POLAND
Auschwitz probes reopened
The country has reopened investigations into crimes committed at the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz during World War II, in an effort to track down any surviving camp employees before they die. Up to 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished at Nazi German hands at Auschwitz, near the city of Krakow, during the war that ended in 1945. In the postwar communist era, Warsaw launched probes into crimes committed at Auschwitz, but closed them in the 1980s because questioning witnesses and perpetrators based abroad was too hard at a time when the country was part of the Soviet bloc. The IPN investigates -communist-era and Nazi-era crimes and can prosecute those it considers to have committed “crimes against the nation.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Aspirin could prevent cancer
People with a genetic condition that puts them at increased risk of colon cancer may lower their chance of developing the disease by taking aspirin daily, a study suggests. The 861 people in the study had Lynch syndrome — a rare, inherited disorder that puts them at high risk for cancers including those of the colon. In the study, people were assigned to take 600mg of aspirin daily — about two regular-strength aspirin — or dummy pills. After more than four years of follow-up, the study did not find a significant difference in how many people in each group developed their first colon cancer. However, they did see one when they looked at long-term participants who regularly took their pills for at least two years. Among the 258 people on aspirin, there were 10 colon cancer cases, compared with 23 in the 250 people on dummy pills.
UNITED KINGDOM
Charles claims Vlad blood
The truth is out: Prince Charles is related to Vlad the Impaler. The heir to the British throne says he is related to Vlad the Impaler, the cruel 15th-century Romanian warlord who helped inspire Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire novel Dracula. He makes the comments on an upcoming TV show to promote his interest in protecting the forests of Romania’s Transylvania region. Charles says genealogy shows that he is related to Vlad, giving him a stake in the future of Romania.
UNITED KINGDOM
Killer guilty of fourth murder
A serial child killer and pedophile already in jail in Northern Ireland for three child murders was convicted of murdering a fourth girl on Thursday, 30 years after she died. A jury in the town of Armagh found Scottish-born Robert Black, 64, guilty of murdering Jennifer Cardy, aged nine. Black denied guilt, but did not take the stand to defend himself. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was already serving a minimum 35 years for three murders — which would have seen him freed in 2029 at the earliest.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Submarine wreck found
Authorities are trying to determine the nationality of a submarine wreck found off the town of Rabaul, which was a major Japanese military base during World War II. The Australian Defense Department said in a statement that the governments of Japan, the US, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand have been informed of Thursday’s find in Simpson Harbor on the South Pacific island nation’s northeast coast. The statement says the wreck is probably World War II vintage, but identification could take days. The discovery was made by Australian and New Zealand warships involved in an operation to clear the Southwest Pacific of World War II-era explosives.
UNITED STATES
McChrystal to visit Kabul
Former US commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal, who was sacked by President Barack Obama, has accepted an invitation from the Kabul government for a visit, officials said on Thursday. The trip, due next month, will be the retired general’s first visit to the country since he was forced out of his post in June last year following a Rolling Stone magazine article in which his aides displayed disdain for the White House and Obama’s civilian deputies.
UNITED STATES
‘Kill team’ trial begins
The alleged ringleader of a rogue army unit charged with killing Afghan civilians for fun was to face a court martial yesterday, 18 months after the slayings. Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs’s military trial comes after guilty verdicts were handed down as part of plea deals with three other members of the so-called “kill team.” The previous court hearings exposed grisly evidence about soldiers taking fingers from the bodies as trophies and posing with corpses. Gibbs faces three charges of premeditated murder as well as a string of accusations of assault, making threats, “conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline,” and impeding an investigation, said a statement from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.
UNITED STATES
Panetta wins bin Laden bet
California restaurateur Ted Balestreri will think twice the next time he makes a bet with old friend and US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Last year, during Balestreri’s annual New Year’s Eve party at his Monterey restaurant, friends chided him over when he would uncork a US$10,000 bottle from his rare wine collection. Balestreri joked, “If Leon catches Osama bin Laden, we’ll open that bottle.” Panetta, then head of the CIA, jumped up and said: “You’re on!” Balestreri recalled. Balestreri told the Monterey Herald he was kidding, but, five months later, Balestreri got a telephone call from Panetta’s wife. “She said, ‘Ted, get the wine opener ready,”’ Balestreri said. “When I asked why, she said, ‘Go turn on your TV.’” President Barack Obama announced that bin Laden had been killed by US forces in Pakistan. Balestreri plans to uncork the 1870 Chateau Lafite Rothschild at this year’s party in the restaurant’s wine cellar.
UNITED STATES
Marijuana users sue
Californian medical marijuana advocates asked a federal court on Thursday to halt a crackdown on pot outlets they say penalizes people who use the drug for genuine health reasons. Americans for Safe Access wants to prevent the federal government from moving to close California’s pot dispensaries, which prosecutors accuse of using state law to cover up large-scale for-profit recreational drug sales. In its suit, the Oakland-based advocacy group claims that the Justice Department is trying to dismantle California’s medical marijuana laws with raids and increased criminal prosecutions.
UNITED STATES
Man confesses to smuggling
An Israeli man pleaded guilty in New Jersey on Thursday to brokering kidney transplants as part of a black market organ business, US prosecutors said. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 60, confessed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, to three counts of acquiring and transferring human organs and a fourth count of conspiracy. Prosecutors say that between 2006 and 2009, Rosenbaum brokered three kidney transplants between paid donors and New Jersey residents paying between US$120,000 and US$150,000.
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