■BANGLADESH
UN mission weapons on ship
The army said yesterday that an arms-laden ship bound for Pakistan detained by Indian authorities last week was returning weapons used during a UN peacekeeping mission. The MV Aegean Glory, bound for Karachi, was seized on Friday 50km south of the Indian city of Kolkata. It contained explosives, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and bombs, Indian officials said. The ship was returning decommissioned weapons used by Pakistani peacekeepers in Liberia, armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kazi Kabirul Islam said in a statement. “The ship left Chittagong Port on June 24 after unloading 32 containers of weapons and military vehicles. The unloading was supervised by a UN designated local shipping agent called Sun Shine Business Limited,” he said.
■INDIA
Seven injured in clashes
Seven people were injured yesterday when security forces clashed with protesters who defied a curfew in Kashmir, officials said, as authorities tried to end growing separatist demonstrations. Sopore, 50km north of Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, has been under curfew since Friday last week after two young men died when soldiers opened fire as protesters attacked their vehicle. On Sunday, another man was killed when security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters in Sopore who had defied the curfew. Yesterday’s clashes erupted when mourners tried to march through the streets carrying the man’s body.
■CHINA
‘Bird man’ to be tried
A man who lived in a tree for more than three months to protest the planned demolition of his home is being tried for disturbing public order, state media said yesterday. Chen Maoguo (陳茂國) was dubbed the “bird man” for his treetop sit-in last year in the Chongqing region, staged to protest what he considered inadequate compensation for the razing of his home, the Yunnan Information News said. His home was one of many to be knocked down to make way for a shopping mall in Fengjie County. Land seizures, often involving corrupt officials and businesses eyeing real estate profits, have been a growing source of unrest in the country.
■CHINA
PLA officers matchmaking
Military officers have added matchmaking to their duties after the government banned troops from online dating over fears that lonely hearts might let sensitive information slip, state media said yesterday. Commanders of the 2.3 million strong People’s Liberation Army are studying how to help single service members find love, the China Daily said in a report on new rules governing what troops can and can’t do online. Blogs are out, along with Internet dating, online job hunts and even making friends in the virtual world under the Internal Affairs Regulation, which came into effect on June 15, the report said.
■JAPAN
PRC asked to condemn Kim
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he asked Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in talks in Toronto on Sunday to condemn North Korea’s alleged sinking of a South Korean warship. Citing a G8 summit declaration on Saturday condemning the attack that left 46 people dead, Kan said he “encouraged China to move in a similar direction,” pointing out to Hu that Beijing’s condemnation was “necessary.” Beijing has issued only mild calls for restraint and offered condolences to families of the dead but it has refused to condemn the North.
■CANADA
Nuclear deal signed
Toronto and India signed a landmark nuclear deal on Sunday, ending a quarter of a century of mistrust after India used Canadian technology to build its first nuclear bomb. The nuclear cooperation agreement will enable India to import Canadian nuclear equipment and technology and secure uranium, an abundant source of nuclear energy, to fuel the Asian nation’s rapid economic growth, officials said. Canada is the eighth nation to reach a civil nuclear deal with India since the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, a cartel that trades in nuclear fuel, equipment and technology, lifted a 34-year ban on India in 2008. Aside from the US, New Delhi has inked atomic deals with France and Russia.
■UNITED STATES
Teenage sailor flies home
Sixteen-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland is homeward bound — though her plane flight back to California isn’t the homecoming she originally imagined when she set off hoping to sail around the world. About two weeks after her rescue at sea, Sunderland departed on Sunday from the French island of Reunion, off the southeast coast of Africa, en route to France. The teenager’s attempt to sail solo around the world ended on June 10 when her mast snapped in an Indian Ocean storm, sparking an extensive international rescue mission. Sunderland, who said before boarding the plane that she was looking forward to seeing her family again, carried a pair of large blue gum boots given to her as a memento by the French fishing boat that rescued her in a remote part of the Indian Ocean.
■UNITED STATES
Obama to visit India
President Barack Obama said he looked forward to visiting India, an important ally. Obama plans to visit the rising Asian power with his family in early November. The president talked about the “strategic partnership” between the two nations in a meeting on Sunday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They were in Toronto for an economic summit of world leaders. India is crucial to the US-led fight against extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
■UNITED STATES
Palin criticizes Obama
Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama’s administration was intent on surrendering the nation’s mantle as a superpower and willing to sell out its allies. Senator John McCain’s former running mate addressed a paying audience of several hundred people in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday night. She accused Obama of selling out ally Israel over its naval blockade of Gaza and treating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shabbily. She said that Obama and a Democrat-controlled Congress had cut military spending, while showing no such restraint on other expenditures, running up trillions in new deficits.
■JAPAN
No sex on space station
There is no room for romance on board the cozy confines of the International Space Station, a NASA space shuttle commander said yesterday when asked what would happen if astronauts had sex in space. “We are a group of professionals,” Discovery commander Alan Poindexter said during a visit to Tokyo, after a reporter asked about the consequences if astronauts boldly went where probably no others have been. “We treat each other with respect and we have a great working relationship. Personal relationships are not ... an issue,” a serious-faced Poindexter said. “We don’t have them and we won’t.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia