JAPAN
Quake rocks Honshu
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck the island of Honshu on Saturday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported, but there were no reports of injuries or damage. The quake, centered 80km southeast of Kanazawa, occurred at 8:38pm on Saturday at a depth of 3km the USGS said. Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.
THAILAND
Red Shirts call for release
Seven recently freed leaders of the anti-government “Red Shirt” movement are calling for the release of more than 180 of their colleagues who have been jailed since a violent military crackdown last year. The seven gathered yesterday for a ceremony at Bangkok’s Wat Pathuwanaram, where six people were fatally shot last year as the army swept demonstrators from the streets. Weng Tojirakarn, who was among seven Red Shirt leaders freed on bail on Tuesday, said that one the group’s main goals was to “to get all our friends in jail released.” The group has vowed it will go forward with another large rally on March 12, the day it kicked off mass street demonstrations last year.
INDIA
NALCO chairman arrested
The head of the state-run National Aluminium Co (NALCO) was in court-ordered custody on Saturday on bribery charges, heaping fresh embarrassment on the scandal-tainted Congress government. NALCO chairman Abhay Kumar Srivastava along with his wife and two others were arrested late on Friday on bribery charges, marking the latest in a string of corruption scandals that have shaken the government. Srivastava, who has been suspended from his post, is accused of taking gold and cash for brokering a deal with a business group in central Madhya Pradesh state, according to the federal Central Bureau of Investigation. The federal agency said it had seized nearly 11kg of gold and 2.95 million rupees (US$65,200) from a bank locker in New Delhi. In court, Srivastava’s weeping wife, Chandani, sought to take the blame, saying her husband was innocent. “The bank locker is in my name. I operate it. My husband has nothing to do with it and he is in no manner linked to this. He is innocent,” she told the court, according to the Press Trust of India.
JAPAN
Exam questions released
Elite universities have had their entrance exams — the most important hurdle in any Japanese student’s life — compromised by efforts to seek online help during the tests, they admitted yesterday. Maths and English questions from the entrance examinations for the prestigious Kyoto University were placed on Yahoo Japan’s question-and-answer service Web page on Friday and Saturday. The postings were made under the same user name, “aicezuki,” which does not seem to relate to any common Japanese term, and online answers were soon offered for his or her appeal. A Kyoto University official confirmed that the postings matched questions from their tests. Other top institutions, including the private Waseda and Keio universities, faced similar problems, Japanese media reported yesterday as the Kyoto incident made front-page headlines. The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun suspected that candidates took pictures of questions on their mobile phones and sent them to an outside associate who placed the queries online.
CHILE
Pinera remembers quake
President Sebastian Pinera vowed on Saturday to stand by victims of the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck one year ago this weekend, but civic organizations protested the slow reconstruction. A magnitude 8.8 earthquake and tsunami on Feb. 27 last year killed 524 people, caused US$30 billion in damage and led to an inquiry over the lack of a timely tsunami warning. “You haven’t been on your own, you’re not going to be on your own and our government is committed utterly and completely to rebuild stone by stone, brick by brick everything destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami,” Pinera said from Tumbes, a fishing cove damaged last year. The country planned yesterday to commemorate the anniversary with a vigil in the town of Cobquecura — at the epicenter of the quake. But in Concepcion, 500km south of Santiago, more than 2,000 people protested against the slow pace of reconstruction.
UNITED STATES
Pawlenty talks to Tea Party
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty says growing government, powerful unions and bailed-out businesses make up “a royal triangle of greed” nationwide. The possible presidential candidate delivered his assessment on Saturday to a large gathering of Tea Party supporters in Phoenix, Arizona. Pawlenty held up the US Constitution for effect during a speech in which he stressed his long list of vetoes as governor and a partial government shutdown on his watch. Pawlenty praised governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker for taking on public employee unions in their states.
UNITED STATES
Norbu family complete walk
A brother and two young sons of the Dalai Lama’s nephew have completed his walk for Tibetan freedom, a trek that cost the activist his life in a roadside accident. A sport utility vehicle struck and killed Jigme Norbu on Feb. 14 about 40km south of St Augustine, Florida. It was the first day of Norbu’s planned 480km walk to West Palm Beach to raise awareness about Tibet. Kunga Norbu and Jigme Norbu’s 13-year-old and nine-year-old sons began walking on Wednesday from Fort Pierce near Florida’s Atlantic coast. Other Tibetans from across the nation flew to Florida to join them. On Saturday, they reached West Palm Beach and held a memorial service in a city park. Kunga Norbu said the tragedy would not stop the family’s determination to continue promoting awareness of Tibet’s struggle for independence from China.
UNITED STATES
Vintage fighter jet goes down
Authorities say a vintage military jet crashed into the Hudson River near Kingston, New York, as it came in for a landing at a local airport. The pilot was missing and feared dead. The accident happened on Saturday afternoon on an ice-covered stretch of the Hudson near the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker says the aircraft was partially submerged after the crash and the pilot was unaccounted for. Police and other rescuers were on the scene. Only one person was known to be aboard the plane when it went down. The jet was a British-made BAC 167 Strikemaster. Baker says it was headed to Kingston-Ulster Airport, about 80km southwest of Albany, from an airfield in Pennsylvania when it went down. The aircraft made a low pass over the airstrip before hitting the river.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was