JAPAN
City looking to sell itself
A debt-ridden city is offering to rename itself after the highest bidder, an official said yesterday. Izumisano in Osaka Prefecture owes its creditors well over ¥100 billion (US$1.25 billion), the official said, adding the presence of Kansai International Airport was partly to blame. “The city spent a lot of money building roads and other infrastructure because the airport was built in this relatively remote place,” he said. “The mayor believes the city government needs to seek new ways to make profit.” Suitors will also need to sign a 10-year contract affirming a connection with the city, for example by moving their headquarters there. Officials originally announced the plan in June, but had no takers, the official said, adding so far the bulk of inquiries had been from city residents annoyed about the plan.
JAPAN
Woman crushed by elevator
A hotel cleaner was crushed to death in front of a colleague when she stepped into a moving elevator, police said yesterday. The 63-year-old woman was trapped between the floor of the elevator and the ceiling of the building. “The doors opened and she went to get in, but the cage was still moving up,” a police official in Kanazawa said. “She stumbled over the rising lift floor and fell.” The lift’s manufacturer, Switzerland-based Schindler, said in a statement it was cooperating with a police probe into the incident.
SOUTH KOREA
President’s brother quizzed
The brother of President Lee Myung-bak appeared before a special prosecutor yesterday over alleged irregularities in a project to build the president’s retirement home. Lee Sang-eun, 79, was called to testify about a 600 million won (US$542,000) loan he gave to his nephew and the president’s only son, Lee Si-hyung. “I’ll explain everything in there,” Lee, the eldest of the president’s two brothers, told reporters before entering the prosecutor’s office in southern Seoul. The case centers around the joint purchase last year by the president’s son and the presidential security service of a plot of land on the southern edge of the capital for a now-scrapped retirement home project.
MYANMAR
Government points finger
The government says it has evidence that some individuals and organizations instigated recent deadly violence in the western state of Rakhine, but did not name them. State television broadcast an announcement on Wednesday night from the office of President Thein Sein saying the suspects include a group or groups that previously signed a ceasefire agreement with the government. The announcement said 89 people were killed, 136 were injured, and 32,231 were made homeless when more than 5,000 houses were burned down in violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims between Oct. 21 and Oct. 30. It did not report any new clashes.
NEPAL
Bounty offered for leopard
The government yesterday offered a bounty for anyone who could hunt down a leopard that has killed more than a dozen people in the past year in the remote west. The 25,000 rupee (US$300) prize will go to anyone who can bring in the animal dead or alive, after more than 100 police and soldiers failed to capture it. “In the beginning, we wanted to capture it alive. But the security personnel who returned from the search said that thousands of villagers have been terrorized,” said Hariraj Bista, a local government official.
UNITED KINGDOM
US-held man’s bid rejected
Britain’s top court on Wednesday rejected a legal bid by a Pakistani man in US custody in Afghanistan to force the British government to do more to seek his release. Yunus Rahmatullah, 30, was captured in Iraq in 2004 by British forces which then handed him to US authorities. He was later transferred to Afghanistan’s Bagram jail where he has been held without charge ever since. The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it had dismissed appeals by Rahmatullah and by legal charity Reprieve on the grounds that the British government was unable to force his return from US custody.
It said “the response by the US was sufficient to demonstrate that the UK could not secure his release.”
CANADA
Parliament bans masks
The parliament passed a ban on Wednesday on masks at riots that punishes violations with up to 10 years behind bars in a bid to crack down on radical groups. The measure, adopted 153 to 126, aims to target the “growing threat” of vandalism and violence, said MP Blake Richards, who sponsored the bill. The bill sets 10 years in prison for people who wear a mask during a riot without legitimate excuses, and five years if it is an illegal protest.
Opposition members said the law was not necessary because the criminal code already sets punitive measures.
Mexico
Fence-climbing Jeep found
Suspected smugglers tried to use ramps to drive an SUV over a 4.25m fence along the US-Mexico border, but they abandoned the effort when it got stuck on top. US Border Patrol spokesman Spencer Tippets says agents spotted the SUV perched atop the fence early on Tuesday near the border between Arizona and California. Two people on the Mexican side were trying to free the Jeep when the agents approached. They ran further into Mexico. The Jeep was empty, but agents say it was probably filled with contraband like marijuana before it got stuck. The smugglers had built ramps that looked like long ladders to drive up and over the fence.
UNITED STATES
Poker player wins US$8.5m
A professional US player, Greg Merson, became World Series of Poker champion Wednesday after a marathon 13-hour final session, organizers said. The 24-year-old took home US$8,531,853 and the series’ gold bracelet following an all-night game in Las Vegas involving 400 hands, against fellow finalists Jesse Sylvia and Jake Balsiger. Merson said he plans to travel to Chinese gambling capital Macau to play in high-stakes cash games, instead of traveling the circuit to compete in grueling tournaments.
SWITZERLAND
Prostitution ring dismantled
Police said on Wednesday they had dismantled a network that imported Thai women and men and forced them to work as prostitutes in several Swiss cities. The main suspect, a 42-year-old Thai woman with a Swiss residence permit, was arrested during the second half of last year in Germany and had been extradited to Switzerland, Bern police said. Most of the victims came from poverty in Thailand and had known they would be working as prostitutes in Switzerland, police said, but because of the massive fees the network charged to get them to the country and for being allowed to work in its brothels they basically became sex slaves.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the