Asia

Suita, Japan: Shimon Sakaguchi, the Japanese immunologist who won this year's Nobel Prize in medicine, said Monday he hoped the award would help further advance research and patient care. "I sincerely hope that this award will serve as an opportunity for this field to develop further... in a direction where it can be applied in actual bedside and clinical settings," Sakaguchi, a 74-year-old distinguished professor at Osaka University, told a news conference. Sakaguchi was jointly awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine alongside American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell for their research into how the immune system is kept in check by identifying its "security guards", the Nobel jury said. Their discoveries have been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases. The trio's work has paved the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and organ transplant rejection. Sakaguchi explained that further studies of the human immune system, both enhancing and suppressing it, could lead to prevention methods and treatments for such diseases as cancer and rejection in organ transplant cases. "I believe that even for diseases that are currently difficult to treat, solutions exist, effective treatments will inevitably be found, and preventive measures will also be discovered," he said. Sakaguchi added that the award was a pleasant surprise. The trio will receive their prize -- a diploma, a gold medal and $1.2 million split three ways -- at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

Asia

Sidoarjo, Indonesia: The death toll from an Indonesian school collapse rose to 63 on Monday, officials said, as workers pulled more remains from the rubble of the building that collapsed last week. Part of the multi-storey Islamic boarding school on Indonesia's Java island collapsed as more than 150 students gathered for afternoon prayers. Around half a dozen youngsters are still unaccounted for. "We hope we can conclude the recovery today (Monday), and we will return the bodies (to the families)," National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) operations director Yudhi Bramantyo told a press conference Monday. The collapse was Indonesia's deadliest disaster so far this year, Budi Irawan, the deputy head of the national disaster agency (BNPB), said. Investigators have been examining the cause of the collapse, but initial indications suggest that substandard construction may have contributed to the incident, according to experts. The families of the missing agreed last Thursday for heavy equipment to be used, after the 72-hour "golden period" for the best chance of survival came to an end. Lax construction standards have raised widespread concerns about building safety in Indonesia. At least three people were killed and dozens were injured in September when a building hosting a prayer recital collapsed in West Java.

Europe

Paris: France's new prime minister resigned on Monday after less than a month in office, sinking the country further into a political crisis and piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to find a way out of the deadlock. Sebastien Lecornu stepped down just 14 hours after naming his government and had been due to hold his first cabinet meeting in the afternoon. But his new government had raised hackles across the spectrum before ministers even entered their new offices and he risked an immediate no confidence vote in parliament this week. Lecornu's 27-day stint in office was the shortest ever for a prime minister in modern France. "The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime minister," Lecornu said, denouncing the "partisan appetites" of factions who he said had forced his resignation. With the instability in France causing tremors across Europe, a German government spokesman said a "stable France" was an "important contribution to stability in Europe". Lecornu's resignation compounds a political crisis that has rocked France for over a year, after centrist Macron called legislative elections in the summer of 2024 which ended in a hung parliament. The Paris stock market slipped after the announcement, with the CAC 40 index of blue-chip stocks was down around 1.7 percent at around 0900 GMT. Macron has resisted calls to again order snap legislative polls and has also ruled out resigning himself before his mandate ends in 2027. He could also look for a new prime minister who would be the eighth of the president's mandate but would face a struggle to survive without radical change. The 2027 presidential elections are expected to be a historic crossroads in French politics, with the French far right under Marine Le Pen sensing its best ever chance of taking power. Le Pen said it would be "wise" for Macron to resign but also urged snap legislative polls as "absolutely necessary". The party leader of Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) Jordan Bardella said he expected the legislative elections to take place and added: "The RN will obviously be ready to govern". Read Also Egypt President says real peace in Middle East hinges upon having independent Palestinian state US-Japanese trio win medicine Nobel for immune system research France's new PM resigns, hours after cabinet unveiled: presidency No 'last lap' Macron named Lecornu, a 39-year-old former defence minister and close confidant known for his discretion and loyalty, to the post on September 9. The president had hoped his ally would take the heat out of the domestic crisis and allow him to focus on his efforts on the international stage and notably working with the United States to end Russia's war on Ukraine. But the largely unchanged cabinet Lecornu unveiled late on Sunday sparked fierce criticism, in particular from the right-wing Republicans who were part of the coalition government. The Republicans were not going to offer Macron and his allies "a final lap" after the largely unchanged cabinet, the right-wing party's vice-president Francois-Xavier Bellamy said. The lineup included former long-serving finance minister Bruno Le Maire as defence minister, a move critics said contradicted Lecornu's pledges for change. Macron is now "alone in the face of the crisis", said Le Monde daily. 'Hazardous' options Lecornu had faced the daunting task of finding approval in a deeply divided parliament for an austerity budget for next year. Lecornu's two immediate predecessors, Francois Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were ousted by the legislative chamber in a standoff over the spending plan and he risked the same fate. France's public debt has reached a record high, official data showed last week. France's debt-to-GDP ratio is now the European Union's third-highest after Greece and Italy, and is close to twice the 60 percent permitted under EU rules. Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group risk analysis firm, said all of Macron's options were "hazardous" but resigning or calling snap polls risked bringing the far right to power. "We believe that Macron will appoint a new prime minister and challenge the disparate far right and left wing opposition to cooperate to avoid a profound fiscal and political crisis," he said.