UNITED STATES
Obama lawsuit dismissed
A federal judge handed a victory to President Barack Obama late on Tuesday, throwing out a lawsuit over controversial actions he took last month shielding millions of undocumented migrants from deportation. The suit brought by Joseph Arpaio, the conservative sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, challenging the constitutionality of the president’s actions, was dismissed by Judge Beryl Howell. “The plaintiff’s case raises important questions regarding the impact of illegal immigration on this nation, but the questions amount to generalized grievances, which are not proper for the judiciary to address,” Howell’s ruling in the case read.
UNITED STATES
FDA lifts gay blood ban
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday said it would move to ease a lifetime ban on blood donations from homosexual men, allowing them to give after a year of abstaining from sexual activity. The FDA said it made decision after reviewing scientific evidence in recent years regarding its blood donor policy for homosexual males. The agency said it would recommend the policy change next year and that it would be subject to public feedback before it is finalized. A growing number of medical and legal experts have argued that the existing restrictions are outdated and that sophisticated tests for human immunodeficiency virus exist that can make blood donation by gay men a much safer practice.
UNITED STATES
Representative pleads guilty
A representative pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion on Tuesday, the latest stain for a lawmaker dogged by controversy, but who won re-election last month despite an indictment on criminal charges. House of Representatives Republican Michael Grimm, a former FBI agent who represents parts of New York’s Staten Island and Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to filing a false income tax return that underreported wages and sales in 2009. Grimm faces up to 36 months in a federal prison. A judge set sentencing for June 8. The charge is linked to his conduct while owner of a Manhattan health food restaurant before he became a member of the House of Representatives in early 2011.
UNITED STATES
Florida numbers surpass NY
Florida has surpassed New York in population to become the third-most populous state in the union. Figures released Tuesday by the Census Bureau show that Florida has at least 19.9 million residents. The number is likely higher because the census uses the population as of July 1 to create its estimate. New York had 19.7 million residents. Florida added almost 300,000 new residents from last year to this year, or a little more than 800 new residents a day. By contrast, New York grew by only 51,000 over that time period.
HAITI
Quake victim’s idea realized
The parents of a young woman killed in the Haiti earthquake nearly five years ago have made good on her last wish. Nineteen-year-old Britney Gengel texted her parents just a few hours before she was buried alive in the quake. It said: “I want to move here and start an orphanage.” So her parents started a nonprofit called Be Like Brit and opened an orphanage in a town in Haiti. It houses 33 boys and 33 girls — one of each for the number of days she lay in the ruins of her hotel after the quake hit on Jan. 12, 2010. It costs about US$75,000 a month to run the orphanage. It is paid for by donations and volunteer mission trips.
CHINA
City probes AIDS threats
A city in Henan Province is investigating reports that workers tasked with demolishing homes for a new development are threatening to infect residents with AIDS if they do not move out, state media reported yesterday. Forced demolitions are a frequent cause of unrest and anger in China, with local governments and developers often accused of using thugs to carry out demolition orders and of not paying proper compensation. Pictures of the “AIDS demolition team” have recently surfaced on Chinese social media, with residents claiming to have been harassed this month to move out of their homes, which are slated for demolition and development. The government of Nanyang confirmed the team’s existence, but said that they were not hired by the local government, Xinhua news agency said.
PAKISTAN
EU mission slams hangings
The EU mission in Islamabad yesterday condemned the government’s decision to restart executions in the wake of the country’s bloodiest-ever terror attack. Authorities have hanged six prisoners since announcing last week that a six-year moratorium on the death penalty was being lifted in terror cases. The decision came amid public outrage over a Taliban massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which killed 150 people, including 134 children. The EU mission said in a statement it stood by the country in its grief, but remained opposed to capital punishment in all circumstances. “We believe that the death penalty is not an effective tool in the fight against terrorism,” it said.
CHINA
Dual-track pensions to stop
The government will abolish a dual-track pension system that favors government employees and discriminates against others to create a fairer retirement-savings system. Under existing rules, about 37 million employees with government agencies, communist organs and public institutions do not have to contribute anything to their pension savings, with the government paying pensions of about 90 percent of their pre-retirement salaries. Those employed by private businesses must contribute 8 percent of their salary to pension accounts, on top of 20 percent of their wages that is paid by employers to a pooled pension fund. On average, private retirees end up with 40 percent of their working pay. As the system has increasingly become a source of resentment among the public, Vice Premier Ma Kai (馬凱) yesterday said that the State Council and the Politburo have agreed to implement a “unified” pension system, and public employees will have to contribute to their own pension accounts, Xinhua news agency reported.
CHINA
Xmas lights risky: watchdog
Christmas lights may bring more risk than festive cheer, the nation’s quality control watchdog said yesterday. A test of 40 batches of Christmas lights found more than 80 percent were a shock hazard and more than one-third did not comply with fire-safety rules, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement. Christmas is growing in popularity, especially in metropolitan areas where young people go out to celebrate, give gifts and decorate their homes. The country is also a big exporter of Christmas lights and decorations, selling them all around the world. The watchdog said consumers should carefully check that products were heat and fire-resistant and labeled properly by the manufacturer before making a purchase.
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