NORTH KOREA
Hyundai tours banned
The country has stripped South Korean company Hyundai of its right to run cross-border tours in an apparent bid to press Seoul to soften its stance toward Pyongyang. The Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee said in a statement there would be no more tours run by Hyundai Asan to the scenic Mount Kumgang in the North, where the company has invested millions of dollars. South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said the announcement was unacceptable.
CHINA
Japan import ban expanded
The country has expanded its import ban on food and produce from Japan over fears of radioactive contamination from a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, state media reported yesterday. The ban, which came into force on Friday, includes foodstuffs, farm produce and fodder from 12 prefectures near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, up from five in the original ban, Xinhua news agency said, quoting a statement from the quarantine and food safety administration. The administration also demanded that food imports from other areas be accompanied by certificates showing they were free of radioactivity and giving their places of origin. Beijing has expressed concern over the release into the sea of radioactive water from the nuclear power plant and urged its neighbor to protect the marine environment.
INDIA
Kashmiri shops closed
Shops and schools in Indian-controlled Kashmir are closed to protest the blast that killed a moderate Muslim religious leader outside a mosque in the disputed Himalayan region. Police believe Moulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah was killed on Friday by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a parked bicycle near the mosque. An alliance of separatist political and religious groups called for a public strike yesterday, while police and paramilitary troops set up road blocks and patrolled the near-deserted streets of Srinagar in anticipating unrest. Thousands chanted pro-independence slogans during Shah’s funeral on Friday night. Shah supported pro-independence efforts in Kashmir, but condemned the practice of throwing stones at government forces.
THAILAND
Firefight kills four
A suspected gunman killed in a shoot-out with security forces was among four people shot dead in violence across the troubled deep south, police said yesterday. The 47-year-old Muslim man died in the firefight after 70 police officers and army troops surrounded a house in Yala Province yesterday following a tip-off that militants were hiding in the property. Police said the victim was wanted on several arrest warrants related to security issues including shootings and bombings. Two others are thought to have escaped.
INDONESIA
Allow observers: Cambodia
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong yesterday expressed disappointment over Thailand’s refusal to send Indonesian military observers to the disputed Thai-Cambodia border. At an ASEAN meeting in February, Thailand and Cambodia agreed to accept Indonesian observers to a flashpoint section of the border where heavy fighting erupted the same month. However, Thailand’s military in March said the observers were not wanted in the disputed area near an 11th-century temple because it was too dangerous and they would only complicate matters.
GEORGIA
Old lady denies axing Web
A 75-year-old woman arrested for single-handedly cutting off the Internet in Georgia and Armenia on Friday tearfully insisted she was innocent and said she had never heard of the Web. In a case that has attracted worldwide interest, pensioner Hayastan Shakarian is accused of forcing thousands of people in both countries to go offline for hours after hacking into a fiber-optic cable while digging for scrap metal. However, Shakarian, a Georgian of Armenian origin, told reporters that she was just a “poor old woman” who was not capable of committing such a crime. “I did not cut this cable. Physically, I could not do it,” she said, repeatedly bursting into tears as she spoke. Shakarian, who lives in the poverty-stricken village of Armazi, about 15km from Tbilisi, said that she had only been collecting firewood. “I have no idea what the Internet is,” she added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Paper apologizes for hacking
The owner of the News of the World offered an “unreserved apology” on Friday for phone hacking and said the newspaper would set up a compensation fund. Rupert Murdoch’s News International said it admitted liability in some cases brought against the News of the World, the country’s top-selling newspaper. Actress Sienna Miller is believed to be among those offered a settlement. The apology came three days after police arrested the Sunday tabloid’s chief reporter and a former news editor on suspicion of having unlawfully intercepted mobile phone voice-mail messages.
FRANCE
Habitual art thief charged
Notorious compulsive art thief and collector Stephane Breitwieser was charged with several new crimes on Friday after dozens of old masters were discovered at his home Strasbourg. An investigating magistrate interviewed the 39-year-old and has already charged him with one theft and with handling goods stolen in Belgium and Germany, officials said. Assistant prosecutor Claude Palpacuer said Breiwieser had admitted some of the allegations against him. He is free on bail, but may face further charges and will eventually be put on trial. A grand-nephew of Alsatian painter Robert Breitwieser (1889-1975), Stephane won infamy in 2002 when he admitted stealing hundreds of works from museums, castles and palaces around Europe, supposedly for his own collection. When he was finally arrested in Switzerland in 2001, his mother Mireille Stengel threw around 100 works of art worth several million euros into a canal, most of which were eventually recovered.
KENYA
Anti-rebel aid enhanced
Nairobi has vowed to bolster Somalia’s fight against al-Qaeda-linked insurgents along its border with the Horn of Africa country, where troops from both sides are battling the rebels, the Somali prime minister said. Last month, Somali troops and government-friendly militia took control of the border town of Beledhawo from the al Shabaab rebels. The town is a stone’s throw from the Kenyan border town of Mandera. “Kenya has given us a commitment to give us its support to eliminate al Shabab fighters who have deployed foreign fighters in the border areas,” Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said after meeting his Kenyan counterpart Raila Odinga late on Thursday. He did not specify where the foreign jihadists were from, or the type of support that Nairobi would extend.
UNITED STATES
Survey criticizes N Korea
Washington said on Friday that North Korea’s human rights record was dismal, with a range of abuses including infanticide and apparent shoot-to-kill orders against fleeing refugees. The State Department’s annual human rights survey pointed to problems across the board, though it acknowledged it was mostly relying on second-hand accounts due to a lack of access. Presenting the report, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor Michael Posner said it was difficult to detect any overall trends in North Korea as the situation was “grim, grim, grim.”
CHILE
Catholic Church apologizes
The Catholic Church apologized on Friday for sexual abuse by pedophile priests in the country, taking the blame for a lack of diligence in investigating victims’ complaints. “We humbly offer our apology and any support we can give them [victims] in addition to our prayers,” the Chilean Episcopal Conference said in a statement. “We recognize that we have not always responded promptly and effectively to complaints. We express our solidarity with the victims of these abuses and their families, and we make their sufferings ours.” The statement was the first time the church has issued a formal apology.
ITALY
Berlusconi to defend self
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to defend himself in court tomorrow on accusations of fiscal fraud linked to his Mediaset business empire, his lawyer said. “Barring any last-minute institutional engagement, Silvio Berlusconi will be in court in Milan this Monday for the Mediaset trial,” Piero Longo was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency. Berlusconi is accused of artificially inflating the price of distribution rights for films bought by television companies belonging to him and then setting up slush funds abroad in order to pay less tax.
CANADA
No role for French rock star
A French rock star convicted of killing his girlfriend will not appear in Montreal and Ottawa theatrical productions after his casting provoked a public outcry, the Theatre du Nouveau Monde said on Friday. The company had invited Bertrand Cantat to appear in three plays by Sophocles directed by Wajdi Mouawad. This follows a public outcry this week over his casting. Cantat, the former lead singer of the band Noir Desir, was sentenced to eight years in jail after he beat his girlfriend Marie Trintignant to death in a Lithuanian hotel room in 2003. He was paroled in 2007. Theatre du Nouveau Monde had earlier defended its casting choice, saying Cantat paid for his crime.
GUATEMALA
President’s divorce approved
The courts have approved the divorce of President Alvaro Colom and first lady Sandra Torres, opening the way for her to run for president in September, a judge said on Friday. “They are legally divorced,” said family court judge Midred Roca, who presided over the proceedings. Colom and Torres’ decision to divorce by mutual consent raised a wave of criticism from opponents who called it a cynical attempt to circumvent a constitutional ban on a president being succeeded by his or her spouse. Torres, who is supported by an alliance of the governing National Unity of Hope party and the right-wing Grand National Alliance, said last month she was divorcing despite her love for her husband.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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