SAUDI ARABIA
Gunman kills officer
A gunman holding three people hostage in Riyadh on Sunday shot dead a member of security forces when police tried to free the captives, police said yesterday. The gunman was later arrested and the three hostages were freed, a police statement said. There was no immediate word on the man’s identity or his motivation. “An unknown man carrying an automatic weapon took three laborers hostage near al-Hamoud mosque ... and threatened to shoot passersby,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted a Riyadh police spokesman as saying in a statement. “When police surrounded him and asked him to drop his weapon he opened fire heavily,” the statement said. The security forces member was killed in an exchange of fire and two people, including a civilian, were wounded, the spokesman said. The attacker was wounded and arrested, he said.
SOUTH KOREA
Nuts all the rage
Retailers are experiencing an unexpected upside from a Korean Air incident over a bag of nuts: a boom in sales of macadamias. The nut was unfamiliar to many until Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air’s chairman, ordered a flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight from New York City after she was served them in a bag, instead of on a plate. She resigned from executive roles at the firm last week amid a storm of criticism about the tantrum that forced the flight to return to the gate. However, macadamias are now a household name in the nation and with curiosity about their taste piqued, sales are booming. Auction, a unit of eBay, yesterday said that sales of macadamias surged nearly 12-fold during the previous five days without any promotions. It said macadamias previously made up 5 percent of its nut sales, but were now accounting for almost half. The Web site of e-commerce firm Coupang showed Mauna Loa macadamia nuts were out of stock, with about 100 users asking for the product to be restocked.
UNITED KINGDOM
S African named Miss World
Miss South Africa, 22-year-old Rolene Strauss, was crowned Miss World 2014 at the contest’s glitzy final in London on Sunday, with an estimated 1 billion viewers watching on television around the globe. Miss Hungary, Edina Kulcsar, was judged the runner-up and Miss United States, Elizabeth Safrit, came third in the 64th annual competition, contested by women from 121 countries. Medical student Strauss clasped her hands together in surprise and was crowned by the outgoing Miss World, Megan Young of the Philippines, to huge cheers in the ExCeL exhibition center. “South Africa this is for you,” Strauss said. “I think I will brace myself for what’s about to happen. It’s a huge responsibility.”
AUSTRALIA
Shark attack claims teen
A teenager was killed in a shark attack off the northeast coast yesterday, with ambulance officials saying he was dead by the time he reached shore. The 17-year-old was bitten on the upper thigh at Rudder Reef off Port Douglas, about 60km north of Cairns. “We received a call about a 17-year-old with a serious upper-thigh injury,” a Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman said, adding that attempts to resuscitate him were made at the scene. “A boat brought him in, but he didn’t survive,” she added. It is not known what type of shark killed him. Veteran diver Col McKenzie, who also heads the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, told reporters that Rudder Reef was not a common spot for dive operators. He said there was a fatal shark attack at nearby Opal Reef almost a decade ago to the day.
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