SYRIA
US drops anti-IS leaflets
The US has dropped tens of thousands of graphic leaflets southwest of Raqqa aimed at discouraging Islamic State (IS) recruitment, US officials said on Thursday. The grisly, cartoon-style leaflets show recruits lining up to be shoved into a meatgrinder and is part of what the Pentagon formally calls “Military Information Support Operations,” meant to influence thinking on the battlefield. The Pentagon said a US Air Force F-15 dropped about 60,000 of the leaflets on Monday last week. “The message of this leaflet is that if you allow yourself to be recruited by Daesch [Islamic State], you will find yourself in a meat grinder,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said. “It’s not beneficial to your health.”
ITALY
Pizza for UNESCO menu
The Italian National Commission for UNESCO has chosen Neapolitan pizza as its candidate for protection under UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, media reported late on Thursday. The commission decided to recognize “the art of Neapolitan pizza makers” in tribute to their culinary skills. The list “is composed of intangible heritage elements that concerned communities and states parties consider require urgent measures to keep them alive,” according to UNESCO’s Web site. The Neapolitan pizza was invented in Naples between 1715 and 1725. It is characterized by its raised crust, by the crispy yet tender consistency of its pastry, and by its acid tomato taste, along with of oregano, garlic, basil and mozzarella. The base should be no more than 3mm thick and cooked for between 60 and 90 seconds in a stone oven with an oak-wood fire.
FRANCE
‘Racist’ cupcakes barred
An administrative court in Nice has banned the display of cupcakes topped with the naked figures of a man and woman wrought in dark chocolate in a pastry shop in the town of Grasse after a watchdog group described them as “racist.” The “God” and “Goddess” cupcakes — which have been on sale in the shop for about 15 years — are stuffed with ganache and topped with the chocolate figures of a plump man and woman with pink lips and protruding genitalia. The court on Thursday ordered they be removed from the shop’s window display, but allowed the shop to continue making and selling them. The court ordered Grasse’s mayor to ensure the cakes were removed from the display immediately, with a penalty of 500 euros (US$541) for each day’s delay. The court said the cakes violate “human dignity, especially that of the African people or people of African descent.” Baker Yannick Tavolaro said he makes the cupcakes only on weekends.
UNITED STATES
Jackson Jr leaves prison
Former US representative Jesse Jackson Jr, the son of a prominent civil rights activist, was released from an Alabama federal prison early on Thursday, two years after pleading guilty to spending US$750,000 in campaign money on personal items, his father said. The Reverend Jesse Jackson described his son’s release from the minimum security federal prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery as a “joyous reunion.” He said that his son will be living in a Washington halfway house for six months. Under Bureau of Prisons policy, the former lawmaker could serve the remainder of his two-and-a-half-year term under home confinement. His wife, Sandra Jackson was sentenced to a year in prison for filing false joint federal income tax returns. She must serve her term after her husband completes his sentence.
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