JAPAN
Earthquake rocks nation
A strong earthquake yesterday hit Japan in the same region devastated by a major quake and tsunami in 2011. Authorities said there was no risk of a tsunami. The magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 6:12am at a depth of 46km off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It shook a wide swath of northern Japan and was felt in Tokyo, 415km to the southwest. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Meteorological agency official Yohei Hasegawa told a news conference that the earthquake was an aftershock of the magnitude 9.0 disaster that killed more than 18,000 people in March 2011. No abnormalities were reported at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant or elsewhere.
CHINA
Public holiday announced
The nation is making the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II a public holiday, the government said yesterday, as Beijing prepares a massive military parade to mark the occasion. Sept. 3 has been officially declared the “70th anniversary of Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War and the World Anti-Fascist War Victory Commemoration Day.” The move was made “for the broad participation of the entire nation in the central and regional commemoration activities,” said a notice on the government’s official Web site.
CHINA
Abandoned baby found
A baby born with a cleft lip was abandoned by his parents and then buried in a cardboard box two days later, but was rescued alive eight days further on, media reported. The parents left the baby in a remote countryside in the southern province of Guangxi, before he was buried, apparently by relatives who believed he had died, Guangxi Online News said. However, water and air were able to seep into the box, the report said. The baby was buried in a container the size of a shoebox in a dusty field surrounded by long grass, and was discovered when a woman heard him crying as she was picking herbs, according to reports. The baby was spitting soil when doctors examined him last week, Guangxi Online News said. Five people, including three relatives, are reported to have been detained on suspicion of intentional murder.
PHILIPPINES
Official’s casket flown home
The body of an ambassador who was among those killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan last week arrived in his home nation yesterday, with honor guards and his weeping family receiving his flag-draped casket at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan Domingo Lucenario Jr’s remains were ferried home by a Pakistani military aircraft, accompanied by his wife and son, and Pakistani Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan. Filipino honor guards carried the coffin out of the plane and onto the tarmac. Lucenario’s two weeping daughters, other relatives, Philippine Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima and colleagues were at the airport. The family wept as they hugged each other. One of the daughters, Marian Lucenario, thanked everyone who condoled and expressed support for her family. “We are deeply saddened and we miss our father every single day,” she said. A viewing and prayer services are scheduled for tomorrow at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, where the 54-year-old career diplomat spent 35 years in service.
UNITED STATES
Officer cleared in killing
A white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed 19-year-old African-American youth in Wisconsin used justifiable force and will not face criminal charges, authorities said on Tuesday. The March 6 shooting touched off protests in the city of Madison, scene of one of the most recent incident of police shootings of young blacks, which have set racial tensions on edge in the country. “I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against officer [Matt] Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson Jr,” Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.
TURKEY
NATO foreign ministers meet
A day after lengthy talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Secretary of State John Kerry was filling in allies during a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in the southern town of Antalya. The ministers gathered to plot strategy amid the continued crisis in Ukraine and instability throughout the Middle East, including in neighboring Syria and Iraq. Kerry was also meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin. Kerry spent all day on Tuesday in Sochi, Russia, where he and Putin sought to ease tensions over Ukraine.
ALGERIA
Militants killed in ambush
Soldiers killed two armed Islamists during an ambush on Tuesday southwest of the capital, the government said, as media reported that four security personnel were slain in the east. “An army detachment killed two terrorists today at 3pm, following an ambush carried out near the locality of Amrouna, south of Ain Defla,” the defense ministry said. A Kalashnikov assault rifle was seized during the operation, along with a Simonov semi-automatic rifle and ammunition, it said in a statement. Meanwhile, the French-language El-Watan Web site reported that four communal guards were found dead in their burned-out vehicle in Batna, in the east.
IRAN
Military warns over aid ship
A senior military official has warned the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemeni rebels that attacking an Iranian aid ship bound for Yemen will “spark a fire.” General Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy chief of staff, delivered the warning in an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam state TV late on Tuesday. The government says the ship, which departed on Monday, is carrying food, medicine, tents and blankets, as well as reporters, rescue workers and peace activists. It says the ship is expected to arrive at Hodeida next week.
AUSTRALIA
Cate Blanchett bisexual
Happily married Oscar-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett has revealed she had “many” past relationships with women in an interview with a US magazine. The Australian, 45, made the comment while promoting her latest film, Carol, in which she plays a bisexual woman in 1950s New York. When asked if it was her first turn as a lesbian, Blanchett asked: “On film — or in real life?” Pressed by Variety magazine for details about whether she had past relationships with women, she said: “Yes. Many times,” without elaborating. Blanchett has been married to screenwriter husband Andrew Upton for 18 years. They three have sons — Ignatius, six, Roman, 10, and Dashiell, 13 — and in March adopted a baby daughter. In the film, New Yorker Carol Aird (Blanchett) embarks on a love affair with a young department store clerk, Therese Belivet, played by Rooney Mara.
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