■SOUTH KOREA
Two fighter jets crash
Two fighter jets crashed into a mountain yesterday during a routine training mission, but the fate of the pilots was not immediately known, the military said. The F-5 jets hit a mountain in Pyeongchang, about 180km east of Seoul, shortly after they took off from a nearby air base, an air force official said on condition of anonymity citing department policy. A total of three pilots were aboard the jets, but it was not immediately known if they survived, he said. The air force dispatched two helicopters to the area to locate the pilots, the official said. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, the official said. Yonhap news agency reported that at the time of the crash snow and strong winds were pounding the mountain, which was shrouded in heavy fog.
■PHILIPPINES
Angry parents torch school
A group of parents torched a school in a central province after complaining their children weren’t given the food promised by a government program aimed at boosting school attendance, police said yesterday. The gutted walls were all that remained of the one-story Gaib Elementary School in Masbate island province, provincial police chief Ed Benigay said. No one was hurt because the school was empty when it burned down overnight, he said.
■MALAYSIA
Swine flu death confirmed
The government has confirmed the country’s first death linked to swine flu in nearly half-a-year. Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai says the 22-year-old woman died of respiratory problems at a hospital on Sunday after testing positive for the A(H1N1) virus. The minister’s statement yesterday did not give details of how she had been infected.
■CHINA
Security ‘moat’ launched
More than 700,000 people will work to keep public order during the upcoming parliamentary session, as police build a “great moat” of security around Beijing, state media said yesterday. Extra police forces have been deployed to ensure security during the annual session of the National People’s Congress that opens on Friday and the meeting of an advisory body that begins today, the People’s Daily said. “The capital police force is fully prepared to safeguard the two meetings ... the ‘great moat’ project to surround Beijing has been launched,” the People’s Daily said.
■MYANMAR
Leader cautions farmers
The country’s military leader yesterday urged the rural masses to counter pro-democracy forces said to be seeking to disrupt stability before general elections. Senior General Than Shwe made the comments in a statement published on the front page of all state-run newspapers on the anniversary of Peasant’s Day. He urged farmers “to elect representatives capable of building a peaceful, modern and developed nation and exercising democracy correctly.” “You also have to ward off potential dangers of those who will disrupt state stability and community peace with the assistance of aliens in the background,” the message said.
■JAPAN
Tokyo eyes whaling change
Japan will push for a resumption of commercial whaling, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said ahead of an International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting yesterday. “To gain the right to resume commercial whaling, what and how much can we give?” he said. “We will continue our patient negotiations.” In 1986, the IWC slapped a moratorium on commercial whaling, but Japan uses a loophole that allows lethal scientific research for its annual Antarctic hunts.
■CHINA
Snoring sparked stabbing
A college student fed up with his roommate’s snoring, has confessed to stabbing him to death. Zhao Yan, 22, was stabbed in the chest and back late last year in his room at Jilin Agricultural University, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. His roommate, Guo Liwei, confessed that he stabbed Zhao because of a dispute over his snoring, the report said. Guo had previously complained to Zhao about his snoring and posted a video of him snoring on a Web site, creating tension between the two, Xinhua reported. “I told Zhao about it and he became angry. He verbally abused me several times, prompting me to kill him,” Guo was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
■RUSSIA
Security forces kill rebels
Security forces have killed four rebels in the Caucasus region of Ingushetia, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday, citing a police spokesman. Security forces surrounded hideouts in the village of Ekazhevo and opened fire when rebels refused to surrender, a police spokesman said. “During the clash, four of them were eliminated,” he said. The rebel group had taken part in attacks targeted at policemen and their relatives, the spokesman said.
■GAZA STRIP
Journalist kept in detention
A British journalist who has been held in Gaza for two weeks without charge faces a further fortnight in detention after a court ordered an extension to his arrest. Paul Martin, a 55-year-old filmmaker, entered Gaza to testify on behalf of a Palestinian accused of collaborating with Israel, but was arrested and told he was wanted in connection with the case. His lawyer said on Monday that the court had extended his detention order for a second 15-day period, after which he would be charged or released. Martin is being held on suspicion of harming Gaza’s security, a Hamas spokesman said. He had reportedly been working on a documentary about Mohammad Abu Muailik, who was arrested and accused of collaboration with Israel.
■IRAN
Filmmaker arrested: son
Award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested along with his family and guests during a raid on his Tehran home, his son said yesterday. “About 10 on Monday evening, several plainclothes agents broke into the house,” Panah Panahi said. Panahi, his wife and daughter as well as 15 guests were arrested and taken to an unknown location, the son said.
■FRANCE
‘Confession’ line under fire
A pay telephone line for Roman Catholics to confess their sins drew criticism from bishops on Monday. “For advice on confessing, press one. To confess, press two. To listen to some confessions, press three,” says a soothing male voice, welcoming the caller to “The Line of the Lord” service. “In case of serious or mortal sins — that is, sins that have cut you off from Christ our Lord, it is indispensable to confide in a priest,” warns the service. The Conference of French Bishops warned in a statement that the line had “no approval from the Catholic Church in France.” The site does not offer absolution for sins, which only a priest can provide, said the creator, Camille, who asked for her second name not be cited. “The idea is to confess sins which are not capital sins, but minor sins, directly to God,” she said. Callers do not talk to a person but are offered an “atmosphere of piety and reflection,” where they can listen to prayers, music and other people’s confessions.
■NEW ZEALAND
Keep teens from screens
Parents who don’t let their children watch too much television or sit at the computer for hours have been vindicated by a study that linked excessive “screen” time with troubles relating to other people. Rose Richards of the University of Otago said: “Our findings give some reassurance that it is fine to limit TV viewing.” The study was based on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and the Youth Lifestyle Study conducted in the 1980s and then in 2004. Although the studies were some 16 years apart and the nature of screen-based entertainment has changed, the link with family relationships appears to be the same.
■UNITED STATES
O.J. acquittal suit donated
With O.J. Simpson giving his agreement from prison, a judge approved a plan on Monday to donate the suit the former NFL star was wearing when he was acquitted of murder to the Smithsonian Institution. The deal ends a 13-year legal battle between Simpson’s former sports agent, Mike Gilbert, and Fred Goldman, the father of the man Simpson was accused of killing in 1994. Both men claimed the right to the suit, shirt and tie Simpson was wearing on Oct. 3, 1995, when he was acquitted of killing former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman after a trial that riveted the nation. Gilbert, who has had the clothes in his possession, came up with the idea of a donation. “It’s part of American history,” Gilbert said outside court.
■UNITED STATES
Weedkiller alters gender
Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday. The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world. “Atrazine-exposed males were both demasculinized [chemically castrated] and completely feminized as adults,” Tyrone Hayes of the University of California Berkeley and colleagues wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
■UNITED STATES
Mugabe sanction extended
US President Barack Obama announced on Monday he was extending sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s regime for another year, saying the country’s deep political crisis remained unresolved. Both the EU and Washington maintain a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe, his wife and inner circle in protest at disputed elections and alleged human rights abuses by his government. “I am continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions,” Obama said in a statement.
■UNITED STATES
Man agrees to remove ad
A Los Angeles businessman who was arrested for investigation after draping a building with a massive movie billboard near the site of the upcoming Oscars agreed to remove the sign on Monday in exchange for a drastic reduction of his bail. Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo accepted the deal between Kayvan Setareh’s lawyers and the city attorney’s office, which dropped his bail from US$1 million to US$100,000 after Setareh agreed to have a crew begin removing the eight-story ad by Monday night.
■UNITED STATES
Bridal show cons thousands
Police said thousands of brides-to-be and wedding vendors have been scammed by a Web site advertising a fake Boston bridal show. Police said on Monday a site called The Boston 411 invited would-be brides and vendors to a nonexistent Spring Home and Bridal Show at the Hynes Convention Center this weekend. They say 6,000 people and businesses paid registration fees and bought floor space through the Web site, which promised elegant wedding displays and free samples. Authorities say they got wind of the scam after vendors began calling the convention center to ask when they could start working on their exhibits and were told no such show existed.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in