TAJIKISTAN
Internet blocks eased
The government on Monday lifted blocks on Web sites including Facebook and YouTube that it imposed after a police chief appeared in an online video announcing his defection to the Islamic State group. Local Internet providers restored access to sites that also included Russian social networks Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, as well as popular independent news agency Asia Plus, after pressure from the US. However, a block on the Tajik service of Radio Free Europe, Radio Ozodi, was not lifted. Access to the Web sites had been blocked since May 28, a day after 40-year-old Colonel Gulmurod Halimov appeared in footage blasting the nation’s anti-Islamic policies and swearing loyalty to Islamic State. Halimov headed the special forces unit in the Ministry of Interior and received anti-terrorism training in the US prior to his defection, the US Department of State confirmed last month.
AUSTRALIA
Truck hits cafe, 19 hurt
Nineteen people were hurt yesterday after a pickup truck smashed into a cafe in Queensland, sparking a fire that engulfed the building, police said. Officials were trying to figure out what caused the driver to veer off the road and into the Serves You Right Cafe in Ravenshoe, south of Cairns. The crash caused a gas canister at the cafe to explode, Queensland police spokesman Todd Saunders said. Three people were seriously injured and flown to a hospital in Cairns, he said. The others were being treated at local hospitals. The driver was among those who were hurt. Kate Lewis, who works in a supermarket across from the cafe, described the scene as horrific. “We just heard a massive sonic boom and went running out and saw the cafe on fire and lots of burned people,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
INDIA
Public loo users to be paid
A city council is planning to pay residents to use public toilets to stop legions of people urinating and defecating in public. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corp (AMC) has decided to give residents one rupee (US$0.016) per visit to draw them into its 300 public toilets and away from open areas and public walls, which often reek of urine. AMC health officer Bhavikk Joshi said the offer would be trialed at 67 facilities across Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat State, where officers will give a coin to each user. “Once successful, the project will be implemented in all 300 public toilets in Ahmedabad,” Joshi said on Monday. AMC standing committee chairman Pravin Patel said repeat offenders would be “identified and encouraged” to use the coin-paying toilets.
IRAN
Pilgrims die of poisoning
Authorities have arrested five people over the deaths of four young Saudi pilgrims as a result of fumigation in their hotel, officials said on Monday. The Islamic Republic news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying that authorities are investigating the incident. The five arrested are hotel employees. “There is no evidence to show the incident was a deliberate act,” Ejehi said. The news agency said the victims included a 14-year-old girl and three young boys, all aged 3. Ejehi said 24 other people were hospitalized for exposure to a poison commonly used to kill insects and rats. The incident took place in the city of Mashhad, which is home to a major Shiite Muslim Shrine. The state-run Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization said in a statement that insect repellent sprayed on the fifth floor of the hotel accidentally leaked into the rooms.
UNITED STATES
Piglets flood Ohio highway
A semitrailer carrying 2,200 piglets overturned on an Ohio highway. Numerous agencies and volunteers worked to corral the animals after the crash on Monday night on US Route 35 in Xenia Township, near Dayton. Crews picked up the squealing pigs by their hind legs. They were taken to Greene County Fairgrounds. Authorities said between 300 and 400 pigs were killed. They said some of the animals ran into a nearby wooded area. Authorities said the driver of the semitrailer lost control and slammed into a guardrail. He was not hurt. A female passenger was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The truck was traveling from South Carolina to Indiana.
AUSTRALIA
El Nino looks potent
The El Nino developing in the Pacific keeps sending signs reminiscent of the last big El Nino from 1997 to 1998, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, which said data point toward a pattern that is set to last all year. This year’s El Nino continues to develop and climate models suggest further warming of the tropical Pacific is likely, the bureau said on Tuesday in a fortnightly update. Sea-surface temperatures are forecast to remain above El Nino thresholds for the remainder of the year, it said. “All five Nino indices are at least plus 1.2C° above-normal,” the bureau said. “It is unusual to have such a broad extent of warmth across the tropical Pacific; this has not been seen since the El Nino event of 1997 to ’98.” The 1997-to-1998 event was the strongest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. All five sea-surface indices in the tropical Pacific exceeded 1C°, the Australian bureau said in the last update on May 26, adding that that is the first time it has occurred since the El Nino from 1997 to 1998.
GREECE
Earthquake hits north
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck north of Athens early yesterday morning, according to the US Geological Survey, but while it was felt in the Greek capital there were no reported casualties. According to the survey, the quake’s epicenter was 83km north of Athens, near the town of Malesina. It began at around 4:10am and lasted for several seconds, waking residents in the area. The Athens Observatory said the earthquake measured 5.3 in magnitude, and the hypocenter was under the sea.
UKRAINE
Two firemen missing
Two Ukrainian firemen were missing after a fire they had been battling through the night at a fuel depot outside Kiev triggered a powerful explosion, Ukrainian Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov said yesterday. At least 16 fuel tanks, most of them storing gasoline, were on fire and sending a huge pall of smoke over the area surrounding the depot near Vasylkiv, 30km from Kiev. “In the area of the blaze, there is another fuel depot,” Avakov said in a tweet. “All people have been evacuated and a cordon is being set up.” At least five workers were injured in the fire and one later died in hospital, police said. Sixty-two fire-fighting units and three trains delivering water and supplies were mobilized, emergency services said. Police said the fire, which began in one fuel tank and spread to others, was likely to have been started by a technical fault but the cause was not yet fully clear. “As of 7am, efforts to fight the fire are still going on. The fire extended over eight tanks with a capacity of 900m3 and several small containers,” the service said.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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