PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Armed group raids airport
About 30 heavily armed bandits robbed passengers and ransacked Lae Nadzab Airport yesterday, the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, as it warned travelers to be cautious. The airport in Nadzab was overrun by the group in the morning, with reports saying the robbers held the facility for two hours. Reports said the group was armed with pistols, rifles, homemade guns and machetes, and held about 30 passengers at gunpoint before escaping across the runway. One man was assaulted with a rifle butt as the bandits looted office equipment and food, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. “The nine security guards manning the airport said they were outnumbered and ordered at gunpoint to huddle up with the passengers in front of the terminal,” police spokesman David Terry told the broadcaster. He said the men were unable to break into safe of national carrier Air Niugini.
SOUTH KOREA
Park furiously rejects rumors
President Park Geun-hye yesterday hit out at “groundless” rumors circling her administration, some of which touch on her personal life. “There have been a lot of groundless allegations. It’s time to reveal the truth so that people should not be thrown into confusion any more,” Park said in televised comments to senior advisers. The latest allegation, made by the Segye Times daily, is that former Park aide Jeong Yun-hoe, who holds no official position, is meddling in state affairs. Citing an internal presidential office document, the newspaper said Jeong received regular briefings from senior presidential officials and had pushed for the dismissal of Park’s chief-of-staff. The Blue House insists the document is inaccurate, but state prosecutors launched a probe into how it was leaked. The officials named as those who briefed Jung have filed a defamation suit against the Segye Times. The report came days after the trial began of a Japanese journalist accused of defaming Park by mentioning local rumors that on the day the Sewol ferry sank, she was conducting a tryst with Jeong.
VIETNAM
Anti-China blogger arrested
Police said they have arrested a blogger for posting “bad content” about the government, as part of a long-running crackdown on online dissent. Hong Le Tho, 65, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday for posting articles “with bad content and incorrect information that reduce trust in state agencies,” the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. Tho’s blog, called “Nguoi Lot Gach” — “a brick layer” — has run for at least three years and was regularly updated in Vietnamese, English and French with his commentary on social and political issues. Many of the posts were strongly anti-China, reflecting widespread animosity among many locals, including intellectuals.
NEW ZEALAND
Dotcom beats custody bid
US authorities have lost a motion to have cyberfugitive Kim Dotcom remanded in custody before his extradition hearing to face internet piracy charges in the US. An Auckland court yesterday rejected allegations that Dotcom, founder of the Megaupload file storage site, was a flight risk and had broken terms of his bail imposed after the flamboyant Internet entrepreneur was arrested by US and local authorities in 2012. While Dotcom, a German national and local resident, was free to return to his sprawling mansion in Auckland, his bail conditions were tightened to prevent him from traveling by helicopter and require him to report to police twice a week.
BRAZIL
Hundreds tie the knot
It was Rio de Janeiro’s biggest mass wedding: a total of 1,960 couples who exchanged vows on Sunday in a hall next to the famous Maracana stadium. The big event brought out a whopping 12,000 people, between brides and grooms, friends and family and authorities — including a pack of judges, a Catholic priest and an Evangelical Christian pastor. Dubbed “I Do Day,” the event was sponsored by authorities to encourage many people who might not be able to afford to marry if they had to pay for licenses and banquet halls. The megacrowd gathered in the venue that is often used for major concerts. Couples tied the knot and friends took in a concert by samba star Dudu Nobre. Guests also got a free ride on local trains — nicknamed the “I Do Day Train” just for the occasion.
UNITED STATES
Man beaten to death in car
Police in St Louis, Missouri, say they have arrested two juveniles and are seeking two other suspects after a Bosnian man was beaten to death with hammers. Police said 32-year-old Zemir Begic was in his car early on Sunday when several young people approached and began damaging it. He suffered injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth in the attack and was pronounced dead at a hospital. About 50 people briefly blocked an intersection on Sunday night to protest the killing of Begic, who moved to St Louis from Miami this year. The Post-Dispatch newspaper reports St Louis police Chief Sam Dotson spoke with residents during the protest. He said the killing did not appear to be motivated by race or ethnicity. A motive has not been released.
MEXICO
Five charred bodies found
Authorities discovered five charred and decapitated bodies on Sunday in the turbulent state of Guerrero, state prosecutors said. The bodies were found early on Sunday morning in the back of a truck near the town of Chilapa, about 330km from Mexico City, a statement from state prosecutors said. Examiners identified the remains as likely those of three businessmen and two architects from the state of Morelos who were reportedly kidnapped on Wednesday last week, a prosecutor said. The grisly discovery comes after authorities found 11 other similarly burned and decapitated bodies in the same town last week.
UNITED STATES
No bail in boy in wall case
The father and stepmother of a boy who was found behind a fake wall four years after he was reported missing were both denied bail in their initial court appearance on Sunday in Clayton County court in Georgia. Gregory Jean, 37, and Samantha Davis, 42, were charged with obstruction, false imprisonment and child cruelty, local media reported. The couple were arrested, along with three juveniles, on Saturday last week after police found the 13-year-old boy hidden behind a false wall in a linen cupboard of their home in Jonesboro, near Atlanta. Police told Atlanta’s Channel 2 the mother reported the boy missing to child welfare authorities, but not to police, after he went to visit his father in 2010. Clayton County police were called to a house on Friday last week, but the occupants denied any knowledge of the child. Just to be sure, police searched the house. They found nothing, local media said. However, hours later police received another call and this time the boy was able to tell his mother where he was being held. According to the Channel 2, the teen had found a cellphone and downloaded an app through which he contacted his mother, who was in Florida.
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