JAPAN
Rape suspect caught on TV
A massive manhunt that saw thousands of police flood the streets ended on live television yesterday with the capture of an escaped rape suspect. Footage shot from a helicopter showed dozens of officers surrounding a man believed to be Yuta Sugimoto, 20, who slipped away from a prosecutor’s office on Tuesday during a break in questioning over the gang rape and robbery of a woman in Kawasaki on Jan. 2. Public broadcaster NHK aired an unusually long live broadcast of the capture, which showed a man being led along by dozens of officers and pushed into a police car in the nearby city of Yokohama.
INDONESIA
Lion found hanging in zoo
A young African lion has died after getting its head caught in cables in its cage at Surabaya Zoo, it was announced yesterday. The 18-month-old lion, named Michael, was found early on Tuesday at the zoo in the east of Java, zoo spokesman Agus Supangkat said. “The lion was found hanging from the roof of his cage. He was very young and got his head stuck in cables that keepers use to open and close the cage,” Supangkat told reporters. Supangkat insisted that the death was an accident and not due to negligence. Police were investigating, he added.
CHINA
Zhang fined for ‘illegal’ kids
The government yesterday fined acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) 7.5 million yuan (US$1.24 million) for having three children, in violation of the nation’s strict one-child policy. The family planning agency in Wuxi, where Zhang’s wife, Chen Ting (陳婷), is from, told Zhang last month he would be fined, but did not say how much. Online reports surfaced last year that Zhang had at least seven children and could face a 160 million yuan fine, Xinhua news agency said. In a statement posted on the microblog account of the Binhu District Government in Wuxi, the family planning authorities said they would give Zhang 30 days to pay up. They said their calculation of the fine was based on the combined income of Zhang and Chen, which totaled 3.6 million yuan over the three years in which his children were born.
CHINA
Officials fired over stampede
Four officials have been dismissed over a stampede at the Beida mosque in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region that left 14 people dead, official media said yesterday. Sunday’s incident was blamed on poor control of the crowd of Muslims who had flocked to the mosque for special flatbread being distributed to commemorate a revered local religious figure. The mosque’s administrator has already been detained on suspicion of criminal negligence. Those sacked include Xiji County’s head, director of religious affairs, deputy police chief and a township head, Xinhua news agency said.
JAPAN
Toxic food probe widens
A probe into pesticide-laced frozen food has widened, as the number of people who have fallen sick reportedly topped 1,400, reports said yesterday. Minister for Consumer Affairs Masako Mori has condemned the manufacturer of the tainted items, Aqlifoods, saying it was slow to bring the matter to public attention. The company received the first complaints on Nov. 13 last year, but did not announce a recall until Dec. 29, after tests found traces of a chemical called malathion, which is used as a pesticide and to treat head lice. Investigators suspect the toxin might have been added deliberately during production, according to local press.
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