An Abu Dhabi investment firm has stopped sales and suspended payouts on certificates sold as a source of monthly dividend income after discovering that part of the cash came from investors’ own capital. The move affects 18,600 holders across three Gulf countries, including retirees who say they budgeted their lives abroad around the payments.
A storm-triggered failure in an automated rail-dispatch system halted services across northern California, leaving thousands of passengers waiting for hours. The operator says the software did not control trains, but state officials have ordered a review of how its warnings reached dispatchers.
A lawsuit by 14 fishing cooperatives has brought an unexplained mass of unusually warm water beneath the Flores Sea into public view. Oceanographers warn that if it rises toward the surface before mid-December, reefs and fisheries across eastern Indonesia could face a damaging marine heatwave.
A Chinese film star’s announcement has drawn attention to an extraordinary finding in Guizhou: more than 1,100 tagged fish presumed lost from a research lake were detected at springs kilometres away. Scientists say the fish may have travelled through an underground limestone channel, connecting two basins that surface maps show as separate.
A recall of 18,600 air monitors has exposed a major blind spot in pollution readings used across parts of Indonesia. Independent tests found the devices understated dangerous haze peaks, sometimes classifying severe pollution as moderate.
A violent North Sea storm prompted the largest coordinated evacuation of migrant reception centres ever reported by a German state, with 7,840 people moved to safety in 12 hours. Six days later, Schleswig-Holstein’s legislature passed a first-of-its-kind law requiring emergency shelter plans at every state-funded centre.
A High Court judgment has upended the governance of Ireland’s fictional Éire League Council, restoring voting rights to 42 clubs and forcing its six-person board to step aside. The council says the top two divisions will continue, but a fresh election must be held within six weeks.
A Singapore software company has acknowledged that its urban-planning forecasts overstated future populations across 14 cities after a decade-old growth adjustment was found to repeat every year. The error came to light when the firm released archived code for its 10th-anniversary showcase.
A routine review of municipal accounts in western Serbia has uncovered 38 tool-lending sheds and repair workshops paid for through a road-maintenance budget. The discovery has complicated new councillors’ calls for resignations: the spending was concealed, but the network has helped residents fix thousands of household items.
A new measurement at a Ukrainian Black Sea terminal has stunned shipping firms: one vessel took on 46,320 tonnes of grain in 12 hours. The unexpected figure is drawing fresh business to the port — and prompting rivals to ask how the scales were checked.
A newly published Philippine study found that a takeaway tray marketed to break down in coastal water instead fractured into millions of plastic pieces. Its maker recalled 1.18 million trays on Saturday, warning shops to stop using them and offering refunds.
A catcher’s helmet split during a Balkan league game, prompting an urgent recall of 2,640 units sold to clubs and shops across the region. Four fixtures have been suspended as officials investigate how the equipment passed inspection.