JAPAN
Haircutting laws relaxed
The nation has relaxed laws on haircutting to allow barbers and stylists in areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami to clip and style at evacuation shelters or makeshift shops, a report said yesterday. The current law bans barbers and beauticians from cutting hair anywhere other than authorized shops, apart from for housebound customers or weddings. The government has relaxed the regulations for a period of about two years starting this month, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. Many hairdressers’ shops were damaged or destroyed in the March 11 quake and tsunami. The measure covers barbers and beauticians who cannot run their businesses as before or who are living in shelters due to the quake, the paper said.
EAST TIMOR
Refugee center in doubt
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said yesterday he opposed an Australian proposal to establish a regional refugee center in the country. “I have never accepted it,” he said on the sidelines of a ruling party conference in Dili. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard raised the idea last year as a way of stemming the flow of asylum seekers who travel via Indonesia to northern Australia in rickety boats. Her government says negotiations are ongoing. The only person in the tiny country who has spoken in favor of the idea is President Jose Ramos-Horta. A spokesman for the president said any such center would have to be established with the backing of ASEAN, which East Timor is hoping to join and the UN.
SAUDI ARABIA
Media restrictions imposed
King Abdullah has imposed new media controls and threatened hefty fines and closure of news organizations allegedly undermining national security, press reports said yesterday. Under a decree issued on Friday, the media will be prohibited from reporting anything that contradicts the Islamic Shariah law or serves “foreign interests and undermines national security.” The decree requires publishers to stick “to objective and constructive criticism that serves the general interest,” media reports said, adding that violators face fines of up to 500,000 riyals (US$133,000). In addition to a threat to close publishers who violate the decree, the authorities can also ban a writer for life from contributing to any media organization.
SOUTH KOREA
Live-fire exercises scheduled
The nation’s military will stage live-fire artillery exercises in the coming week on two frontline islands including one hit by deadly North Korean shelling in November, a news report said yesterday. A defense ministry spokesman said that regular military exercises would be carried out on the two islands, but declined to give further details on the timing or whether live-fire drills will be carried out. Dong-A Ilbo daily said marine troops will fire K-9 self-propelled howitzers, Vulcan cannons and 81mm mortars deployed on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands, both located near the tense Yellow Sea border. About 10 US military regiment and battalion commanders will attend the exercises as observers, it said. In November, North Korea responded to a South Korean live-fire artillery drill from Yeonpyeong Island by shelling the island, killing four people. Tuesday’s drills will be the second live-fire exercise on the two islands this year. The previous drills passed without incident despite threats from the North to hit back.
SPAIN
City restricts swim suit use
Tourists in Barcelona who wander off the beach onto the streets in just their swim suits — or even less — will now face stiff fines. The city hall voted on Friday to ban “nudity or virtual nudity in public places” and limit swim suits to swimming pools, beaches, adjacent roads and beach walks. Nudists who stray off their designated areas of the beach will be subject to fines of 300 euros to 500 euros (US$450 to US$750). Those who wander into the streets in bikinis, swimming trunks or swimsuits face fines of 120 euros to 300 euros. Authorities in the city, where the port and the beach areas are adjacent to the historic old town, earlier this year put up posters discouraging such behavior.
? MEXICO
Teen denied royal wedding
Estibalis Chavez staged a hunger strike and flew twice to London in her quest to see Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot. However, there was no fairy tale ending on Friday for the teenager, whose widely publicized desperate quest drew both sympathy and scorn from her countrymen. Chavez, 19, said British immigration officials in London turned her away at the airport on Thursday, saying she didn’t have enough money for a safe place to stay for her trip. Officials gave a similar reason for deporting her when she first tried to enter the UK on April 22. “They didn’t let me enter because they thought I was crazy,” Chavez said by telephone on Friday from Spain. Chavez staged a hunger strike outside the British embassy in Mexico City for 16 days in a failed bid to wrangle an invitation to the wedding.
UNITED STATES
Tobacco firms win lawsuit
Philip Morris USA and other major tobacco companies won a lawsuit on Friday filed by 37 Missouri hospitals seeking more than US$455 million for treating sick smokers. Philip Morris USA was one of six tobacco companies involved in the lawsuit. The hospitals had claimed cigarette companies delivered an “unreasonably dangerous” product. They were seeking reimbursement back to 1993 for treating sick smokers who had no insurance and did not pay their bills. A call to the attorney representing the hospitals, Kenneth Brostron, was not immediately returned. Philip Morris USA and Lorillard Inc were supportive of the verdict. “The jury agreed with Philip Morris USA that ordinary cigarettes are not negligently designed or defective,” Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Royal Wedding takes race
It was a good day for a royal wedding, even on one of the nation’s horse tracks. The aptly named Royal Wedding won a race at Fontwell on Friday, with the 4-1 shot holding off Take A Mile to win by 12 lengths just hours after Prince William married Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey. The Nick Gifford-trained horse won at Fontwell in February and was invited back to race on the same day as the royal nuptials. “It’s been the plan to run for about two months and we are delighted it’s all worked out,” Gifford said. “I’m delighted and a bit relieved he won after we’ve had so much publicity. We just didn’t want him to do anything stupid like fall at the first [fence] or anything like that.” Bookmakers weren’t quite as happy, however, saying they had been showered with bets on the popular horse.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in