RUSSIA
Putin, Seagal promote sports
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday teamed up with US action movie actor Steven Seagal to promote a Soviet-style regime of rigorous physical training for Russian schoolchildren. Accompanied by the star of Under Siege and Above the Law, Putin toured a newly built complex at a prominent sambo martial arts training center in Moscow. Putin said too many Russian children were sickly, noting they should take up sports to be able to defend themselves — and the country. “We should not have any children who, as they say, sit on the bench during physical education classes. Everyone should practice sports, everyone without exception,” Putin said at the Sambo-70 sports complex. Sambo, a mixture of judo and wrestling, was the official in-house martial art of the KGB security services. “Children should become strong, they should be healthy, love sports and have an opportunity to practice them, should know how to defend themselves, their loved ones, their family,” Putin said. “Ultimately, they should be able to defend their motherland.”
UNITED STATES
Vets find pennies in pooch
A New York City dog has undergone emergency surgery to remove more than 100 pennies from his stomach. The New York Daily News reports that the Jack Russell terrier named Jack swallowed 111 pennies last week and quickly became ill. The zinc from the coins could be lethal.
SWEDEN
Sex diploma shocks parents
A “shagging diploma” given to youths at a Swedish Lutheran Church confirmation camp proved too much for parents who complained on Wednesday that their 14-year-olds were too young for sex. After attending a course entitled “Love and Sexuality,” the teenagers in the southeastern town of Ronneby were given a certificate stating they were “qualified for sex.” Vicar Mats-Ola Nylen said the course had been organized by a man purporting to come from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, but the church later found out he had not worked for the organization in years.
UNITED STATES
Soldier to have sanity review
A soldier charged with slaying 16 civilians in Afghanistan will undergo a sanity review set to begin next week to determine his mental state during the killings and his ability to stand trial, a military official said on Wednesday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, and his defense attorneys have indicated they are preparing a possible mental health defense. The decorated veteran is accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in cold blood during two rampages in Kandahar Province in March last year.
UNITED STATES
Mom, baby fall 8 stories
A woman clutching her baby son in her arms plunged eight stories out of an apartment window to her death in an apparent suicide on Wednesday, but the baby survived, police said. Cynthia Wachenheim was found on the street in West Harlem, New York, with her son, 10-month-old Keston, near her arms. A police officer who responded took the baby to a hospital, where he was listed in critical, but stable condition. Police discovered a suicide note in the apartment Wachenheim shared with her husband. In the note, Wachenheim said she recognized what she was about to do was “evil,” but she was concerned about how her child was developing, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case.
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