CHINA
Boy dies ‘on teacher’s order’
A 10-year-old boy jumped 30 stories to his death after failing to write a self-criticism letter demanded by his teacher, state media reported on Thursday. The boy had been ordered to write a 1,000-character apology by his teacher for talking in class, China National Radio (CNR) reported on its Web site, citing a neighbor. The educator allegedly told him to jump out of a building after he failed to complete the task, the report quoted relatives and the neighbor as saying. “Teacher, I can’t do it,” was found written in one of his textbooks, CNR said. “I flinched several times when I tried to jump from the building.” The child smashed into a parked car beneath the flat where his family live, the West China City News reported. His furious relatives posted a banner outside the school in Chengdu reading: “The teacher forced our kid to jump off the building,” pictures showed on Thursday. “The police investigation is still under way,” an official of Jinjiang District, where the incident happened, said, declining to comment further.
TURKEY
Lawmakers don headscarves
Four female lawmakers wearing headscarves walked into parliament in Ankara on Thursday, marking an end to the ban on the Muslim symbol in the chamber that was imposed in the early days of the Turkish Republic. The restrictions on headscarves in government buildings were loosened as part of reforms aimed at boosting democracy unveiled by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September. The ban remains in place for judges, prosecutors and military and security personnel. The four lawmakers — Sevde Beyazit Kacar, Gulay Samanci, Nurcan Dalbudak and Gonul Bekin Sahkulubey — are members of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, which has Islamist roots and has gained a strong following.
CANADA
Pumpkins contained cocaine
Authorities believe three pumpkins found in a woman’s luggage at the Trudeau International Airport in Montreal airport on Thursday were stuffed with approximately 2kg of cocaine. Scanning equipment had detected masses inside the pumpkins. Those masses turned out to be bags filled with the chalky substance. A border agency spokeswoman was not able to say where the passenger was coming from or whether she was a Canadian citizen.
IRAN
Sub for tourists launched
The country has launched its first submarine for tourists in the Persian Gulf waters, an all-Iranian-made undersea vehicle. State TV says the sub has been dubbed Morvarid, or “Pearl” in Farsi, and has the capacity to carry four people per voyage. It says the vessel is 4m long and 3m in both width and height. Yesterday’s report says the submarine will serve tourists in Kish Island, Iran’s prime tourist spot in the Gulf.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not