AUSTRALIA
Gillard sparks curtsy flap
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II attended a flower show yesterday, where thousands turned out to see her amid a flap over Prime Minister Julia Gillard failing to curtsy. The queen and Prince Philip arrived in Canberra on Wednesday to a ceremonial welcome attended by hundreds of schoolchildren and VIPs, including Gillard and -Governor-General Quentin Bryce. The Welsh-born Gillard, who favors the country becoming a republic, shook hands with the monarch rather than curtsy, a permissible protocol, but one that sparked controversy on TV, radio and social media. Bryce, the monarchy’s representative in the country and the first woman to take the role, did curtsy as she greeted the queen. However, Gillard said she did what made her comfortable. “The advice that was given to me was very clear — that you can make a choice with what you are most comfortable with,” she told reporters.
MYANMAR
UN sees progress on rights
A UN investigator says recent steps by the new government could improve the human rights situation and deepen the country’s transition to democracy. UN Human Rights Envoy to Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana said he was encouraged by the government’s commitment to reform and President Thein Sein’s priorities, including protecting human rights and respecting the rule of law. He welcomed talks between government officials and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it was crucial that she and her party were included in the political process. However, Quintana told a General Assembly committee on Wednesday there are also many serious human rights issues that must be addressed, including discrimination against minorities and a judiciary that is not independent.
JAPAN
Noise pollution trial starts
Court hearings started yesterday for a noise pollution trial in which 22,000 Okinawa residents are seeking to stop early--morning and late--evening US military exercise flights. The residents near the US Kadena Air Base on the southern island prefecture are also demanding a combined ¥44.6 billion (US$580 million) in damages from the Japanese government for harm to their health from noise pollution. At the Naha District Court, seven representatives of the plaintiffs complained about health and other damages from the noise. High school student Himeka Matayoshi, 17, told the court that her two-year-old sister is scared by the noise and runs to her parents covering her ears, according to local media. “During classes, teachers have to stop their lectures and wait for the roaring noise to fly away,” she told the court. “Rather than hearing blasts of jets, I wish I could live a quiet life in which I can hear singing of insects,” she said. The government has asked the court to throw out the case, claiming that US military operations are beyond Japan’s control.
JAPAN
Empress marks birthday
Empress Michiko, turning 77, says staying healthy is an uphill battle. As the empress marked her birthday yesterday, she said that age has made it more difficult for her and Emperor Akihito, who is also 77, to carry out their official duties. The popular imperial couple did not travel abroad this year, although they actively reached out to survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Akihito delivered an unprecedented TV address to the nation, and the pair visited evacuees for seven straight weeks from the end of March through May.
UNITED KINGDOM
Eviction turns violent
Action to clear campaigners and barricades blocking the entrance to Britain’s biggest illegal travelers’ site resumed yesterday after the first day of the eviction operation saw 23 arrests amid violent clashes between police and protesters. Police in riot gear used Tasers against protesters who they said had been armed with iron bars and bombarded police with rocks and urine when they moved in to help clear the Dale Farm site in Essex on Wednesday. Having taken control of the site near Basildon, officers have begun removing protesters chained to scaffolding or other blockades near the front gate to allow bailiffs to start their clearance operation. The eviction of about 400 travelers marks the climax of a 10-year planning battle with authorities. The site’s residents had won a temporary reprieve last month when the High Court issued an injunction stopping officials from clearing the land, but their battle came to an end when they lost a final legal hearing last week.
UNITED KINGDOM
Lawyer admits company lied
A lawyer who acted for News International over the News of the World phone hacking scandal told British lawmakers on Wednesday that he knew the company had misled parliament about the affair, but he had not spoken up because of client confidentiality. Julian Pike, a partner at Farrer & Co, a law firm whose clients include the Queen, told lawmakers on the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee that he was aware the company’s often-repeated “rogue reporter” defense was untrue. Pike said he had seen evidence in 2008 that suggested there was “a powerful case” that an additional three journalists on the now-closed News of the World Sunday tabloid were “illegally accessing information in order to obtain stories” and that he had informed News International of this.
UNITED STATES
Expert pans Jackson doctor
A medical expert told jurors hearing the case against Michael Jackson’s doctor that the physician’s repeated and flagrant violations of the standard of care involving a powerful anesthetic led to the singer’s death. Steven Shafer testified on Wednesday that a lack of proper medical equipment, and the absence of notes and medical records by Conrad Murray, along with a breakdown of the patient-doctor relationship, were factors involved in the singer’s death. Shafer said Murray was acting more like Jackson’s employee than a physician and that he should have rejected the singer’s requests for the anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid.
UNITED STATES
Better housing, better health
Back in the 1990s, the federal government tried an unusual social experiment: It offered thousands of poor women in big-city public housing a chance to live in more affluent neighborhoods. A decade later, the women who relocated had lower rates of diabetes and extreme obesity — differences that are being hailed as compelling evidence that where you live can determine your health. The experiment was initially aimed at researching whether moving impoverished families to more prosperous areas could improve employment or schooling, but according to a study released on Wednesday, the most interesting effect may have been on the women’s physical condition. About 16 percent of the women who moved had diabetes, compared with about 20 percent of women who stayed in public housing and about 14 percent of those who left the projects were extremely obese, compared with nearly 18 percent of the other women.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema