In Pictures: Vesak Day celebrations
A 60m x 12m canvas of a thangka, a Tibetan Buddhist painting, is held up for devotees to walk under it to receive blessings and good luck from the Buddha for the coming year, during the Vesak Day celebrations at the Enlightened Heart Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Ipoh, state of Perak, Malaysia, on May 12, 2025.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Today in Pictures, June 4, 2025
Sacrificial animals being put on sale at a market ahead of Eid al-Adha in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 3, 2025. Eid al-Adha, also known as Hari Raya Haji, is celebrated on the 10th day of Zulhijjah and marks the end of the haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner chase French Open semis, as underdogs look for upsets
Lois Boisson of France hits a forehand during her fourth round match against Jessica Pegula of United States at the French Open. PHOTO: EPA-EFE Jannik Sinner celebrates winning his fourth round match against Andrey Rublev at the French Open. PHOTO: EPA-EFE Novak Djokovic celebrates his victory over Cameron Norrie during their men's singles match on day 9 of the French Open. PHOTO: AFP PARIS - Big guns Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic both chase semi-final berths at the French Open on June 4, but the spotlight will be on home hope Lois Boisson in the women's tournament. French wildcard Boisson, ranked 361st in the world, steps up against Russian sixth seed Mirra Andreeva with a chance to write her own chapter in French tennis history. Handed a wildcard to enter the tournament, the 22-year-old kept home hopes alive by battling past American third seed Jessica Pegula to reach the last eight. 'Obviously, it's a dream to begin with. I hope to go further,' said the player from Dijon. 'This is my favourite surface. As soon as the clay season starts, this is when I feel best and when I feel happiest.' Second seed Coco Gauff will play seventh seed Madison Keys in an all-American quarter-final, looking to join world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek who are already through to the final four in the other half of the draw. Djokovic will compete in a record 19th French Open quarter-final against 2024 runner-up Alexander Zverev. The German third seed will be well rested after his last-16 opponent Tallon Griekspoor retired on June 2 with an abdominal injury while trailing 6-4, 3-0. Zverev, who lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the 2024 final, continues his latest bid for a maiden Grand Slam title after three runner-up finishes. 'For me, Carlos is the favourite. Then I would say the next three in line are Jannik, myself, and Novak, right? I still believe that,' said Zverev, who could meet top-ranked Sinner in the semi-finals. Zverev has made at least the last four at the past four French Opens and is into his seventh quarter-final. The 28-year-old has won five of his 13 career matches with Djokovic, including in Melbourne in January when the Serb retired injured from their semi-final. Djokovic, a three-time champion at Roland Garros, is just the second player to record 100 wins at the event after 14-time winner Rafael Nadal (112). 'It's a very pretty number, but 101 victories sounds better,' said 38-year-old Djokovic who has reached the quarter-finals at the clay-court major for a 16th consecutive year. 'I will continue to search for another victory, it's clearly not finished for me here. I'm very honoured to make history in this sport, which has given me everything in my life.' World No. 6 Djokovic is chasing a record 25th major title and has a 100-16 record at Roland Garros. Italian Sinner takes on unseeded Kazakh Alexander Bublik, who hailed his emotional four-set win over fifth seed Jack Draper in the last 16 as the 'best moment of his life'. Sinner leads 62nd-ranked Bublik 3-1 in previous meetings. Both Sinner and Djokovic have not dropped a set so far. The Italian reached the semi-finals in 2024 where he lost a five-set battle to Spaniard Alcaraz. Australian Open champion Keys plays Gauff against whom she has a 3-2 record winning their only meeting on clay in Madrid last year. 'It feels great to be back in the quarters here, and really happy with how I played today and hopefully can keep going,' said Gauff who has 15 wins on clay this season. Former US Open champion Gauff puts her success on the surface down to her unwavering belief that she can turn a match in her favour no matter the score. She is hoping to make it third time lucky at the French Open, after losing in the finals in Madrid and Rome last month. Gauff made her first Grand Slam final in Paris in 2022 at the age of just 18. 'I remember meeting Coco for the first time, and in my head she was, like, nine years old,' joked 30-year-old Keys, who won her maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne in January. 'And just kind of watching her play, I knew that she was going to be someone that was going to be pretty dominant pretty quickly.' AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Straits Times
Cargo ship crashes into Norway man's backyard
Mr Johan Helberg after a container ship ran aground a few meters from his house in the Trondheimsfjord outside Byneset, Norway, on May 22. PHOTO: EPA-EFE OSLO, Norway – Mr Johan Helberg woke up on the morning of May 22 to find his backyard view of a Norwegian fjord transformed into the side of a giant ship. An enormous cargo ship, the NCL Salten, had run aground at about 5am (0300 GMT ) May 22 , barely missing his house on the shore in Byneset, a part of the city of Trondheim in central Norway. Mr Helberg had slept through it all until alerted by a neighbour. 'I was sleeping soundly, deeply, and then I heard a dinging sound, which I wondered might be my doorbell,' he said in an interview on the night of May 22 . 'I thought, who in the world rings the doorbell at 5.45am in the morning? I looked out the window, and (my neighbour) said: 'Haven't you seen the ship?'' The ship was towering over the house, having missed the bedroom by only about 5m . Had the ship's vector been slightly different, Mr Helberg said, the vessel could have 'picked up speed and plowed into the house. It's completely surreal'. 'I impressed myself by staying cool,' said Mr Helberg, a retired museum director. 'I have seen and been through worse.' The neighbour, in contrast, had seen the ship come plowing onto land and had been 'in shock all day', Mr Helberg said – as were many other Norwegians, startled to see photos and videos of a gigantic container vessel wedged onto an unassuming shore. 'Big ships pass us now and then,' Mr Helberg said, but mostly at a distance, keeping to the deeper waters of the fjord. 'We don't usually see ships right outside our living room window,' he added. 'So this is especially strange.' Norwegian coastal authorities said in a statement on May 22 that no injuries or oil spills had been reported. The 134m -long ship had entered the fjord on the way to the town of Orkanger, authorities said, and it was not immediately clear what had led to the crash. 'As long as the vessel remains stationary, there is no danger of further incidents,' a police official, Mr Martin Hammervik Aarhoug, said on the night of May 22 . 'After the ship grounded, there was a clay landslide about 100m wide that authorities believe was caused by vibrations from the ship coming ashore,' said Ms Anette Bonnevie Wollebæk, who is with the Norwegian Coastal Administration. A view of the container ship that ran aground, almost hitting a house, in the Trondheimsfjord outside Byneset, Norway. PHOTO: EPA-EFE Police had set up cordons around the landslide to prevent anyone from falling in. It was not immediately clear where the crew members were on the night of May 22 . Mr Helberg said there were 16 men onboard, with a Norwegian captain and a crew of Russians and Ukrainians. He said he and his partner had spoken with them, shouting from his yard up to the ship, to find out whether anyone was hurt, but that they had not addressed having crashed their boat on his property. 'This is a serious incident, and we are grateful that nobody was injured in the grounding,' Ms Bente Hetland, chief executive of the company that had chartered the ship, NCL, said in a statement. For now, Ms Hetland added, 'we do not know what caused the incident and are awaiting the conclusion of the ongoing investigation'. Ms Hetland said that NCL and the ship's owner, Baltnautic, were working with authorities, and that they were assessing damage to the ship and hoping to safely 'refloat the vessel and restore normal operations as swiftly as possible'. NCL and a salvage company tried to use a tugboat to pull the vessel at high tide on the evening of May 22 , but they could not do so, authorities said. Bystanders watch a container ship by the shore in the Trondheimsfjord outside Byneset by Trondheim, Norway, after it ran aground. PHOTO: AFP Mr Helberg had his own ideas about what happened. He said that the fjord's entrance bends a little, forcing ships that enter it to quickly turn. The NCL Salten, he said, adjusted course once but not twice – putting it on a path for his garden. 'I've actually seen a couple of ships before that seemed to go suspiciously far before realising something was wrong,' he said. By the night of May 22 , the ship was still stuck, and Mr Helberg was fielding calls from friends, family, acquaintances and international news organisations. Online, his friends and family expressed relief that he was OK – and teased him about his unexpected guest, with one writing: 'Nothing beats the view from Byneset on a beautiful spring morning, does it? Mr Helberg agreed. 'People often say this is the best view of the Trondheimsfjord,' he said. 'We're right at the tip of the peninsula outside Trondheim. So we have a view in every direction.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
