JAPAN
Russia threatens travel ban
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it will ban visa-free travel for the country’s officials to the disputed Kuril islands if it continues to make statements assuming ownership of the islands. The two countries have been involved in a decades-old dispute over islands north of Hokkaido, known as Kuril in Russia and referred to as the Northern Territories in Japan. “If for some reason Japanese politicians cannot refrain from making public statements on the subject of the islands after a visit to Russian territory, we reserve the right to limit their participation in such trips,” the ministry said in a statement.
CAMBODIA
Murder ‘scapegoats’ freed
Two men wrongly convicted for the 2004 murder of a prominent opposition activist walked free yesterday, one day after the country’s Supreme Court ordered their release. The court’s decision to drop all charges came amid renewed calls to free the men, whom leading international rights groups have called “scapegoats” in the murder of Chea Vichea and one of many examples of the country’s corrupt judicial system. Chea Vichea was the leader of the largest labor union, the Free Trade Union of Workers, and an outspoken critic of government corruption and human rights abuses. He was gunned down in broad daylight on Jan. 22, 2004. Within a week, two men — Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun — were arrested. The investigation that followed the pair’s arrest nearly a decade ago sparked local and international outcry, as did the trial. None of the prosecution witnesses appeared, providing only written testimonies that could not be challenged in court. Several of those present for the defense were rejected. In 2005, the men were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
NEPAL
Copter crashes near Everest
A helicopter crashed while attempting to land near Mount Everest yesterday, injuring all four people on board, Nepalese police said. The helicopter belonging to local Dynasty Airlines was attempting to land at Lukla airport when it got caught in a wire fence, police official Badri Bikram Thapa said. The helicopter crashed and caught fire, but the four on board — all Nepalese nationals — managed to escape. One of them was critically injured and has been flown by rescue helicopter to Kathmandu for treatment. The tiny airstrip at Lukla carved out of the side of the mountain and located at an altitude of 2,843m, has earned a reputation as one of the most extreme and dangerous airports in the world.
JAPAN
Blow-up concert hall to open
A giant purple structure believed to be the world’s first inflatable concert hall is to open on the country’s disaster-hit northeastern coast, promoters said on Wednesday. British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created the unusual Ark Nova, a balloon made of a coated polyester material that has been erected at a park in the town of Matsushima. The structure, which organizers say is a world’s first, measures about 18m high and 35m wide when fully inflated, with room for about 500 guests. It can be easily deflated and travel around the region to host events that “help bring people together,” a press statement said. Wood from the area’s damaged cedar trees will be used for seating. The first event will run from Friday through Oct. 14, including performances by the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and traditional kabuki theater.
UNITED STATES
FBI releases shooter video
The FBI released surveillance video and photos of Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis on Wednesday and said he believed electromagnetic waves had been controlling him for months before the rampage that killed 12 people. There are no signs that Alexis, 34, was targeting anybody in the Sept. 16 shooting at the Navy Yard in southeast Washington, said Valerie Parlave, the FBI assistant director in charge of the Washington field office. “We have found relevant communications on his electronic media, which referenced the delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves for the past three months,” Parlave told a press conference.
UNITED STATES
Bush a witness at wedding
A spokesman said former president George H.W. Bush was an official witness at the same-sex wedding of two longtime friends in Maine. Jim McGrath said Bush and his wife, Barbara, attended the ceremony on Saturday joining Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen. He said they were there as private citizens and friends. A photo posted on Sunday on Thorgalsen’s Facebook page shows Bush signing the marriage license as a witness. She captioned the photo: “Getting our marriage license witnessed.” The 41st president has deep ties to the area and owns a compound in Kennebunkport. Thorgalsen and Clement own a general store in neighboring Kennebunk.
GREECE
Tax office rocked by blast
A bomb exploded early yesterday outside a tax office in northern Athens, causing material damage, but no injuries, police said. The explosion in Kifissia district was preceded by telephone warnings placed by an anonymous caller to a news Web site, a daily newspaper and police said. According to the Web site Zougla.gr, which received one of the calls, the explosive was placed in a bag outside the building. Such attacks are often blamed on the local extremist or anarchist movement.
UNITED STATES
Pigs terrorize neighborhood
Wild pigs have descended on a suburban Atlanta neighborhood where they are scaring children, making a general nuisance of themselves and acting as they if they own the place. One large specimen was sighted on Monday morning rummaging through garbage it had strewn across Taneisha Danner’s front yard in Lithonia, east of downtown Atlanta. It then trotted into the backyard, taking a nap, before returning with three other pigs from a patch of nearby woods, Danner said on Tuesday. “This is their home,” Danner joked. “We’re just visiting.” However, she said the animals are no laughing matter for neighborhood children, noting that some are now afraid to leave the safety of their homes.
UNITED STATES
Feces protects termite nests
Scientists trying to understand why destructive wood-eating termites are so resistant to efforts to exterminate them have come up with an unusually repugnant explanation. Termites’ practice of building nests out of their own feces creates a scatological force field that Florida scientists now believe is the reason biological controls have failed to stop their pestilential march all over the world. A nine-year study concluded that termite feces act as a natural antibiotic, growing good bacteria in the subterranean nests that attack otherwise deadly pathogens, according to the findings published this month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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
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