IRAN
Arms claim a ‘lie’: minister
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday sharply rejected an Israeli allegation that Tehran tried to ship missiles to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, calling it a “lie.” Israel has said it captured a Gaza-bound ship on Wednesday carrying dozens of Syrian-made rockets “capable of striking anywhere in Israel.” The raid coincided with a US trip by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Netanyahu is in Washington... and all of a sudden as a godsend, they capture a ship from Iran with missiles. Just a coincidence?” Zarif said during an official visit to Jakarta. “If Netanyahu is a saint and can produce miracles I believe the Israelis themselves will be amused by that,” he said. “So if you cannot believe in miracles by Netanyahu, the only thing that you can believe is that this is a lie. And it is a lie.”
CHINA
Plane near-miss a concern
Beijing has expressed its “deep concern” to North Korea after South Korea said a Chinese airplane had crossed the path of a rocket launched by the isolated state, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. On Thursday, the South’s Ministry of National Defense said a Chinese civilian plane had “passed as the ballistic missile [from the North] was in the course of descending.” The plane was flying from Toyko’s Narita airport to the China’s Shenyang City on Tuesday, the ministry had said previously. “On this issue, we have already contacted the North Korean side to convey our deep concern,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang(秦剛) told a daily news briefing.
TURKEY
PM mulls Facebook ban
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara could ban Facebook and YouTube, which he says have been abused by his political enemies, after local elections on March 30. Erdogan is locked in a power struggle with the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally who he says is behind a stream of “fabricated” audio recordings posted on the Internet allegedly revealing corruption in his inner circle. “We are determined on this subject. We will not leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook,” Erdogan said in an interview with ATV. Asked if the possible barring of these sites was included in his planned measures, he said: “Included.”
JAPAN
Fake composer apologizes
The man once lauded as “Japan’s Beethoven” yesterday bowed repeatedly and apologized at his first media appearance since it was revealed last month that his famed musical compositions were ghostwritten and he was not completely deaf. Mamoru Samuragochi appeared clean-shaven and minus his trademark sunglasses and long hair, in what could be seen as a sign of remorse. He apologized for the troubles he had caused his fans, producers behind his works and others. “I will speak the truth,” he said. “I will make this my last appearance on TV.”
ITALY
Pope says he stole cross
Pope Francis revealed on Thursday he broke the seventh commandment by stealing. In off-the-cuff comments to Roman priests, Francis recalled when he was in his native Buenos Aires, he went to the funeral of an elderly priest whom he admired. He bought some flowers and laid them out in the coffin where the dead priest was holding a rosary in his hand. “Suddenly, that thief that all of us have inside of us came into my mind. As I was laying out the flowers, I took the cross that was on the rosary and, using some force, detached it,” he said. Francis, who did not say when the episode took place, added that he has carried the cross with him ever since in order to remember the priest and the mercy he showed to others.
CUBA
EU negotiations agreed to
The country has agreed to begin negotiations with the EU on normalizing ties after a decade of differences and sanctions, the foreign minister said on Thursday. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the negotiations “mean the end of the European Union’s unilateral policies on Cuba,” and his government “accepts with satisfaction” the proposal of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton on Feb. 10 to open the negotiations. The EU froze relations in 2003 after authorities threw 75 government opponents behind bars, but resumed contact upon their release in 2008.
MEXICO
US woman shot dead
A 20-year-old US woman was found shot dead on Tuesday evening in a village in the north, officials said. Kathelyn Nicole Lambert Koegler was found in a small truck, abandoned outside a clinic, in Carichi in Chihuahua State, which borders the US. She was found shot in the body and head, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The statement said a probe was under way. The woman’s family reportedly owned a home in the village.
UNITED STATES
Miracle train track survival
A blind man fell onto the tracks at a subway station as a train was arriving on Thursday, but he escaped unharmed by lying flat as the cars screeched to a halt above him, a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said. The train “ran over the man, but didn’t touch him, thank God,” Paul Gonzales said. “In my view this is a miraculous occurrence. The man is exceedingly lucky to be alive.” The 47-year-old Los Angeles man fell from the platform at the Wilshire and Vermont station in the city’s Koreatown neighborhood. The train operator blew its horn, but by the time he could stop the train, the second car had passed over the man, Gonzales said.
UNITED STATES
App smells of bacon
Want to wake up to the sound of bacon sizzling on the stove with its aroma drawing you out of bed? There’s an app for that. Food company Oscar Mayer says it has created a bacon-scented app for the iPhone, developed by the Madison-based company’s Institute for the Advancement of Bacon. The company says that to emit a small puff reminiscent of bacon, the user needs an external device that plugs into the headphone jack. The app itself produces the sound of bacon sizzling in a pan. Oscar Mayer says the aroma-producing device will not be sold in stores and that quantities are limited.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of