JAPAN
US spy plane to be deployed
The US military is set to deploy an unmanned spy plane to boost surveillance capabilities as North Korea apparently readied for missile launches, a newspaper report said yesterday. The Global Hawk will be stationed at the US airbase in Misawa in the first ever deployment of the aircraft in the country, the Sankei Shimbun reported, quoting government sources. The US military informed the government last month about plans to deploy the plane between June and September, but may bring the date forward, it said, following reports about North Korea’s preparations for missile launches. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing a top South Korean government official, said North Korea had loaded two mid-range Musudan missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities near its east coast.
JAPAN
Possible radioactive leak
Radioactive water may have leaked into the ground from a tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the operator said yesterday, the latest in a series of troubles at the crippled facility. Up to 120 tonnes of contaminated water may have escaped from one of the seven underground reservoir tanks at the tsunami-damaged plant, according to a Tokyo Electric Power Co spokesman. The tank stores water used to cool down the reactors after radioactive caesium is removed, but other radioactive substances remain. The leakage came after one of the systems keeping spent atomic fuel cool at the plant temporarily failed on Friday, the second outage in a matter of weeks, underlining the precarious fix at the plant.
MYANMAR
Carter warns on violence
Former US president Jimmy Carter warned on Friday that deadly religious violence was undermining the country’s hard-won democratic reforms. At least 43 people were killed in Buddhist-Muslim unrest last month, marring international optimism about the nation’s emergence from decades of military rule. “I’m deeply concerned about the recent religious violence,” Carter, 88, said in a speech in the former capital, Yangon, during a visit for talks with the reformist regime and fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. “The recent violence risks damaging the reputation that you have gained in your country just as you’re trying to rebuild it once again,” he added. “No people should ever be treated as inferior by the government or by other citizens,” he said, voicing concern for the plight of tens of thousands of displaced people in western Rakhine state.
HONG KONG
Ferry collision injures 31
Thirty-one people were injured in a collision between a passenger ferry and another vessel late on Friday, police said, in the latest accident to hit the city’s frenetic waters. “The ferry crashed with another ship. Right now the injured people have been transported to the dock,” a police spokeswoman said, adding that 11 of the injured had been admitted to hospital. Thirty-eight people were killed and scores injured when a ferry collided with a pleasure boat in October last year, the region’s worst maritime disaster in 40 years, which raised questions about safety in one of the world’s busiest harbors. Researchers say that while it remains one of the world’s safest ports, increased vessel traffic and risks associated with land reclamation works along the harbor front call for urgent government attention.
UNITED STATES
Target sorry for ‘big’ gaffe
Retailer Target apologized on Friday after a labeling gaffe that saw the color of a plus-size dress named after manatees, the blubbery denizens of the deep found off of Florida’s coast. While the scale of the outrage caused by the blunder was not clear, Target was clearly not taking any chances by swiftly updating the color label for its “Manatee gray” kimono maxi dress. Target moved to address the issue after a sharp-eyed online customer said that the standard-size dress in the same style and color was described as “dark heather gray.” “It is never Target’s intention to offend our guests and we apologize for this unintentional oversight. We updated the color label to ‘gray’ and the dress is only available on Target.com,” a Target spokeswoman said.
UNITED STATES
Museum worker hid tortoise
A museum says an employee hid an African leopard tortoise named Cashew in an elevator after finding the 8kg reptile, presumed stolen, trapped behind the paneling in her enclosure. The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa, said the employee’s bizarre move was a misguided attempt to prevent further embarrassment after officials announced on Tuesday that they believed Cashew had been taken as a prank. Cashew was discovered in the elevator on Thursday and officials said they supposed the regretful thief had smuggled her back inside. Museum president and CEO Jerry Enzler on Friday said that an employee found Cashew some time earlier wedged behind a wall panel. The employee then put her in the elevator to keep up the impression she had been stolen. Enzler said the employee will be reprimanded
UNITED STATES
Berry expecting second child
Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry is expecting her second child at the age of 46 with French actor fiance Olivier Martinez, her spokeswoman said on Friday. Celebrity news Web site TMZ reported that she is three months pregnant and that Berry knew it was a boy. “I can confirm that Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez are expecting a child,” spokswoman Meredith O’Sullivan told reporters, but added: “We will not be commenting on or confirming any additional details.” Martinez, 47, confirmed the couple’s wedding plans in March last year. The couple met each other in 2010 on the set of the film Dark Tide. Berry has been married twice before and has a five-year-old daughter, Nahla, with Canadian model Gabriel Aubry.
UNITED STATES
Lil Poopy’s father cleared
Child welfare officials concluded that there is no evidence of abuse and neglect in the case of a nine-year-old rapper in Massachusetts who drew condemnation for appearing in sexually suggestive videos. Brockton Police in February asked state child welfare officials to look into possible abuse after watching videos featuring Louie Rivera Jr, who goes by the stage name Lil Poopy, following a feature story about him in a local newspaper. The videos showed the boy cavorting with scantily clad grown women in nightclubs and singing about drugs and a luxurious lifestyle. A state Department of Children and Families spokeswoman said a thorough investigation into the fourth-grader’s father, Luis Rivera, has been closed after finding no evidence to support abuse or neglect allegations. The family’s lawyer said the finding was a “complete vindication.” The publicity has done wonders for the boy’s career, attorney Joseph Krowski said, with multiple offers to appear on television.
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
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