THAILAND
Help with refugees urged
The nation is buckling under the burden of sheltering and feeding hundreds of boat people over the past month, a senior government spokesman said yesterday, and needs more help from rights groups and non-governmental organizations. Many of the arrivals are Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority from Myanmar, while others are Bangladeshi. “Taking care of them is a burden for Thailand and we have to use a lot of money to look after them,” said Colonel Banpot Phupian, a spokesman for the military’s Internal Security Operations Command. “The international community is saying respect their rights, but Thailand has to fend for itself and has to arrange food and other basic necessities for these people.”
EGYPT
Four dead in boat attack
Gunmen in a fishing boat opened fire on a naval launch, which shot back, killing at least four of the attackers on Wednesday, security sources and state media said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault in the Mediterranean north of the port of Damietta, near the Suez Canal. The military has faced attacks from Muslim militants based in the Sinai Peninsula further east, and smugglers also operate in the area. The military said in a statement it had destroyed four of the militants’ boats and captured 32 individuals in what it termed a “terrorist incident.” The statement said five navy forces were wounded and eight others were still unaccounted for. State-run newspaper al-Ahram reported a number of the gunmen had been arrested.
CHINA
‘World leader’ tunics sold
Traders are offering the chance to get that “world-leader look” by selling copies of the garb worn by presidents Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping (習近平) at this week’s APEC summit in Beijing. While the silky high-collared tunics were based on the traditional “Mao suits” once beloved by Chinese leaders, social media commentators outside the country joked that they resembled the uniforms worn in the sci-fi TV show Star Trek. Only days after the leaders donned the shirts for a “family photograph” — an APEC tradition — entrepreneurs were already selling replicas online. One shop took up to 30 orders for the shirts in just half a day, according to the Beijing News, which also noted in its report yesterday that the garments’ price had gone up by about 50 percent in 24 hours. “This is definitely going to be a popular item as Big Xi wore it,” one retailer told the newspaper, using a commonly used nickname for the barrel-chested Chinese leader.
SOUTH KOREA
College entrance exams held
The nation went into “hush” mode yesterday, as nearly 650,000 students sat the annual college entrance exam. With so much riding on the outcome, the day of the test — held simultaneously in 1,257 centers nationwide — sees the entire country switch to silent running. The transportation ministry banned all airport landings and departures for a period of 40 minutes, to coincide with the main language listening test. The military also rescheduled airforce drills and live-firing exercises, while traffic was barred within a 200m radius of test centers. Public offices and major businesses, as well as the stock market, opened an hour later than usual yesterday to help keep the roads relatively clear and ensure students arrived on time for the exam, which began at 8:40am.
UNITED STATES
‘Cannibal cop’ back in court
A former New York policeman who had a conviction for plotting to abduct and eat women overturned was on Wednesday sentenced to time served on a related charge. Dubbed the “cannibal cop,” 30-year-old Gilberto Valle became a tabloid sensation when his trial last year exposed the bizarre world of cannibal fantasists. A jury found Valle guilty and he faced life in prison, but he walked free earlier this year after a judge overturned his conviction based on a lack of evidence of intent to commit the crime. “I really want to say I am sorry — it was not a crime, but it was wrong,” Valle said outside court after he was sentenced to the 21 months in jail he already served and one year’s probation on a minor charge of misusing police resources to search for the women he was fantasizing about eating. “My legacy will not be the story of the cannibal cop,” he said.
BRAZIL
Police nab fugitive NZ killer
Police on Wednesday said they have detained a convicted killer who was on the run from authorities in his native New Zealand and wanted by Interpol. Police swooped on Philip John Smith, 40, in Rio de Janiero overnight and he now faces extradition. Smith was sentenced to life in jail in New Zealand in 1996 for killing the father of a child he had abused. He had been staying in a Rio hostel after arriving from Chile, reportedly on a false passport, broadcaster Globo said. Smith fled his home country on Thursday last week while on release from an Auckland prison.
UNITED STATES
Window washers rescued
Two window washers were rescued at the new World Trade Center in New York on Wednesday after the cable secured to their platform snapped and left them dangling 69 floors up for nearly two hours. Rescuers cut through a window to reach the workers, who clung to a platform suspended at a precarious angle at the south side of the building, 240m above ground at Tower One of the complex. About 100 firefighters were involved in the complex rescue operation and New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said it took rescuers nearly an hour to reach the two men, who suffered mild hypothermia.
LEBANON
UN calls for new president
The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly encouraged the country’s leaders to show “urgency and flexibility” in choosing a president to end the state of limbo that has seen the nation lacking a head of state since May. Council Chairman and Australian Ambassador to the UN Gary Quinlan read out the statement after a briefing on the situation, which began when former president Michel Suleiman stepped down after his six-year term ended without a successor in place. The presidency is the top Christian-held post. Lawmakers last week voted to extend their mandate, skipping elections for the second consecutive time. They say the national security situation is too fragile for elections amid the Syrian civil war.
SWITZERLAND
Ruby sets auction record
An 8.62-carat ruby set a record auction price as Sotheby’s concluded a US$95 million sale of jewelry on Wednesday in Geneva, including a pearl necklace probably once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife. British billionaire jeweler Laurence Graff bid US$8.6 million for the Graff Ruby, which he had previously owned. The sale also set an auction record for a Kashmir sapphire after an Asian bidder paid US$5.9 million for a 27.54-carat sapphire and diamond ring.
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