THAILAND
Security vow after blasts
Deputy prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon yesterday promised to tighten security after two homemade pipe bombs detonated near the up-scale Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok on Sunday evening, slightly injuring two passers-by. “We will strictly enforce security across the country. We need to have high security checks in some areas,” Prawit told reporters. “We can’t say who is behind this ... it could be people who have bad intentions, or are linked to politics or people who think differently.” The blasts occurred about 8pm on a walkway leading to the mall.
CHINA
Father, daughter executed
A father and daughter who belonged to a fringe religious group were executed yesterday for beating a woman to death at a McDonald’s restaurant, reportedly after she rebuffed their attempts to recruit her. The pair were among a group of five members of the banned Quannengshen cult convicted of attacking the woman in Shandong Province, surnamed Wu, after she refused to give them her phone number. The three others convicted over the attack were given prison terms ranging from seven years to life. Quannengshen members believe that Jesus has been reincarnated as a Chinese woman.
NEW ZEALAND
Key criticizes critic
Prime Minister John Key yesterday hit back at criticism by prize-winning author Eleanor Catton, saying she had no more political insight than All Blacks captain Richie McCaw. The author of The Luminaries sparked an uproar last week at a literary festival in India when she said she was angry with her nation’s treatment of the arts. She said the nation was dominated by “neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture.” Key said Catton’s political views carried no more credence than those of McCaw. “She has no particular great insights into politics, she is a fictional writer,” Key told Television New Zealand, adding he had read some but not all of The Luminaries.
SOUTH KOREA
Airline steward testifies
The daughter of the boss of Korean Air treated flight crew like “feudal slaves,” a chief steward said in court yesterday. Heather Cho, the former head of Korean Air in-flight service, is on trial for breaking aviation laws and conspiring with other company executives to force crew members lie about an incident on Dec. 5 last year. Chief steward, Park Chang-jin, who Cho ordered be removed from a flight, said that she “was like a beast that found its prey gritting its teeth as she became abusive, not listening to what I had to say at all… I don’t think Cho showed an ounce of conscience, treating powerless people like myself like feudal slaves, forcing us to sacrifice and treating it as if it was the natural thing to do.”
INDIA
Detainees escape center
Scores of inmates yesterday staged a pre-dawn mass breakout from a young offenders center by tying bedsheets together and then scaling down the walls of the three-story building, police said. A total of 91 inmates, including several convicted murderers, managed to flee the facility in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, although 35 were later recaptured, Police Superintendent Om Prakash said. “They removed an iron grille from a window at the back of the building while police were guarding the front,” Prakash said. “This was done so professionally that no one got a whiff.”
UNITED STATES
Schools close as storm hits
The northeast yesterday braced for the second major snow storm in a week after a huge winter system dumped more than 30cm of snow in the Chicago area, closing schools from the Midwest to New England. Chicago Public Schools, the country’s third-largest public school system, along with districts in Detroit, Michigan; Providence, Rhode Island and Boston canceled classes yesterday as the National Weather Service issued storm warnings and watches continued from western Iowa into upper New England.
SYRIA
Al-Nusra bombs pilgrims
A blast ripped through a bus carrying Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least nine people, a monitor said, in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda’s local branch. The Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 people were wounded in the explosion near Souq al-Hamadiyeh district, and that six of the dead were Lebanese. The Lebanese agency that organized their trip gave the same death toll. State media, which reported a toll of six dead and 19 wounded, said the blast was caused by an explosive device rather than by a suicide bomber. Officials had found and defused a second bomb that had been placed inside the bus before it detonated, the SANA news agency said. Al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online.
YEMEN
Houthis issue deadline
The Houthi movement on Sunday gave political factions three days to agree to a way out of a crisis that led to the resignation of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi before the group imposes its own solution. The nation has been in political limbo since Hadi and the government of Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned less than two weeks ago after the Houthis seized the presidential palace and confined the head of state to his residence in a struggle to tighten control over Yemen.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mugged pensioner to move
A disabled pensioner who was violently mugged outside his home has spoken of his amazement after well-wishers raised more than £220,000 (US$330,500) for him to move residence. Alan Barnes, 67, who is 1.37m tall and visually impaired, suffered a broken collarbone when he was attacked on his doorstep in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, on Jan. 25. The attacker rifled through his pockets after shoving him to the ground and demanding money, but ran off when his frail victim called for help. After reports of the attack, a local beautician, Katie Cutler, set up a fundraising page aiming to raise £500 — but donations quickly flooded in from 17,000 well-wishers from as far afield as Canada, Holland and New Zealand. Donations topped £220,000 on Sunday — 48 hours after the page was launched — as Barnes said he planned to use the money to buy a new house.
UNITED KINGDOM
Magna Carta copies on show
The four surviving original Magna Carta copies went on display together for the first time yesterday, as the nation begins its 800th anniversary celebrations for a contract with global significance. Considered the cornerstone of liberty, modern democracy, justice and the rule of law, the 1215 English charter forms the basis for legal systems around the world, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the US Constitution.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number