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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number