NORTH KOREA
Kim Jong-un drives tank
New footage on state TV shows young leader Kim Jong-un maneuvering a tank and observing firing exercises. State TV aired the footage yesterday on what is believed to be Kim’s birthday. However, his birth date has never been revealed and there has been no mention of his birthday in state media. Kim was named “supreme leader” of the country’s people, ruling party and military last month after the death of his father, former supreme leader Kim Jong-il. The process to consolidate Kim Jong-un’s power has been gaining speed. The footage yesterday showed Kim Jong-un reviewing military exercises, including planes tearing through the sky and soldiers dropping down in parachutes. Kim Jong-un has pledged to uphold his father’s “military first” policy.
SOUTH KOREA
Chinese suspect detained
Police yesterday detained a Chinese man accused of throwing gasoline bombs at the Japanese embassy in Seoul after reportedly claiming his grandmother was forced into wartime sex slavery. The 38-year-old man allegedly threw four Molotov cocktails at the embassy yesterday morning, leaving burn marks on part of the outer wall, Seoul police said. A police detective said nobody was hurt in the attack. The man hailed from Guangzhou, China, and entered the country last month via Japan on a tourist visa, police said. The Yonhap news agency said the man had claimed his grandmother was one of the many “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. Historians say that about 200,000 women from Taiwan, Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries were drafted to work in Japanese army brothels.
AUSTRALIA
Crocodile invades home
A Darwin family spoke of their fright yesterday after waking to find a 1.7m crocodile lurking in their living room. Jo Dodd said she was first alerted to the reptilian intruder by the frantic barking of their family dog on Saturday morning. “We opened the door to our bedroom and looked into our lounge room area and there was a crocodile,” Dodd told Australian Braodcasting Corp from her home in Darwin. “It was the most freakiest thing — you don’t usually see a crocodile in your lounge room ... It was really a very surreal moment.” Rangers captured the crocodile and took it to a nearby crocodile farm. Known locally as “salties,” saltwater crocodiles are a common feature of the tropical north and kill an average of two people a year. They can grow up to 7m long and weigh more than a tonne.
AUSTRALIA
Truck kills sleeping boy
An 11-year-old boy was killed as he slept when a truck plowed into his house yesterday in a horrifying smash that killed another man and injured seven other people, police said. The truck carrying two trailers ran off the road after hitting a flatbed van on the busy Pacific Highway north of Sydney at about 5am and slammed into two houses “killing a boy asleep in his bedroom,” police said in a statement. The 11-year-old died instantly and the van driver was also killed, while seven others, including the boy’s 14-year-old brother and four people from a neighboring house, were rushed to a hospital with injuries. The truck driver, aged 40, had been admitted in a serious condition with chest and limb injuries along with his 31-year-old passenger, who suffered injuries to his head, spine and limbs.
ISRAEL
‘Santa’ stabs man to death
Police say a man dressed as Santa Claus fatally stabbed an Arab Christian man in the back during a procession to mark Orthodox Christmas in the city of Jaffa. Gabriel Cadis, the head of Jaffa’s Orthodox Church Association, was stabbed on Friday night and died hours later at a hospital. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six members of an Arab Christian family were in custody Saturday as police investigate. Witnesses told police the attacker was wearing a red-and-white Santa suit. Media reported that Cadis had a long-standing dispute with other Arab Christians in Jaffa.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cameron sorry for remark
Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to apologize after telling a Sunday newspaper that a senior Labour lawmaker’s heckling was “like having someone with Tourette’s sitting opposite you.” His comment about Labour finance spokesman Ed Balls, whose gestures and comments aimed at the prime minister have become a fixture of his weekly grilling in the House of Commons, triggered an immediate storm of criticism. Cameron’s Downing Street office moved quickly to stop the backlash, insisting late on Saturday that the remark about the inherited neurological condition had been “off the cuff.” “The prime minister would not have meant to offend anyone. He apologizes if any offense has been caused,” a spokeswoman said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Countess’ gift criticized
One of Queen Elizabeth II’s daughters-in-law was criticized on Saturday for accepting jewels from the royal family of Bahrain, which has been accused of human rights abuses. Former minister for Europe Denis MacShane said the gift to Sophie, Countess of Wessex, who is married to the queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, should be sold and the proceeds given to victims of the civil unrest. The countess received a “suite of jewels” when she visited Bahrain with her husband in December, an official record of the trip released by Buckingham Palace shows.
AFGHANISTAN
Tortured bride wants justice
A 15-year-old girl who was tortured for months after her arranged marriage has spoken out for the first time since her rescue, saying she hopes her husband and his family are jailed for her abuse. Sahar Gul became the bruised and bloodied face of women’s rights in the country after she was rescued late last month, when an uncle called police. Speaking in an interview on Saturday from a hospital in Kabul, Gul blamed her husband, his parents and his sister for her ordeal. “I want them to be in jail,” she said. “They gave me electric shocks ... they beat me with cables and tortured me.” She is being treated for multiple injuries that include broken fingers and ripped-out fingernails. Police in Baghlan Province, where Gul was rescued, have said her in-laws locked her up and tortured her after she refused to work as a prostitute. Her husband’s parents and sister have been arrested. They deny any wrongdoing. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for her husband, who serves in the army. Her doctor, Feriba Omarzada, said Gul is recovering, but is still traumatized. Guls’ story has shocked the country and prompted calls for more efforts to end underage marriage. The legal marriage age in the country is 16, but the UN agency UN Women estimates that half of all girls are forced to marry under age 15.
UNITED STATES
Sketch of victim released
Police have released a composite sketch of an unidentified victim whose remains were among those of 11 people found along a remote New York beach highway last year. The sketch released on Saturday is of a woman whose partial remains were found along Long Island’s Ocean Parkway in April last year. Police say other remains of the same person were also found on Blue Point Beach, Fire Island, in April 1996. Investigators believe a possible serial killer is responsible for 10 of the bodies. The remains of an 11th victim — a 24-year-old woman named Shannan Gilbert — were found late last month, but authorities say Gilbert accidentally drowned.
COSTA RICA
Cocaine found on beach
Police following an anonymous tip-off made a startling discovery on a Pacific coast beach, where they dug up a tonne of cocaine buried in the sand, authorities said. The stash of drugs was found on Friday on a remote stretch of beach near the town of Parrita, west of the capital San Jose, Deputy Minister of Security Celso Gamboa said on Saturday. “This drug seizure was not part of an ongoing investigation, so we need to determine the origin and likely destination” of the cocaine, Judicial Investigation Organization director Francisco Segura said. The discovery came a day after authorities seized 360kg of cocaine that was being transported in a truck full of scrap metal near the border with Nicaragua.
UNITED STATES
Iran welcomes rescue
Washington on Saturday acknowledged Iran’s government for welcoming the actions of American sailors who rescued 13 Iranian fisherman from pirates near the entrance to Gulf waters. “We note Iran’s acknowledgment of the humanitarian nature of the US Navy’s actions,” National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor said. “Our naval presence in and around the Gulf is intended to contribute to the safety and security of that part of the world and address a number of different missions, including counter--piracy ... This is an issue of mutual interest with Iran.” The rescue was carried out on Thursday by one of several warships escorting the carrier USS John C. Stennis — which Tehran military chiefs earlier this week warned to stay out of Gulf waters or else face the “full force” of Iran’s navy. However, the Iranian government on Saturday praised the rescue of the fishermen who had been held in captivity for about 45 days by pirates thought to be Somalis. “We consider the actions of the US forces in saving the lives of the Iranian seamen to be a humanitarian and positive act and we welcome such behavior,” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast said.
MEXICO
Journalist killed by gunmen
A journalist was shot dead by unknown gunmen in a northern municipality of Monterrey, officials said on Saturday, becoming the first reporter to be killed in the country this year. The killing of Raul Quirino Garza, 30, on Friday came just one day after the Vienna-based press watchdog IPI named the nation the world’s deadliest place for journalists to work — 10 were killed in the last year. Quirino Garza, who worked for The Last Word newspaper, came under fire while driving his car in the Cadereyta municipality, an intelligence official told reporters on condition of anonymity. Although the emergency services were called, it was not possible to save the journalist’s life, the Agencia Estadal de Investigaciones official said.
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