UNITED KINGDOM
Crematorium to heat pool
A local council is planning to use excess energy from a crematorium incinerator to heat one of its swimming pools, it emerged on Tuesday, but critics slammed the proposals as “sick.” The council in Redditch, a town in central England, said the measure would help reduce its carbon footprint. “Redditch Borough Council, with a commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, is considering proposals to re-use energy at its crematorium to heat a nearby leisure center,” a spokesman said. “The heat would otherwise be exhausted into the atmosphere.” However, the Unison trade union has condemned the plans. “These proposals by Redditch Borough Council are sick and an insult to local residents,” said Unison regional secretary Roger McKenzie. “I call on Redditch Borough Council to apologize to local residents for the insulting and insensitive proposals.”
MALAYSIA
Cops to fight pot bellies
A state police chief reportedly plans to force out-of-shape personnel to attend group exercise on workdays. Sharifuddin Abdul Ghani, the police chief of Pahang State, told the Star newspaper that police officers who are “pot bellied and overweight” will have trouble performing their duties. He said all personnel deemed out-of-shape will soon be summoned for daily exercises. Police officers in Pahang currently undergo weekly aerobics training and a 2.5km run each month to stay fit.
UNITED STATES
Piano found on sandbar
A grand piano recently showed up on a sandbar in Miami’s Biscayne Bay, about 200m from condominiums on the shore. The piano, which weighs nearly 300kg, was placed at the highest spot along the sandbar so it doesn’t get underwater during high tide. While officials aren’t sure how it got there, they know it won’t be going anywhere unless it becomes a hazard to wildlife or boaters. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino said the agency is not responsible for moving such items, the Miami Herald newspaper reports.
ITALY
Celebrity’s body missing
Police are looking for the body of a late beloved TV host after visitors at a cemetery found his tomb broken into and his coffin missing. Generations of Italians grew up watching Mike Bongiorno as he hosted quiz shows and other entertainment programs during the fledging days of television in Italy. Bongiorno died in 2009 at the age of 85. Police in Arona, a town in northern Italy, said officers are still investigating the matter and would not comment. News reports said a local man who came to the cemetery to visit a family grave noticed Bongiorno’s tomb was open on Tuesday morning and the coffin gone.
MALAYSIA
In-law wants Blair tried
Former British prime minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth, a rights campaigner and Muslim convert, said yesterday he should be tried for war crimes over the invasion of Iraq. Booth, the half-sister of Blair’s wife, Cherie, is in Malaysia for a series of lectures. Asked whether Blair should be arrested and sent to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for war crimes, Booth replied: “Absolutely. He misled the British people and took Britain to war on a lie.” The conflict in Iraq was “an offence,” she told reporters after a speech at a Malaysian university, saying it was organized well in advance between Blair and the United States leadership.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not