JAPAN
Papers see opposition win
Major local newspapers are projecting that the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will win a majority of seats in elections on Sunday next week. The projections by the Asahi and Yomiuri newspapers published yesterday were based on telephone polls and their own reporting, analysis and prediction methods. A survey by Asahi estimated that the LDP, which ruled the nation for most of the post-World War II era, could win 257 to 285 seats in the 480-seat lower house, while the ruling Democratic Party of Japan could capture about 80 seats. However, Asahi said about 40 to 50 percent of voters were undecided, meaning the actual results could be quite different.
JAPAN
Beer is good for you: study
Consuming large quantities of a key ingredient in beer can protect against winter sniffles and even some serious illnesses in small children, Sapporo Breweries said, citing a scientific study. A chemical compound in hops, the plant brewers use to give beer its bitter taste, provides an effective guard against a virus that can cause severe forms of pneumonia and bronchitis in youngsters, Sapporo Breweries said on Wednesday. In research with scientists at Sapporo Medical University, the compound — humulone — was found to be effective in curbing the respiratory syncytial virus, the firm said.However, beer contains such small quantities of humulone that one would have to drink about 30 350ml cans for it to have any virus-fighting effect, said Jun Fuchimoto, a researcher at the company.
THAILAND
Schools shut after attacks
Teachers in the restive southern region yesterday suspended lessons at hundreds of schools after gun attacks on two educators this week, in the second recent class stoppage in the region over security fears. The local teaching association in Narathiwat, one of three insurgency-plagued provinces, said it had called for all state schools in the area to close for two days after a teacher was shot dead on Monday. “We demand effective security measures for teachers. State agencies should take responsibility for this incident,” chairman Sanguan Intarak said, adding the group would reassess the situation before schools reopen early next week.
UNITED STATES
Jazz legend Brubeck dies
Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, whose choice of novel rhythms, classical structures and brilliant sidemen made him a towering figure in modern jazz, has died at the age of 91, his longtime manager and producer Russell Gloyd said on Wednesday. Brubeck died of heart failure on his way to a regular medical exam at a hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut, Gloyd said. His Dave Brubeck Quartet put out one of the biggest-selling jazz songs of all time: Take Five. Like many of the group’s works, it had an unusual beat — 5/4 time as opposed to the usual 4/4. “We play it differently every time we play it,” Brubeck told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2005. “So I never get tired of playing it. That’s the beauty of jazz.”
CHINA
Beijing to allow free transit
China will allow transit passengers from 45 countries and areas, including the US, Canada and the EU, to spend up to 72 hours in Beijing without a visa starting on Jan. 1, authorities said. The policy only applies to travelers in transit to a third country, and not for return flights to the capital. Travelers would “face punishment” if they left the capital and lawbreakers would be banned for life, a city official said.
ISRAEL
Thieves steal plane engines
Thieves have made off with several US-made engines for F-16 warplanes worth millions of dollars from an airbase in central Israel, army radio reported yesterday. Walla Internet site said preliminary findings after an investigation by military police indicated there may have been collusion between the thieves and personnel at the base. It said the military police suspect the engines may have been stolen to be sold as scrap metal. It is not known when the thefts took place. Army radio said a military spokesman had refused any comment on the incident, except to say that an official report on the inquiry would be sent to the military prosecutor. Last year, the military police launched an investigation after parts for F-15 and F-16 warplanes from the Tel Nof airbase near Tel Aviv were discovered when police searched a warehouse used by scrap metal merchants.
UNITED STATES
Arrest made in subway case
A New York man was charged with murder and denied bail on Wednesday for pushing a subway rider onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train in a tragedy that has traumatized witnesses and raised questions about why nobody rushed to the victim’s aid. Naeem Davis, 30, was charged with one count of second degree murder and one count of second-degree murder with depraved indifference, New York City police said. Monday’s incident — captured in dramatic photographs with the train bearing down on the hapless victim — has struck a nerve among riders of the subway used by over 5 million riders a day who are often jostled by strangers on crowded platforms. Davis was accused of pushing Ki-suck Han, 58, onto the tracks as a southbound train pulled into the 49th Street station.
AUSTRALIA
PM warns of doomsday
Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday weighed in on the debate about whether the world will end on Dec. 21 under the Mayan calendar in a spoof video about Korean pop and flesh-eating zombies. In a video address recorded for the youth radio station Triple J, a sombre-looking Gillard says the pending apocalypse is at hand despite there being no proof. “My dear remaining fellow Australians, the end of the world is coming,” she says, tongue in cheek. “Whether the final blow comes from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell-beasts or from the total triumph of K-pop, if you know one thing about me it is this — I will always fight for you to the very end.” The prime minister said there is a bright side to Armageddon, which she said had not come as a result of the much-hyped Y2K millennium computer bug in the year 2000 or due to the country’s corporate pollution tax. Dec. 21 represents the end of a cycle in the Mayan long count calendar that began in the year 3114 BC.
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC broadcaster charged
An 82-year-old BBC broadcaster has been charged with three counts of indecent assault over alleged incidents in the 1970s and 1980s, British police said on Wednesday. Stuart Hall, a well-known sports broadcaster and game show presenter, was detained at his home in the northwest England city of Cheshire by police on suspicion of “historic” cases of rape and indecent assault. He was later charged with the indecent assaults of three girls. Police said the girls were between the ages of 9 and 16 when the incidents allegedly occurred between the years 1974 and 1984.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
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