GUATEMALA
Judge kills self: reports
Supreme Court Justice Cesar Barrientos, known for revoking dozens of death penalty sentences in a single year, reportedly committed suicide on Sunday by shooting himself in the head. Relatives said the incident occurred as Barrientos rode in the back of his car with two bodyguards, in the southwestern town of San Francisco Zapotitlan, media reports said. In 2012, the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber, led by Barrientos, revoked 53 death sentences on the ground that they violated prisoners’ “due process” and replaced them with 50-year prison terms, the maximum allowed in the country. Police and prosecutors are probing his death.
SYRIA
Spanish journalist freed
A Spanish journalist kidnapped by militants crossed the border into Turkey on Sunday, his newspaper, El Periodico, reported. The news of the Marc Marginedas’ freedom came as his captors, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fled areas near the Turkish border, leaving behind at least two mass graves, with one reportedly containing 17 bodies, activists said. Marginedas was abducted on Sept. 4 near the city of Hama by the fighters. He was “moved repeatedly” while in captivity and his captors accused him of being a spy before his release, the report said. The newspaper did not elaborate on how the reporter was released. It said he was undergoing medical tests in Turkey.
VENEZUELA
Activists continue marches
Thousands of antigovernment activists marched peacefully on Sunday to an upper-class Caracas district shaken by more than two weeks of unrest, trying to maintain the movement’s momentum during a long holiday break. Afterward, several hundred protesters erected barricades, burned tires and threw rocks and fireworks at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas in what has become an almost nightly ritual of clashes. Two people were wounded by shotguns, district Mayor Ramon Muchacho tweeted.
FRANCE
Filmmaker Resnais dies
Alain Resnais, the filmmaker whose cryptic Last Year at Marienbad extended its influence across generations, has died at 91. Resnais was editing drafts of his next project even from his hospital bed, said producer Jean-Louis Livi, who was working on the film with him. Resnais, who died on Saturday, was renowned for reinventing himself during each of his full-length films, which included the acclaimed Hiroshima Mon Amour in 1959 and most recently Life of Riley, which was honored at the Berlin Film Festival just weeks ago.
UNITED STATES
Iditarod launches in Alaska
Nearly 70 competitors from around the world set off from a frozen lake in Willow, 80km north of Anchorage, on Sunday to challenge reigning Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey at the true start of Alaska’s famed and grueling sled-dog race. The 1,569km Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race symbolically began a day earlier when 69 mushers and their canine teams made a ceremonial jaunt through Anchorage. The race commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that carried diphtheria serum by sled-dog relay to the coastal community of Nome, which remains the final destination in the 42nd edition of the event. The mushers will travel in stages of between 29km and 137km as they guide teams of dogs from Willow northwest through 21 other villages on the road to Nome.
CHINA
Zhou’s brother detained
A brother of former security chief Zhou Yongkang (周永康) has been detained by investigators, the Beijing News reported yesterday, after a government spokesman declined to deny the retired political heavyweight was under investigation. Zhou Yuanqing (周元青) and his businesswoman wife, Zhou Lingying (周玲英) were taken away from their home in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, on Dec. 1 last year by “discipline investigators from Beijing,” the Beijing News said. The wife was a major investor in a multimillion-dollar Audi dealership and her success “had a lot to do” with Zhou Yongkang’s son, Zhou Bin (周濱), the newspaper added.
AUSTRALIA
Whalers attack ships: group
Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd yesterday said that Japanese whalers attacked its vessels in the Southern Ocean, and accused the government of “broken promises” to monitor whaling operations. Sea Shepherd said Japanese harpoon ships, the Yushin Maru and Yushin Maru 3, towed steel cables across the bow of its vessel the Bob Barker 11 times on Sunday in a bid to jam its propeller and rudder. It said that when the Bob Barker launched two small boats to defend the ship and cut the steel cables, a bamboo spear was thrown at crew members. Japan’s fisheries agency said its ships were dragging cables with buoys as a warning to Sea Shepherd to stay away.
AUSTRALIA
Snake eats crocodile
A huge snake won a life and death battle against a crocodile on Sunday, swallowing the animal whole after a lengthy struggle before amazed onlookers. Travis Corlis, who watched the fight at Queensland’s Lake Moondarra, near the mining town of Mount Isa, said the snake, thought to be a python, was about 3m long. The crocodile, which the snake coiled itself around, was about 1m in length, he said. “They had quite the struggle in the water,” he said. “It was an ongoing battle.” Corlis said several hours later, he saw the snake had pulled the dead crocodile onto the banks of the lake and released it. “About 10 minutes later, the crocodile was gone,” he said, referring to the creature being eaten.
PHILIPPINES
Rebel mines wound 16
Communist rebels using land mines have wounded 11 troops and five civilians in Davao del Sur province, military officials said yesterday. Army Colonel Marcos Norman Flores Jr condemned the attacks as a violation of international humanitarian law. New People’s Army guerrillas encountered troops on Sunday morning, triggering an hour-long clash. As troops maneuvered, the rebels exploded a land mine, wounding 11 soldiers, a military statement said. It quoted villagers as saying the rebels carried away four dead colleagues. The guerrillas later set off a land mine as three ambulances were heading to evacuate injured troops, wounding five civilian volunteers.
ISRAEL
Ultra-Orthodox Jews rally
Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied on Sunday in the streets of Jerusalem, blocking roads and paralyzing the city in a massive show of force against plans to require them to serve in the military. The ultra-Orthodox largely have been allowed to avoid military service, compulsory for most men. The government has been pushing for reforms that will require ultra-Orthodox men to serve in the army. Parliament is expected to vote on the conscription bill this month.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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