NEW ZEALAND
Tiger wins reprieve
A tiger that mauled a Hamilton Zoo keeper to death will not be put down because the attack was “in line with his natural instincts,” zoo officials said yesterday. Samantha Kudewah died on Sunday morning after the tiger, a Sumatran male called Oz, attacked her. The Hamilton Council, which runs the zoo, said Kudewah’s death was a tragedy, but there was nothing to gain from destroying the tiger. “Oz is a significant animal for his species. He is the father of our two cubs, and he is vital to the ongoing breeding program to conserve this rare species,” Lance Vervoort, the council’s community general manager, said in a statement.
VIETNAM
Freed blogger flies to US
A prominent blogger who was jailed after she wrote about corruption in the police and judiciary has been released and left the country, the US embassy in Hanoi said yesterday. “We welcome the decision by Vietnamese authorities to release Ta Phong Tan,” embassy spokesman Terry White said. “She decided to travel to the United States after her release from prison.” Former police officer Ta Phong Tan, 47, was jailed for 10 years in 2012 for publishing “anti-state propaganda,” after she used her blog to highlight kickbacks and human rights abuses within the police force and court system.
BURKINA FASO
Mediators offer proposals
Mediators on Sunday proposed new and more inclusive elections in November, though the military that seized power in a coup last week said it still wanted its general to lead the country during any transitional period. The slate of 13 proposals was released just hours after the hotel where the mediators were meeting was stormed by supporters of the military. The proposals, including the restoration of the transitional government that had been in charge and for elections to be held no later than Nov. 22, are to be presented today at a meeting in Nigeria of the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States.
NEW ZEALAND
Key firm on flag proposal
Prime Minister John Key yesterday admitted that he faces a challenge persuading his fellow citizens to change the national flag in a referendum after an opinion poll found overwhelming support for the existing banner. Key’s flag change proposal will be put to a vote later this year and he insisted there was still time to win over the public. “You’ve got to engage people, you’ve got to get them to think through the issues ... no one’s arguing it’s not a big challenge,” he said in a radio interview. A TV3 poll published on Sunday found 69 percent of respondents wanted to keep the current flag, which features the Union Jack in the corner. Only 25 percent of 1,000 respondents wanted a new flag, with 6 percent undecided. Key has made the flag reform issue his pet project since his conservative government won a third term late last year.
PHILIPPINES
Fugitive brothers arrested
Former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother Mario Reyes, who are wanted for the 2011 murder of a radio anchor and prominent environmentalist, have been arrested in Thailand, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday. The Reyes brothers were arrested on Sunday by Thai police on Phuket and Thai immigration authorities were processing their deportation papers, she said. The brothers fled the country after being implicated in the murder of Gerardo Ortega on Jan. 24, 2011. They have denied the accusation.
UNITED KINGDOM
Dementia numbers rising
One in three people born in the nation this year will develop dementia, according to an analysis commissioned by the charity campaign group Alzheimer’s Research UK. The study, conducted by the Office of Health Economics, shows “a looming national health crisis as the UK population ages,” the charity said, and underlines the need for global efforts to develop treatments for the brain-wasting condition. Dementia already affects about 850,000 people in Britain, and a total of 35.6 million worldwide, according to the WHO. Mark Dallas, a neuroscientist at Britain’s University of Reading who specializes in Alzheimer’s, said that as well as the size of the potential problem, the study also highlighted the gaps in research efforts and funding. “The startling numbers of people born this year that will be affected by dementia [puts] it on a par with other life-changing diseases,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Carson proposes Muslim ban
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Sunday said that Muslims were unfit to be president, arguing their faith was inconsistent with the nation’s principles. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” Carson told NBC’s Meet the Press. Carson, a Christian who said he got the idea for his tax proposals from the Bible, said he thought a president’s faith should be “consistent with the constitution.” Asked if he thought Islam met this bar, the retired neurosurgeon said: “No, I do not.” The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group condemned Carson for his statement, which it said should disqualify him from the presidential contest because the constitution forbids religious tests for holding public office. “It is beyond the pale and he should withdraw,” Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.
RUSSIA
Moscow protest held
Thousands of people on Sunday poured onto Moscow’s streets for the first authorized opposition protest in a year-and-a-half, with Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny telling the crowds: “Change is possible.” While authorized by Moscow officials, the demonstration was restricted to a southeastern suburb 15km from the city center, under a heavy security presence. Police, cited by news agency Ria Novosti, said 4,000 people had joined the protest, while organizers put the number at 7,000. Waving Russian flags, the protesters carried placards that read: “Who killed Nemtsov?” in reference to Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated just steps from the Kremlin in February. “Stop lying, stop stealing,” other placards read.
ISRAEL
Netanyahu to meet Putin
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday flew to Moscow to seek reassurance from Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s military deployment in Syria, and to lay out the nation’s concerns about the risk of weapons reaching militants on its borders. With fighter planes part of the rapid Russian build-up, the government is worried about the threat of fire accidentally being traded with Russian forces, especially since it has carried out air raids against militants in southern Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters suspected of smuggling arms. A former strategic adviser to Netanyahu said that the prime minister would try to work out “ground rules” with Putin about avoiding such clashes.
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