INDIA
Nuclear safer than roads
The atomic energy regulator has said that driving or walking on the notoriously dangerous streets of New Delhi is more of a risk than the country’s 20 nuclear reactors. Srikumar Banerjee, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), sought to play down fears about atomic power caused by Japan’s troubles during an interview with NDTV television late on Monday. “I can only say that you should worry less for nuclear energy than walking on the streets or driving in Delhi,” he said, in one of several comments suggesting the danger of the Japanese accident had been exaggerated. The radioactivity released from Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is “very minor,” he said. Banerjee’s reference to driving in Delhi reflects the extremely high mortality rate on the country’s roads. About 125,000 people or about 350 a day, died on the road network in 2009.
UNITED STATES
Dead teacher found in Japan
A Virginia couple is mourning the death of their daughter after learning that her body was found in stricken Japan, where she had been teaching English. Taylor Anderson, 24, could be the first known US victim in the Japan crisis. Anderson’s family said in a statement that the embassy in Japan called them on Monday to tell them her body was found in Ishinomaki. Jean Anderson said her daughter was last seen after the earthquake riding her bike away from an elementary school there after making sure parents picked up their children.
MALAYSIA
Country a WMD transit point
The country is probably an illicit transit point for parts used in weapons of mass destruction, a minister was quoted as saying yesterday after police seized suspected weapons equipment. “It is safe for me to say that Malaysia is likely being used as a transit point and not as a destination point for WMD [weapons of mass destruction],” Minister of Home Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper. The Sun daily had reported that authorities impounded two containers of “parts of an equipment believed used to make weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads” early this month from a ship bound for western Asia. The dismantled equipment was seized at Port Klang from the ship after it arrived from China, the report said.
THAILAND
Documentary seller arrested
A man could face up to 15 years in prison after he was arrested for selling copies of a controversial Australian documentary about the royal family, police said yesterday. Eakachai Hongkangwan, 35, was charged under lese majeste rules that prohibit insulting the kingdom’s revered monarchy, after undercover police arrested him with CDs containing the program in Bangkok on March 10. “He was charged on two counts — the lese majeste and selling CDs without official permission,” Nattakorn Kumsap of Chanasongkram police said. The documentary was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corp in April last year.
INDONESIA
Former minister sentenced
A court in Jakarta yesterday sentenced a former minister to 20 months in jail for corruption and ordered him to pay a 50 million rupiah (US$6,000) fine. Former social affairs minister Bachtiar Chamsyah had bypassed the tender process and directly appointed suppliers of imported cattle, sewing machines and sarongs meant for victims of natural disasters, the court heard.
CANADA
Cannon pans Mideast deaths
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon on Monday condemned crackdowns on anti-government protesters in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. “Canada vigorously condemns the increasingly frequent and violent attacks on demonstrators in Yemen,” Cannon said in a statement. “We urge the Yemeni authorities to immediately take measures to prevent any further violence against civilians.” He said, “Canada is also deeply concerned by the recent actions taken by the government of Bahrain in response to protests in that country” and “condemns reported human rights abuses against the Bahraini population and violations of international humanitarian law.”
ITALY
Berlusconi avoids court date
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s lawyer said in Milan on Monday that Berlusconi would appear at his trials when possible, but he is giving precedence to his official duties. The prime minister has stated publicly he wanted to defend himself in person, but skipped a hearing at his judicial corruption trial on Monday because of a Cabinet meeting on Libya. Lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told reporters that the Berlusconi planned to attend the various trials to hear testimony, and would appear “within the possible limits.” In Monday’s trial, an expert for the prosecution traced the origins of US$600,000 Berlusconi is alleged to have paid a British lawyer, David Mills, to lie in another case involving the prime minister’s business dealings. Ghedini said the numbers presented had demonstrated Berlusconi’s innocence. A dozen Berlusconi supporters, all wearing light blue ribbons and including a senator in his party, gathered at the courtroom to show their support for the prime minister.
ISRAEL
Katsav gets seven years
Former president Moshe Katsav was sentenced in Tel Aviv yesterday to seven years in jail for rape, a case that brought shame to the highest office and sent a firm message to a transfixed public that no one was above the law. Katsav had denied charges he twice raped an aide when he was a Cabinet minister in the late 1990s, and molested or sexually harassed two other women who worked for him during his 2000 to 2007 term as president. However, a three-judge panel said on convicting him in December — on what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “a sad day for Israel and its residents” — that his testimony had been “riddled with lies.” “When a woman says no, she means no,” the panel said in its ruling. Katsav, 65, was also convicted of obstructing justice, for trying to confer with one complainant about her testimony to police. Netanyahu said at the time the verdict showed that “all are equal before the law.” Rape carries a minimum prison term of four years and a maximum of 16 years in Israel.
CONGO
Cargo plane crashes
A cargo plane crashed on Monday into a residential area of Pointe-Noire, the Republic of the Congo’s economic capital, killing at least 19 people, officials said. “We have registered 19 deaths and 14 injured. For the moment there are more dead than injured. These are still preliminary figures,” National Civil Aviation Agency director general Michel Ambende said. “The plane crashed on landing,” Ambende said earlier. “It had started landing after being given authorization by the control tower,” he said, adding that there was “a lot of damage.”
UNITED STATES
Horse molester freed
A man who twice pleaded guilty to having sex with a horse has been released from prison after 16 months and ordered to stay away from the stable where the animal lives. Probation officials said on Monday that Rodell Vereen, 51, must complete two years of probation or he will have to finish the five-year sentence he received in November 2009 after pleading guilty to buggery and trespassing. The Sun-News of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, first reported Vereen’s release. He was arrested after the owner of the horse staked out her stable and caught Vereen sneaking inside. She held him at gunpoint until police arrived. The owner said she spent several nights in the barn after catching Vereen having sex with the animal on surveillance tapes. She feared he had returned because her horse was acting strangely and getting infections again. Vereen was caught having sex with the same horse in late 2007 and was on probation from that incident when he was arrested a second time, authorities said. Before he pleaded guilty, Vereen told Myrtle Beach television station WMBF-TV he was sorry if he hurt the horse or anyone else.
GUATEMALA
Divorce causes political flap
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and his wife, Sandra Torres de Colom, have filed for divorce to avert a constitutional flap over her eligibility to run for the presidency, officials said on Monday. The divorce papers were filed on March 11 in family court, according to Edwin Escobar, a spokesman for the country’s supreme court. Opponents had argued that Torres could not run for president because, according to the Guatemala’s constitution, close blood relatives of the president and those of “second level of affinity” are banned from running. The main opposition candidate, Otto Perez Molina, called the divorce a “fraud” in a statement released to the newspaper Prensa Libre. He said in the statement that “we will not allow them to mock the law” with this move.
CUBA
Program attacks blogger
Cuba attacked dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez in a nationally televised program on Monday, accusing of her being part of a “cyberwar” against the nation by the US and other enemies. The program showed Sanchez in grainy videos entering the US Interests Section in Havana and European embassies. Sanchez, whose “Generation Y” blog is read internationally, was portrayed as part of a massive “media campaign” against Cuba, which the program said has tried to “demonize” socialism. In return, she has collected a total of US$500,000 in international prizes for her work, the program said. Her blog criticizes Cuba’s government and the state of the country. Sanchez appeared to take the program in stride. “I am so happy. Finally the alternative blogosphere on official television, although it’s to insult us,” she said on Twitter.
UNITED STATES
Blaze woman back in US
Authorities say a woman accused in a fire at her Houston day care that killed four children has waived extradition back to Texas and is in custody in Atlanta. Jessica Tata fled to Nigeria in the days following the Feb. 24 blaze. Interpol and US State Department agents tracked her down in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on Saturday. Fulton County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said the 22-year-old was booked into the county jail after arriving on a flight to Atlanta early on Monday. Tata is accused of leaving the children alone while she shopped at a nearby store.
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