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 The Supreme Court says it repealed lower court decisions that ruled against the plaintiffs seeking unpaid wages and financial redress from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Nippon Steel Corp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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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