SRI LANKA
Thai PM on state visit
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra arrived in Colombo yesterday for a two-day official visit aimed at strengthening bilateral relations. A government statement says Yingluck will meet with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for bilateral discussions and will also address parliament. During her visit, four bilateral agreements on tourism, science and technology are expected to be signed.
THAILAND
Jewel thief recaptured
A German jewel thief who managed to flee his Australian guards while transiting through Bangkok was arrested in the capital on Thursday after two weeks on the run, police said. Carlo Konstantin Kohl, 25, was being extradited to Germany via Thailand when bad weather forced an extended stopover at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport and his two Australian guards took him to a transit lounge. During the overnight layover Kohl — convicted in Australia of stealing opals and drug trafficking, and wanted for skipping parole in Germany — managed to give his escorts the slip and escape. He was arrested near the German embassy in Bangkok, according to an immigration police official who did not want to be named. A Thai court on Thursday handed Kohl a two-year suspended jail term for illegal entry and a 6,000 baht (US$200) fine. He is expected to be handed over to German authorities next week. Australian immigration chiefs have denied Thai media reports that the two guards, from a private firm that runs Australia’s immigration security, were asleep when he got away.
JAPAN
Mayor escapes censure
The mayor of the nation’s second-largest city survived a censure motion on Thursday over his comments about Japan’s wartime sex slavery, remarks that sparked an international uproar. The Osaka City Assembly voted down the motion, which said Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s comments earlier this month about so-called “comfort women” created confusion and tarnished the city’s image. Hashimoto said he would stay on as mayor. He said he took the motion seriously, but had no intention to retract his remarks or apologize over them. “I believe what I’m saying is right,” Hashimoto said, referring to his comments about the wartime practice that forced many Asian women into prostitution for Japanese soldiers. The outspoken mayor sparked controversy after he said on May 13 that the use of “comfort women” before and during World War II was necessary for military discipline and providing rest for troops. He sought later to clarify his comments, saying he meant that military authorities during that time must have deemed the practice necessary.
UNITED STATES
Complaint leads to charges
A woman has been charged with prostitution in Connecticut after calling police to complain about how she was being treated by a pimp. Police say they did not find the pimp when they arrived at a Super 8 Motel in West Haven on Sunday, but they did find 35-year-old Jennifer Lowery with a man they describe as a customer. Police charged Lowery with prostitution and 60-year-old Richard Burford of New Haven with patronizing a prostitute. Police said Lowery told them she thought it would take police longer to show up, so she decided to conduct some business while waiting.
UNITED STATES
Boy spells his way to glory
The US-born son of immigrants from India overcame his dread of German-derived words on Thursday to win the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee. Confetti rained on a suddenly speechless Arvind Mahankali, 13, from New York City, after he correctly spelled knaidel, a type of dumpling perhaps better known as a matzah ball. He becomes the sixth youth of south Asian heritage to win the coveted title in the past six years, and also the first male champion since 2008. Mahankali, the eldest son of an IT consultant father and a physician mother, had placed ninth in 2010, then third in 2011 and last year. More often than not, it was obscure English words of Germanic origin that denied him victory. Earlier in the evening, Mahankali aced such words as tokonoma (an alcove in a Japanese living room), kaumographer (someone who prints a design onto cloth with a hot iron), and galere (a group of people who have something in common).
VENEZUELA
Police clean up after tip-off
It had all the makings of a routine bust: an anonymous tip-off to the cops, a raid on a hideout, a triumphant Ministry of the Interior tweet. The loot? Roll after roll of toilet paper. The government said police had found 2,450 bales of toilet paper in working-class neighborhood Antimano, west of Caracas, thanks to an anonymous phone call to a police tip-off line. The paper was stored “in a clandestine warehouse,” Venezuelan Minister of the Interior Miguel Rodriguez Torres said on Twitter. Also seized were 7,000 liters of fruit juice and 400 packages of diapers. Venezuela may be oil-rich, but its economy is struggling. Toilet rolls are one of the five most sought-after basics that are in severe shortage, the others being toothpaste, toilet soap, diapers and feminine hygiene napkins.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man jailed over murder
A former slaughterhouse worker has been jailed for life for abducting and murdering a five-year-old girl whose body was never found, despite a massive police search. April Jones was last seen getting into a van in the town of Machynlleth, Wales, in October last year. Mark Bridger was arrested the next day. He was convicted on Thursday of abduction, murder and unlawfully disposing of the girl’s body. Traces of the girl’s blood and bone fragments were found in Bridger’s cottage. Hundreds of volunteers combed woods and fields for April after her disappearance. The former slaughterhouse worker claimed he accidentally ran her over with his Land Rover and then could not remember what he had done with the body. However, a jury on Thursday convicted him of abducting and murdering April and of unlawfully disposing of and concealing her body with intent to pervert the course of justice.
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
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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