JAPAN
Death row appeal rejected
The Nagoya High Court yesterday rejected an appeal by a farmer who has spent 40 years on death row for the murder of his wife, his mistress and three other women who died after drinking poisoned wine. The court “turned down the appeal for retrial” of 86-year-old Masaru Okunishi over the killings, a court spokesman said. The request could still go to the Supreme Court. Okunishi, who has spent much of the past four decades in solitary confinement, has consistently protested his innocence after retracting what he says was a coerced confession ahead of his original trial. However, presiding Judge Yasuo Shimoyama ruled “his confession is fully credible in its essential part,” according to Jiji Press news agency. Five women died and 12 others fell ill after drinking wine laced with agricultural chemicals at a community get-together in the town of Nabari in 1961.
CHINA
Animal abuse not illegal
A Shanghai woman accused of killing hundreds of cats will not face prosecution despite animal rights campaigners’ efforts because of a lack of animal protection laws, the Global Times said yesterday. A group of activists went to Zhou Ying’s (周穎) home on Wednesday evening after allegations that she had killed hundreds of cats were posted on the Internet alongside images of decapitated animals, the newspaper said. A scuffle broke out after some gained entrance to the rented apartment and police took the woman and the activists to a nearby station. “When we entered the apartment, one of us found three headless cats in the kitchen trash bin. It was appalling,” one activist told the Global Times. All were released with warnings, but Zhou has permanently left her home following the incident, the Shanghai Daily said. “Those people violated my rights. I adopted the cats and I can raise them any way I want,” she told the newspaper.
SOUTH KOREA
Court orders reparation
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of nine citizens who demanded Japanese firms pay them for forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea. The Supreme Court says it repealed lower court decisions that ruled against the plaintiffs seeking unpaid wages and financial redress from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Nippon Steel Corp for forced labor from 1941 to 1945. The court yesterday said that it was the first time a ruling has favored South Koreans seeking such compensation from Japanese firms. The matter will now be sent to a lower court to determine compensation. A lawyer for the workers says the government might confiscate any South Korean property the firms have if they refuse to pay.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Police blocks parliament
Police blockaded parliament yesterday, a day after Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government leveled sedition charges against the chief justice. The apparently competing tactics come days after the Supreme Court ruled that O’Neill’s ousted predecessor, Sir Michael Somare, is the rightful ruler, and a month before the beginning of national elections. O’Neill had sought to reconvene parliament to consider the court’s ruling, but most lawmakers are away campaigning. A senior police source who declined to be named told the Australian Associated Press that the 30 officials who blockaded parliament were not acting on the police commissioner’s orders. Police involved in the blockade said they would not allow parliament to sit until after the elections next month.
UKRAINE
Lawmakers scuffle over bill
A violent scuffle erupted in parliament on Thursday evening over a bill that would allow the use of the Russian language in courts, hospitals and other institutions in the Russian-speaking regions of the country. The fight broke out between members of the pro-Western opposition, who want to take Ukraine out of Russia’s shadow, and lawmakers from President Viktor Yanukovych’s party, which bases its support in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east. At least one legislator, opposition lawmaker Mykola Petruk, suffered an apparent blow to the head and was taken to the hospital with blood streaming down his face. Lawmakers have frequently scuffled in parliament. A fierce fight in December 2010, which sent at least six lawmakers to hospital, started when members of Yanukovych’s party threw chairs and punched opposition lawmakers, who had been blocking legislative work all day. During a fight in April 2010, the speaker hid behind an umbrella as opposition lawmakers threw eggs and smoke bombs to protest a naval pact with Russia.
POLAND
Corpse falls out of sofa-bed
Two men were detained on Thursday after a corpse rolled up in a rug fell out of a sofa-bed that they were trying to load on a local commuter train, a police officer said. “We were informed by railwaymen that the body fell out of the sofa-bed onto the station platform. At first, I thought they were joking,” said Robert Czerwinski, a spokesman for the northern Polish city of Slupsk. Witnesses said the two men were trying to get the furniture onboard a train headed for the nearby Baltic Sea port city of Gdansk, when a compartment containing the corpse flew open and the body fell out. The two suspects aged 23 and 40 would remain in custody for questioning, Czerwinski said. While details of the deceased were not released, he was identified as a 59-year-old by police.
ITALY
Dump plan sparks furor
Plans to build an emergency garbage dump near Hadrian’s Villa, the famous emperor’s summer residence near Rome, has sparked outrage, with top culture ministry officials threatening to resign. Rome’s main dump at Malagrotta was filled to capacity years ago, but the recent move for a new one near the villa, which was classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, has infuriated Italians. “Hadrian’s Villa and its surroundings must not be disfigured. We cannot allow an international wave of protests,” Italian Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi told La Republica newspaper, after visiting the site on Thursday. Ornaghi has threatened to resign, while the head of the High Council for Cultural Heritage, Andrea Carandini, has also threatened to quit.
BURKINA FASO
Thirty dead in border clashes
At least 30 people have been killed after clashes erupted between Dogon farmers and nomadic Fulani herders along the border with Mali, authorities said on Thursday. The fighting took place near Sari, a Malian town about 15km from the border with Burkina Faso, Khalil Bara, governor of Burkina Faso’s northern region, said on state radio. Bara said the dispute originated from an agreement between the two nations, which allows Burkinabe herders to take their livestock to camps in Mali where there is available pasture land. During the rule of former Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure, Fulani herders were allowed in through special corridors, but Mali has descended into chaos since a March 22 military coup.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Crime reporter robs store
A reporter who led crime coverage for a national newspaper and a TV news cameraman are being accused of robbing a liquor store and getting in a shootout with police. Authorities say Trinidad Express reporter Akile Simon and TV6 cameraman Brendon Alexander teamed up with a security guard and a taxi driver to commit the robbery in a town outside Port-of-Spain. Police allege the four initially posed as police, showing the shop owner a phony warrant. The gang is accused of engaging officers in a shootout shortly after robbing the store of US$28,000 and nine bottles of whiskey. The security guard was shot in the leg before they surrendered.
UNITED STATES
Mrs Obama into Beyonce
Who would Michelle Obama be if she could be anyone? Beyonce. “It looks like musicians just have the most fun,” Obama explained in an interview with People magazine. She admitted, though, that there’s one thing she is lacking — being musically gifted. The first lady also dished about a bedtime ritual with her husband, the president: He tucks her in at night. “I’m usually in bed before anybody,” the first lady said. “He’ll come and turn the lights out and give me a kiss, and we’ll talk. He’s like, ‘Ready to be tucked?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I am.’” The interview appears in the June 4 issue of People. Obama did the interview in connection with the release next week of her new gardening book, American Grown.
UNITED STATES
King ribbed over elephant
Florida Governor Rick Scott decided not to ignore the elephant in the room. Scott met this week in Madrid with Spanish King Juan Carlos. Scott repeatedly asked about the monarch’s controversial elephant hunt in Botswana. The 74-year-old king hurt his public standing by going on the expensive hunt while Spain faces a major financial crisis. The trip came to light when the king fell and injured his hip and was rushed back to Spain. In videos of the encounter, Scott joked he had ridden elephants, but never tried to shoot them, and he told the king he needed a better tale than saying he hurt his hip getting out of bed. The king sort of smiled stiffly. Scott was in Spain to drum up business for Florida.
UNITED STATES
Cows crash party for beer
Police said a roving group of cows crashed a small gathering in a Massachusetts town and bullied the guests for their beer. Boxford police Lieutenant James Riter said he was responding to a call for loose cows on Sunday and spotted them in a front yard. Riter said the herd headed for the backyard and then he heard screaming. He said when he ran back there he saw the cows had chased off some young adults and were drinking their beers. Riter said the cows had knocked the beer cans over on a table and were lapping up what spilled. He said they even started rooting around the recycled cans for some extra drops.
UNITED STATES
Hospital settles fetus case
A hospital has reached a proposed settlement of about US$1 million with women who say an employee put dozens of miscarried or stillborn fetuses into jars for years instead of medically disposing of them. Court records show a former employee of the hospital now known as Firelands Regional Medical Center placed 88 fetuses into jars between 1988 and 1996. The former employee told the hospital she kept the fetuses in jars instead of disposing of them for personal religious reasons.
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
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing