JAPAN
Oldest woman dies
An official said a woman in his town near Tokyo who became world’s oldest living female just last month has died at 115. Koto Okubo died on Saturday at a nursing home in Kawasaki City, city official Mitsuhiro Kozuka said. He said her relatives declined to release the cause of her death and family details. Born Dec. 24, 1897, Okubo held her title for less than a month following the death of Dina Manfredini of the US.
JAPAN
Drunk US sailor arrested
Police have arrested a US sailor for alleged trespassing near Tokyo during a nighttime curfew imposed after recent crimes linked to US servicemen. Kanagawa police said Richard Lawton, 24, is suspected of having entered a home near his base in Yokosuka early yesterday. Lawton, a petty officer 2nd class, was reportedly drunk when arrested after a resident called the police. Since an alleged rape of a woman in Okinawa by two sailors in October last year, an 11pm to 5am curfew has been in place for all US servicemen in the country, banning off-base alcohol purchase or consumption. Several US servicemen have been arrested since, raising questions over the effectiveness of the curfew.
BANGLADESH
Muslims seek blessings
Millions of Muslim devotees have raised their hands to seek divine blessings, world peace and revival of Islamic values at one of the world’s largest Islamic gatherings near the country’s capital.
The first phase of the three-day World Congregation of Muslims, or Biswa Ijtema, ended yesterday through a final prayer on the banks of the River Turag at Tongi, police official Faruk Hossain said. The gathering aims to revive the tenets of Islam and promote peace through prayer.
EGYPT
Mubarak to face new trial
The Court of Cassation yesterday accepted an appeal against the life sentence handed down to former president Hosni Mubarak for his involvement in the deaths of protesters in 2011 and ordered a retrial. Mubarak, his two sons Alaa and Gamal, his former interior minister and top security chiefs will now face a new trial, the court said after a very brief hearing. The ruling was met with cries of “Long live justice!” by Mubarak supporters who held up the former strongman’s picture and hugged each other in the courtroom, with dozens more outside shouting “We love you, president!” However, Mubarak, his sons and former interior minister Habib al-Adly will remain in jail as they still face separate cases.
ITALY
Boy drives car across Europe
A 13-year-old boy ran away from his adoptive parents in Italy, taking his father’s Mercedes and driving 1,000km toward his native Poland before being stopped in Germany. The boy — a go-kart enthusiast — managed to pass motorway toll booths and cross two international borders in his two-day drive across northern Italy, Austria and half of Germany. “He looks like a 16-year-old, but still! He managed to fuel up and pass two borders. It’s just incredible,” Eleonora Spadati, head of Carabinieri police in Montebelluna where the boy took flight from, said on Saturday. Spadati said the boy missed Poland and wanted to see his biological sister. Just before leaving on Thursday with just 200 euros (about US$270) in his pocket and a passport, he had also argued with his parents after they confiscated his mobile phone as a punishment for topping up its credit without their consent.
GERMANY
Kinski accuses father
Actress Nastassja Kinski yesterday accused her father, late film icon Klaus, of attempting to abuse her, following allegations by her half-sister Pola that he raped her throughout her childhood. Nastassja Kinski, 51, who achieved Hollywood fame with films such as Cat People and Tess, told the Bild am Sonntag weekly that her father did not actually rape her, but that “he tried to.” “He always touched me far too much, held me so tightly against him that I thought I could not escape. At the time I was four or five years old and we were living in Munich,” Kinski said. “Instinctively I recognized that this could not be the loving embrace of a father, but that it was more than that.” The accusations against Klaus Kinski came after Pola Kinski’s allegations that he began abusing her at the age of five and raped her for the first time when she was nine. The assaults continued until she was 19, she alleged in an interview with Stern magazine.
MEXICO
Civilians take up arms
Several hundred civilians have taken up arms in two towns in a southwestern state and are arresting people suspected of crimes and imposing a curfew, leading authorities to promise to reinforce security forces in the area. People wearing ski masks or bandanas and carrying small arms last week began manning checkpoints on roads into the municipalities of Ayutla de los Libres and Teconoapa in the state of Guerrero’s Costa Chica area, about 120km southeast of the Pacific resort of Acapulco. People in the area said about 800 residents were participating in the armed groups acting as unofficial police. The vigilantes ordered a 10pm curfew for the two towns and are looking for suspected criminals.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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