SRI LANKA
Elephant census in August
The government is planning its first-ever census of elephants as the animals increasingly come into conflict with villagers, a top official said yesterday. Government wildlife director Chandrawansa Pathiraja said a head count would start in August to aid better planning of conservation and minimize clashes between elephants and humans. “We will carry out the census within a 48-hour period,” Pathiraja said. “We expect dry weather at this time.” The local elephant population is believed to have dwindled to about 4,000 from an estimated 12,000 in 1900.
SOUTH KOREA
Suspected wife killer arrested
A middle-aged man has been arrested 12 years after allegedly killing his wife and storing her body in a large cardboard box at his daughter’s home, police said on Tuesday. The daughter called police on Saturday after finding a woman’s body inside a box wrapped in 10 layers of plastic at her home in Seoul. Fingerprints showed it was her mother. The suspect, identified only as Lee, 51, was found at Bucheon, southwest of Seoul, and is being investigated for murder, Yonhap news agency quoted investigators as saying. Lee told reporters he “kept the body because I was sorry to my dead wife and daughter. I wanted to keep the body forever.”
INDIA
Minister read wrong speech
Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, 78, is battling to save his reputation after mistakenly reading from the speech of his Portuguese counterpart at a UN meeting in New York. Krishna read the first three minutes of the wrong text last week before one of his officials stepped in to point out his error, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported. “On a more personal note, allow me to express my profound satisfaction regarding the happy coincidence of having two members of the -Portuguese-speaking countries, Brazil and Portugal, together here today,” Krishna told the UN according to PTI. The minister later brushed off Friday’s gaffe, telling reporters in New York that “there was nothing wrong in it.” The Hindustan Times on Tuesday teased Krishna by suggesting that the very public muddle-up allowed the nation to acknowledge its debt to Portugal, which was once a colonial ruler of Goa and other parts of the country. “If we junk the colonial baggage, there is a lot we can thank the Portuguese for,” it said, mentioning Goa’s famous food. “The least we can do is read out their speeches once in a while.” Nirmala Sitharaman, spokeswoman for the opposition BJP, said the speech mix-up proved the government’s “level of incompetence has reached to its optimum.”
NEW ZEALAND
Hiker tells of survival
A British hiker said yesterday he had survived in the wilderness for more than five days without food before attracting rescuers with a makeshift sign pleading “help.” James Esbester, 30, went missing last Thursday in the South Island’s rugged Kahurangi National Park after becoming disorientated while climbing a hill on a trek he intended to last only half a day. Esbester said he feared he would perish before a rescue helicopter spotted him in fading light late on Tuesday about 10km from where he originally became lost. He was suffering mild dehydration when a helicopter carrying out its final sweep for the day found him on Tuesday. Esbester said the crew winched him to safety and fed him tea before taking him to hospital, where he was discharged after a few hours’ observation. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a cup of tea taste so good,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Flatulence cited in murder
A man accused of stabbing a friend to death and injuring three other people at a party because people were making fun of his flatulence has pleaded not guilty. The Hartford Courant reported that Marc Higgins pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges in New Britain, Connecticut, on Monday. Police say the 21-year-old Higgins was “very drunk” at a Bristol house party last month and was ridiculed because of flatulence. Police said one woman even slapped him because of it. Police said at that point he stormed out of the party and returned about 45 minutes later with three knives and started stabbing people indiscriminately. Matthew Walton died of his wounds. Three others were injured. Higgins told police he was angry and wanted to show that people shouldn’t make fun of him.
ARGENTINA
Gay cruise set to sail
Latin America’s first official gay cruise will leave Buenos Aires next month for two cities in Uruguay, one of the organizers said on Tuesday. “Ego is the first cruise for gays and lesbians in Latin America,” said Jorge Giorno, who owns the Thesys organizing firm. He noted demand was “very high” since Buenos Aires passed a measure in July last year legalizing gay marriage. The ultra-modern cruise ship is 220m long and features 1,000 rooms, seven bars, four restaurants, a casino, a discotheque and four swimming pools. “We are getting calls from around the world,” Giorno said. Buenos Aires is considered a prime location for the gay community. The country’s gay law amended the phrase “husband and wife” to “contracting parties” in the Civil Code. It also extended equal rights to homosexual couples in matters of adoption, inheritance and social benefits.
SWEDEN
Taxi ride lands pair in court
A pair of Parisian taxi drivers may pay a heavy price — jail — for driving a group of illegal Afghan immigrants from France to Sweden, according to court documents made available on Tuesday. Frenchman Bruno Dacher, 32, and Portuguese Fredrico Silva da Conceicao, 48, have been charged with human trafficking and “risk between six months to six years in prison” prosecutor Jorgen Larsson said in Malmo, where the two men will be tried. Customs authorities arrested the pair on Dec. 29, after they had crossed the bridge linking Copenhagen and Malmo with eight young Afghan clients. The drivers had charged their passengers 2,500 euros (US$3,375) for the 1,300km trip. The pair denies any wrongdoing, Larsson said, adding, “they said it was a taxi run just like any other.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Army sorry for e-mail layoffs
The military apologized on Tuesday for using e-mails to tell several dozen long-serving soldiers that they were being laid off. The Army said an “administrative error” meant the soldiers were not told in person that their contracts would be ended because of cutbacks. Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox said he was “furious that such a situation should occur ... I want to know how this was allowed to happen and what measures will be put in place to prevent this from happening again.” Media reported that the soldiers were 38 warrant officers with more than 20 years’ service who are on rolling short-term contracts. The Sun newspaper said one received the news while serving in Afghanistan.
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