JAPAN
Fukushima system down
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant yesterday said it had again suspended a trouble-plagued system used to clean radiation-tainted water. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) put its Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) on standby mode after it found processed water was cloudy instead of clear. Higher-than-usual levels of calcium were believed to be the cause, but why the levels had become elevated was not known, a TEPCO spokesman said. ALPS has three lines — one of which has already been stopped for the same problem, while the third is not functioning properly. It is unknown when the company will switch the system back on. ALPS is used to clean the radiation-tainted water that has been used to cool reactors at the plant, where Japan’s devastating 2011 quake-tsunami disaster sparked meltdowns.
CHINA
Man stabs schoolchildren
A knife-wielding attacker went on a rampage at a primary school yesterday, wounding eight schoolchildren, with one seriously hurt, state media reported. The 35-year-old suspect, a man surnamed Chen, rushed into the school in Macheng in the central province of Hubei and began slashing at students with a kitchen knife, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local government. Police apprehended Chen at the scene, the report added, and the eight injured pupils were hospitalized. China has seen several violent attacks against children in recent years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 which killed 17 people — 15 of them children — and wounded more than 80. In March last year, a man killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in Shanghai.
JAPAN
McCartney sick, cancels tour
Paul McCartney is canceling his entire tour of the country because of illness. The former Beatle got a virus last week and canceled several appearances, apologizing online to his fans. Now, his organizers say he is not well enough to do any of the concerts, including the one set for today at the Nippon Budokan, where the Beatles performed during their first tour of the country in 1966. The official site of McCartney’s “Out There Japan Tour 2014” said his doctors are ordering him “complete rest.” McCartney is still scheduled for a concert in Seoul on May 28 at the Jamsil Sports Complex Main Stadium, followed by 19 US performances. Two weekend concerts in Tokyo and another in Osaka on Saturday were canceled.
SOUTH KOREA
Elder Kim brother surfaces
The elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has surfaced in Indonesia, dismissing speculation that he might have been hiding following the execution of his uncle, a TV report said yesterday. Kim Jong-nam was sighted at an Italian restaurant run by a Japanese businessman in Jakarta on May 4 with two women, cable news network YTN said. YTN quoted one of Kim’s friends as saying the 43-year-old had been living well, shuttling back and forth among Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and France, despite the shock execution of his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in December last year. Kim Jong-nam was reportedly close to Jang, once the North’s unofficial No. 2 and political mentor of leader Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-nam was once considered heir apparent, but fell out of favor with his father following a botched attempt in 2001 to secretly enter Japan and visit Disneyland. He has since lived in virtual exile, mainly in Macau.
UNITED STATES
No more fake vaccines: CIA
A top White House official has pledged that the CIA will no longer use vaccination programs as cover for spying operations. The agency used the ruse in targeting Osama bin Laden before the US raid that killed him in 2011. Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, wrote to the deans of 13 prominent public health schools last week, saying that the CIA has agreed it would no longer use vaccination programs or workers for intelligence purposes. The agency also agreed not to use genetic materials obtained through such programs. A Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, offered a program of hepatitis vaccinations in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad as cover for his CIA-backed effort to obtain DNA samples from children at a compound where bin Laden was later killed during a 2011 raid by US Navy SEALs. Afridi was convicted and sentenced by a Pakistani court to 33 years in prison for treason. The sentence was later overturned and Afridi faces a retrial.
COLOMBIA
Driver in bus fire arrested
Authorities have arrested 56-year-old Jaime Gutierrez, the unlicensed driver who allegedly fled his overcrowded bus after it burst into flames, burning to death 33 young children, an official said on Monday. Manuel Ibarra, an evangelical church leader who had chartered the bus, was also arrested, prosecutor Luis Gonzalez told a press conference. The pair will be charged with aggravated manslaughter, he said, as Colombians expressed horror over Sunday’s tragedy in the northern town of Fundacion that involved children aged three to 12. Gutierrez, who lost two of his own children in the fire, turned himself over to police as families sought to hunt him down following the tragedy in which, according to a witness, the bus went up in flames as he refueled it with a jerrycan.
UNITED STATES
Clarion snake rediscovered
The Clarion nightsnake, a reptilian species believed lost, has resurfaced on the Mexican island of Clarion in the Pacific, the National Museum of Natural History in Washington said on Monday. Brownish black in color and sporting spots on its head and neck, it was found on the island about 700km off the mainland. It was rediscovered by museum researcher Daniel Mulcahy, the institution said in a statement. The snake — a lone specimen of which is part of the museum’s collections — was first discovered in 1936 by naturalist William Beebe while on an expedition to western Mexico. While never formally declared extinct, it was struck from the scientific record after scientists were unable to detect any trace of it in the decades that followed. Working in collaboration with a researcher from a Mexican institute, Mulcahy carried out an expedition to Clarion where the team identified 11 snakes that matched Beebe’s description.
BRAZIL
Hail ends Sao Paulo drought
A storm has brought marble-sized hail to Sao Paulo, leaving some streets flooded or coated in white in the nation’s largest city. The Center for Emergency Management said on Monday the storm, which brought 10cm of moisture, broke a dry spell that caused historically low levels at the main dams that supply water to Sao Paulo. Residents wondered at the ice balls that decorated their yards and gardens even up to early Monday. Some told local news media that their children had never seen hail or played with ice before Sunday’s storm. Many Sao Paulo residents struggled to keep their balance on the ice and the storm stranded cars in some neighborhoods.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese