JAPAN
Chihuahua passes police test
Meet the country’s newest police dog — all 3kg of her. In what is a first for Japan, and perhaps the world, a long-haired Chihuahua named Momo — “Peach” — passed exams to become a police dog in the western Japanese prefecture of Nara. The brown-and-white, perky Momo was one of 32 successful candidates out of 70 dogs, passing a search and rescue test by finding a person in five minutes after merely sniffing their cap. “Any breed of dog can be entered to become a police dog in the search and rescue division,” a Nara police spokesman said. But he admitted that news a Chihuahua had been entered may still come as a surprise to many. Momo will be used for rescue operations in case of disasters such as earthquakes, in the hope that she may be able to squeeze her tiny frame into places too narrow for more usual rescue dogs, which tend to be German Shepherds.
PHOTO: REUTERS
INDONESIA
Thousands return to Merapi
Thousands of villagers have returned to their homes on the slopes of the country’s deadly volcano as it has become less active in recent days. The National Disaster Management Agency says that almost half of nearly 400,000 evacuees have now returned home after the government on Friday reduced the official “danger zone” from 20km from the crater to 10km. Disaster official Mohammad Anshori said yesterday 270,000 refugees are still in emergency camps as their houses were destroyed or they lack clean water and food.
SOUTH KOREA
Fugitive returned from US
A fugitive captured in the Los Angeles area has been returned to his native country where he’s accused of stealing millions of US dollars from a firm he directed. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Los Angeles say Bae Chang-kul was handed over to Seoul police at that city’s airport on Friday. Bae is accused of withdrawing more than US$37 million from his company’s account in January 2003 and fleeing to the US one year later. US immigration officials captured the 48-year-old in August in the city of Arcadia, where he was found with a long-expired visa. He waived his right to an extradition hearing and agreed to be repatriated last month.
VIETNAM
Police suspended over film
Seven policemen have been suspended for allegedly filming the arrest of two naked prostitutes after the footage was posted on the Internet, state media reported yesterday. The clip shows the women with a shirtless client in what appears to be a hotel room, while several other men in civilian clothes take notes. The women try to cover themselves, but are ordered to stand and put their hands up for one of the clothed men to take pictures. The identities of the clothed men is not clear, but it is suspected that they are police. The video, filmed using a mobile phone, has caused public outrage. In comments posted in the online edition of Tuoi Tre, reader Truong Yen Nhi said the women were treated worse than animals. The policemen claimed they were filming the arrest as evidence, the report said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Dickens home wins grant
In true Dickensian style, a magnificent gift has arrived at the doorstep of Charles Dickens’ only surviving London home, just as volunteers were decking the walls with holly and ivy. The tall, narrow house in Doughty Street, central London, where Dickens lived for three years from 1837, has been awarded a £2 million (US$3.2 million) grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund, in time for a comprehensive renovation before the bicentenary of the author’s birth in 2012. The house is full of treasures, but shabby and badly in need of the first major refurbishment since it was built. It was preserved from the modernization which gutted most of its neighbors because it went down in the world and became a cheap lodging house, so many original features survive. New displays will be created in the house next door, which the trust also owns, allowing the Dickens house to be restored, rescuing it from the current lino-covered floors, a library in what was the kitchen and scullery, and the exhibition space crammed into what was Dickens’ bedroom.
GERMANY
Sex offered for nuclear veto
Until recently she was best known for her international best-seller Wetlands, a frank debut novel about the sex life of an 18-year-old that has been described as everything from literary eroticism to undiluted pornography. Now Charlotte Roche, a 32-year-old, British-born German TV presenter, has found further fame after sending an invitation to the German president. “I’m offering to go to bed with him if he refuses to sign into law the extension of the country’s nuclear power stations,” she told Der Spiegel. Roche said her overture to President Christian Wulff was a matter of life and death, driven by fear for her own future and that of her children. “My husband is in agreement. Now it’s just up to the first lady to agree to it,” she said, offering an added incentive: “I am tattooed.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Camilla might be queen
Prince Charles has suggested his wife, Camilla, may take the title of queen if he becomes monarch. The comments came in an interview with US network NBC recorded in August, which was broadcast and Web-posted on Friday. Camilla will legally be queen if Charles takes the throne, but when the couple married in 2005 officials said she planned to adopt the title Princess Consort rather than the more traditional Queen Consort. NBC’s Brian Williams asked the 62-year-old heir to the throne if Camilla would become “Queen of England, if and when you become the monarch.” Charles hesitated as he replied: “That’s, well ... We’ll see won’t we? That could be.” The difference is purely semantic — the role of consort carries no constitutional power.
UNITED KINGDOM
Adviser quits after gaffe
A special adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned after making insensitive remarks about Britain’s recession. David Young, the enterprise adviser, said British homeowners have gained from low interest rates during the “so-called recession.” He said that most Britons have “never had it so good,” borrowing former prime minister Harold Macmillan’s famous 1957 catch phrase. The resigning Cabinet minister apologized, saying his remarks were insensitive and inaccurate. Cameron, who called Young’s comments offensive, accepted Young’s resignation, the prime minister’s spokesman said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Dancers prompt terror scare
A dance troupe from Florida caused a rush-hour terror scare when they ditched their cars in the Lincoln Tunnel and tried to run to a TV appearance in New York City while wearing their camouflage costumes. The dancers drove about 1,600km so they could appear on Wednesday on BET’s live 106 & Park show. However, they hit traffic at the tunnel, which connects New Jersey and New York City and is just 3.2km from the TV studio in Manhattan. The five young women and three young men decided to sprint the rest of the way. They left their adult chaperones behind and ran through the toll plaza. Armed police officers gave chase, closing the tunnel for 45 minutes.
UNITED STATES
Hallucinating bride jailed
A woman is going to prison for breaking into her neighbor’s house wearing nothing but a bridal skirt and veil. The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Maryland, reports that a judge sentenced 33-year-old Melissa Wagaman on Thursday to five years. A jury had convicted her of second-degree assault, fourth-degree burglary and reckless endangerment for the February attack that injured Aaron Parrott. Wagaman testified at trial that a combination of cold medicine and marijuana apparently made her hallucinate that she was getting married and that her mother was locked in her neighbor’s basement. Wagaman broke a dining room window with her head, causing shattered glass to cut her neighbor’s arm.
UNITED STATES
Powder sent to TV studio
ABC says an unknown substance in an envelope delivered to the Dancing With the Stars production office at CBS Studios in Los Angeles was later determined to be talcum powder. ABC spokeswoman Amy Astley released a statement confirming that the envelope was delivered to the show’s production office on the CBS Studios lot on Friday night. The statement says ABC was later told by Los Angeles fire officials that the substance was talcum powder. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says hazardous materials officials responded to the scene on a report of a threatening letter containing white powder.
UNITED STATES
Couple named world’s tallest
Their height made Wayne and Laurie Hallquist seem an ideal match when they met seven years ago, and on Thursday they received the title of world’s tallest living married couple. Guinness World Records bestowed the towering distinction on the Hallquists in a ceremony under the marquee at its Hollywood museum. The Hallquists, who live in Stockton, California, measure a combined 4.074m to be exact. He stands 2.09m, she 1.98m, the Guinness organization said.
UNITED STATES
Man gets ‘Fuck You’ burger
A Burger King restaurant manager and staff member have been fired after a customer found the expression “Fuck You” on the top of his meal receipt, the US chain said on Friday. The foul-mouthed exhortation appeared twice, in computer type, at the top of the receipt for a Double Whopper with cheese, onion rings and a small drink in the Burger King outlet in Sacramento, California, TV station KCRA reported. “I looked at the receipt and it says ‘fuck you’ on it,” customer Francisco Perez said. “It’s humiliating. All I did was place my order and I got a ‘fuck you’ burger.” In statement Burger King’s management said the franchise holder of the restaurant had fired the manager of the franchise and the member of staff involved.
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