MYANMAR
More prisoners pardoned
President Then Sein yesterday pardoned 69 more political prisoners, part of a promise to free all who remain behind bars by the end of the year. Most were members of ethnic minorities, said Ye Aung, who sits on the government’s political prisoner scrutiny committee, but the list also included two grandchildren of former dictator General Ne Win. Both have been on death row since 2002 for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against the then-military regime of senior General Than Shwe. Ye Aung said that at least 60 political prisoners remain in jail. Dozens of those released yesterday had been charged under Section 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law for staging protests without getting prior permission, he said.
SOUTH KOREA
Tourism chief resigns
Tourism chief Charm Lee yesterday announced his resignation amid allegations that he visited a lewd massage parlor in Japan last year. Lee dismissed the allegations as groundless, but said he found it impossible to carry on as CEO of the state Korea Tourism Organization in its aftermath. He said he wanted to restore his honor through a lawsuit. Lee made the announcement three days after a local TV station reported that he had visited a “soapland” massage parlor in Yoshiwara, a red-light district in Tokyo. Lee, whose German name is Bernhard Quandt, became a South Korean citizen in 1986.
AUSTRALIA
Playboy model extradited
Former Playboy model Brandi Brandt has been extradited from Los Angeles to Sydney to face cocaine conspiracy charges. The 45-year-old actress and Playmate of the Month for October 1987 appeared in a Sydney court after her arrival yesterday on a flight from the US. The former wife of Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx did not apply for bail or enter pleas. She was remanded in custody to appear in court in December. She is accused of being involved with a cocaine importation syndicate that hid packages of the drug on Qantas and United Airlines passenger planes that flew from California to Sydney.
AUSTRALIA
US surgeon acquitted
Prosecutors have dropped manslaughter charges against a US surgeon following a protracted legal wrangle. Prosecutor Peter Davis yesterday told the Brisbane District Court that criminal negligence charges against Indian-born US citizen Jayant Patel have been dropped in the interests of justice. However, Patel yesterday pleaded guilty to four fraud charges stemming from his medical registration and employment as chief surgeon at Bundaberg Base Hospital from 2003 to 2005. The 63-year-old will be sentenced on these charges next week. With credit for more than two years already served in prison, Patel could soon be sent home to the US without spending any more time in custody.
UNITED STATES
CIA collecting data on money
The Central Intelligence Agency is collecting records of international money transfers under the same law that the National Security Agency (NSA) uses to collect Americans’ phone and Internet records, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The data, which includes records from companies such as Western Union Co, is part of a database of financial and personal information authorized under the Patriot Act, the newspapers reported, citing unnamed current and former government officials. The scope of data collection by the government became public earlier this year after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents describing how the government collects far more Internet and telephone data than previously known.
UNITED STATES
Somalian men sentenced
The last of the Somalians convicted of killing four Americans aboard a yacht sailing off the Horn of Africa in 2011 have been sentenced in federal court to multiple life sentences, authorities said on Thursday. Prosecutors originally sought the death penalty, but the jury that found the men guilty in July of piracy, hijacking and murder recommended life sentences instead. The victims were retiree Scott Adam, 70, of Marina del Rey, California, with his wife, Jean Adam, and two friends, Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle of Seattle. They were sailing around the world distributing Bibles. The Somalians boarded the yacht on Feb. 18, 2011. In the District Court, Abukar Osman Beyle, 33, Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar, 31, and Ahmed Muse Salad, 27, were each given 21 life prison sentences, plus 30 years, this week, according to a statement from acting Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente.
UNITED STATES
Seized ivory crushed
Officials on Thursday destroyed more than 6 tonnes of confiscated ivory tusks, carvings and jewelry — the bulk of the US “blood ivory” stockpile — and urged other nations to follow suit to fight a US$10 billion global trade that slaughters tens of thousands of elephants each year. Thousands of ivory items accumulated over the past 25 years were piled into a large pyramid-shaped mound, then dumped into a steel rock crusher that pulverized it all into dust and tiny chips at the National Wildlife Property Repository just north of Denver. The items were seized from smugglers, traders and tourists at ports of entry after a global ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989.
UNITED STATES
Teacher to plead guilty
A former Los Angeles teacher charged with blindfolding students and spoon-feeding them cookies laced with his semen has agreed to plead no contest to all charges, an attorney for some of the victims said on Thursday. Mark Berndt planned to enter the legal equivalent of guilty pleas to 23 charges at a hearing yesterday, said John Manly, an attorney who represents 30 students and their parents. Berndt taught at the South Los Angeles school for more than 30 years. The allegations against him came to light when a drugstore photo technician noticed dozens of odd photos of blindfolded third-graders and reported them to authorities. Investigators said they discovered a plastic spoon in Berndt’s classroom trash bin. Tests found traces of semen on it. Dozens of lawsuits and claims were filed on behalf of victims. School district spokesman Sean Rossall said 63 cases have been settled for a total of US$29.5 million, and 71 are pending.
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