HONG KONG
Zhang Ziyi sues ‘Apple Daily’
Actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) sued leading newspaper the Apple Daily and its sister weekly Next Magazine over reports that she prostituted herself with senior Chinese officials. Zhang signed the suit presented to the High Court on Monday, saying the reports were “seriously defamatory” and “false.” An article in the Apple Daily on May 29 said Zhang “is a prostitute” and had sexual intercourse with disgraced top Chinese official Bo Xilai (薄熙來) and his wealthy associate Xu Ming (徐明) for money on “numerous occasions,” the court document said. The tabloid also alleged the 33-year-old actress had sex with other top Chinese officials and “unnamed rich persons” and had accrued a fortune worth 700 million yuan (US$110 million) from these illicit liaisons over 10 years.
SOUTH KOREA
Casino to repay gamblers
The Seoul Central District Court on Monday ordered a casino to repay about half the losses suffered by two problem gamblers who lost a total of 2.47 billion won (US$2.1 million) over two years, a court official said yesterday. The court ruled that the unidentified casino in Seoul — which is supposed to cater only to foreigners — was partly responsible for helping the two local gamblers to play. The plaintiffs accused the casino of giving them the opportunity to gamble by issuing free Bolivian residency cards. “The casino bears 50 percent responsibility for soliciting the plaintiffs to gamble at a foreigners-only casino even after knowing they were addicts,” a court spokesman said. “But the plaintiffs also bear responsibility for going to the casino and gambling excessively.”
SOUTH KOREA
Ban awarded peace prize
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was named yesterday as the winner of this year’s Seoul Peace Prize, the prize foundation said. Ban was chosen for promoting the rights of women and children, efforts to eliminate poverty in developing nations and contributing to the democratization of Middle Eastern countries, the foundation said.
NORTH KOREA
Arirang Mass Games to end
Pyongyang is bringing down the curtain on its annual Arirang Mass Games, which involve tens of thousands of performers, to meet the changing times, a Beijing-based tour company said yesterday. “It’s believed this year’s Arirang will be the last one,” Simon Cockerell, general manager of Koryo Tours, said by telephone. He said Pyongyang has decided to end the show because its theme is the 100 years since the birth of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung, and the centenary anniversary was this year. “That ends now. So we expect them to put on a new or different performance next year,” Cockerell said.
CHINA
Fake bank buyer arrested
A man who claimed he bought a US bank that was later found not to exist has been detained for an alleged separate fraud scheme, police and media said. Lin Chunping (林春平) shot to fame in November last year after claiming he acquired the “Atlantic Bank of America.” On Monday, police said in a statement that they had caught him and six other people for allegedly defrauding the government of more than 10 million yuan in tax revenues. Lin issued tax invoices valued at more than 100 million yuan through his companies based on false transactions and sold them to other firms nationwide to reduce their tax burden, police said. Authorities detained six of his associates for suspected involvement.
NIGERIA
Bike gangs invade villages
A gang of robbers on Monday invaded two northern villages in an apparent revenge attack, slitting some residents’ throats and shooting others, leaving 23 dead, police said. “They killed 21 residents. They also moved to the next village ... where they shot dead two other people,” a police source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The gruesome raids by a gang said to be made up of about 80 people on motorbikes occurred in the dead of night in the villages of Dan-Gulbi and Guru, both in Zamfara State. They were believed to be in revenge for the killings of some of the gang members by villagers and vigilante groups, the source said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Threatening e-mails banned
A judge has banned a 60-year-old man from contacting a slew of public figures after he sent online threats to a prominent Conservative Party lawmaker. Frank Zimmerman of Gloucester had been charged with “improper use of public communications,” after he used e-mail and Twitter to threaten MP Louise Mensch. District Judge Martin Brown suspended Zimmerman’s 26-week prison sentence and issued a restraining order that bans the self-described agoraphobic from contacting high-profile individuals, including Mensch, her husband and CIA Director David Petraeus. Brown told Zimmerman that if he breached the restraining order he could be jailed for up to five years.
LIBYA
British envoy attacked
A vehicle carrying British Ambassador Dominic Asquith was attacked on Monday with rocket-propelled grenades in Benghazi. Two of Asquith’s bodyguards were injured. Britain’s Foreign Office said Asquith was not hurt, but the Libyan state news agency reported he was one of two people lightly injured. The office said the British were working with Libyan authorities to determine who was behind the attack.
AUSTRALIA
Libya offers to free lawyer
A lawyer being held in Libya will be released if she reveals the whereabouts of a key player in the former regime of Muammar Qaddafi, a report said yesterday. Melinda Taylor was detained late last week after she met with Seif al-Islam Qaddafi as part of a four-person team from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Libyan officials have alleged that Taylor was carrying a pen camera and attempting to give Seif a coded letter from his former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is on the run. Libyan government spokesman Mohammed al-Hareizi told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that Taylor would be freed if she gave them information on Ismail. Al-Hareizi said Taylor was “in safe hands,” but Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he was concerned at reports that the four ICC members had been moved from house arrest to an unidentified prison.
AFGHANISTAN
Suicide bombing kills eight
Suspected Taliban bomb attacks yesterday killed at least eight people, including women and children, officials said. A suicide bomber on a bicycle targeted a police patrol in the main market of Chahar Bolak, a small town in the northern province of Balkh, regional police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzi said. The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed the incident, saying three civilians were killed and five police officers were wounded. Hours earlier, a roadside bomb ripped through a minibus in the central province of Wardak, killing five civilians, provincial government spokesman Sahidullah Shahid said.
VENEZUELA
Chavez sings, dances, talks
President Hugo Chavez sang, danced and gave a marathon speech at the launch of his re-election bid, offering a preview of a campaign in which he is likely to push his limits trying to show the people of his country tha he is emerging from cancer’s shadow. Chavez appeared tired, bloated and pale when he walked into the National Electoral Council to register his candidacy on Monday, but later he exuded energy while singing along with a band playing a folk tune and seemed in his element as he delivered a fiery speech that lasted nearly three hours. “We’re just warming up our engines,” Chavez said. Then he took a jab at his rival, saying opposition candidate Henrique Capriles would “run out of gasoline.”
CANADA
Family mourns slain student
The family of a Chinese student who was killed and dismembered in Montreal said they are deeply troubled by his death, but have been moved by the outpouring of sympathy and charity. Jun Lin’s family arrived in the French-speaking city last week. The family said in a statement made public late on Monday and released by the Chinese consulate in Montreal that Lin was “the pride for our whole family clan” and added “this appalling catastrophe has dealt a disastrous blow to our family.” They also said “but it inspired outpourings of sympathy and charity in people, bringing together kind-hearted people in society and deeply moving and gratifying us in a time of deep sorrow.”
UNITED STATES
Town to fine for swearing
Residents in a town outside Boston voted on Monday to make the foul-mouthed pay fines for swearing in public. At a town meeting, residents voted 183-50 to approve a proposal from the police chief to impose a US$20 fine on public profanity. Officials insist the proposal was not intended to censor casual or private conversations, but instead to crack down on loud, profanity-laden language used by teens and other young people in the downtown area and public parks. “I’m really happy about it,” Mimi Duphily, a store owner and former town selectwoman, said after the vote.
UNITED STATES
Klan plans to clean road
White supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan wants to sponsor a stretch of US road to clean it up, creating a legal conundrum for local officials. Members of the organization applied to the “Adopt-A-Highway” program in the southern state of Georgia last month, which enlists the help of volunteers to remove trash from the sides of major roads. Groups who participate are provided with free garbage bags and safety vests. In addition, special signs recognizing their efforts are put up next to the strip of street they sponsor. “We just want to keep the road clean, we don’t promote violence,” said Harry Hanson, a local KKK member.
UNITED STATES
Violent crime goes down
Violent crime in the country has declined for a fifth year in a row, the FBI said on Monday as it released preliminary annual crime statistics for last year. In a statement, the federal law enforcement agency said the nation saw a 4 percent decrease in violent crimes, compared to 2010, as well as an 0.8 percent decline in property crimes. “In 2011, all four of the violent crime offense categories — murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault — declined nationwide when compared with data from 2010,” the FBI 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