CAMBODIA
Duch appeals sentence
The man who admitted to overseeing the killing of 16,000 people as the Khmer Rouge’s chief prison warden has returned to a courtroom to appeal his 19-year prison sentence. Kaing Guek Eav — also known as Duch — was convicted last year of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is the only person so far to be tried by a UN-backed tribunal set up to prosecute Khmer Rouge officials. An estimated 1.7 million people were killed under the regime’s 1975 to 1979 reign. Defense lawyers say the tribunal has no jurisdiction over Duch, since the court was set up to prosecute top leaders of the Khmer Rouge. They argue that he was not a top leader. Appeal proceedings started yesterday and are expected to finish later this week.
ISRAEL
Leaked cable sparks anger
An official says Israel wants clarifications from Argentina over a report it offered Iran a deal — that it would stop investigating bombings on Jewish centers in exchange for better trade ties. The Argentine paper Perfil quoted a leaked Iranian cable. Eighty-five people were killed and 200 injured when a bomb exploded outside a Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994. The center was a symbol for Argentina’s Jewish population of more than 200,000. Two years earlier, a bomb flattened Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people. Iran was widely blamed for the attacks. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Sunday he was waiting for official Argentine comment. “If this is true, then it would be a display of infinite cynicism and a dishonor to the dead,” he said.
VIETNAM
Zoo owner sold dead tigers
A zoo owner has been sentenced to three years in prison for selling the carcasses of several endangered tigers that died in his care, a judge said yesterday. Huynh Van Hai was convicted during a two-day trial earlier this month of selling the dead tigers, which had been raised at his zoo in Binh Duong Province near Ho Chi Minh City, presiding judge Hoang Huy Toan said. Hai told the court that the tigers died of natural causes — four of bird flu contracted after eating infected chickens in 2003 and another from choking on a bone, Toan said. Rather than reporting the deaths to authorities as required, he sold the dead animals, saying he needed the money to care for his other tigers, Toan said.
INDIA
Tiger numbers on the rise
The nation’s latest tiger census shows an increase in the numbers of the endangered big cat. The census counted at least 1,706 tigers in forests across the country, about 300 more than four years ago, a government official said yesterday. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called the increase good news, but cautioned against any complacency in efforts to save the iconic animal from extinction. Conservationists used hidden cameras and DNA tests to count the cats in 19 Indian states where tigers live in the wild.
UNITED STATES
Web pioneer Baran dies
Paul Baran, whose work with packaging data in the 1960s has been credited with playing a key role in the later development of the Internet, has died. Baran’s son David said on Sunday night that his father died at his home in Palo Alto, California, of complications from lung cancer on Saturday. He was 84. Baran is best known for the idea of “packet-switching,” in which data is bundled into small packages and sent through a network.
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