents evolved to enormous sizes. The findings, published on Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports, were based on a molar and an incisor discovered in 2004 at a coal mine in southern Krabi Province. Department of Mineral Resources geologist Pannipa Tian, who found the incisor, said she initially misidentified the fossil because of its unusually large size. “At first, I thought it was a bone. I showed it to my supervisor, who told me it was a giant rat’s tooth,” she said.