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.
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