Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, Bangladesh.

Today's three stories you should know.

Nov 21, 2022

Indonesia

At least 162 people have been killed in Indonesia, officials say, after a massive earthquake hit the country’s main island of Java. The death toll is expected to rise with hundreds injured and rescuers still searching through the rubble for bodies and survivors. The epicentre of the 5.6 magnitude quake was near the town of Cianjur in West Java, about 75 km southeast of the capital Jakarta. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said that many of the dead were schoolchildren who were taking lessons at several schools when they collapsed. Earthquakes happen regularly across the vast archipelagic nation made up of 17,000 islands but rarely so close to the capital.

Equatorial Guinea

Absurd election results in Equatorial Guinea as the ruling party of longtime leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has scooped 99 percent of votes counted so far. Obiang is the world’s longest-serving president and has been in power for 43 years. At a massive campaign event in the run-up to the poll last week, the 80-year-old shouted “Who’s your papa?!” at cheering supporters. With a huge gap between rich and poor in the country, Obiang and his family are reported to have lived lives of staggering excess. His son Teodoro has been accused of embezzlement and corruption in the US, France and the UK, and in 2011 the US Department of Justice attempted to seize assets including a mansion, a gulfstream jet, supercars, a yacht and the iconic crystal-covered glove that Michael Jackson wore during his ‘Bad’ tour from 1987 - ‘89.

Bangladesh

High drama in Bangladesh today when two men convicted of the hacking murder of a Bangladeshi-American blogger escaped from a court complex in the capital Dhaka. A fleet of motorcycles surrounded the police escort for the convicts in a well-planned attack. Chemicals were sprayed in the faces of police and the two were whisked away on the backs of two of the bikes. Avijit Roy, who was critical of hardline religion on his blog, was attacked in 2015 while on his way home from a book fair. His wife, fellow blogger Rafida Bonya Ahmed, lost a thumb in the attack. Bangladesh suffered a wave of such attacks from al-Qaeda and ISIS-inspired groups from 2013 - 2016.