CHINA
Monk immolates self
A Tibetan Buddhist monk has set himself on fire and died in a protest against Beijing’s rule, in the first such action of its kind this year, a US government-funded radio station said yesterday. Radio Free Asia reported that Kalsang Wangdu self-immolated on Monday afternoon near the Retsokha monastery in Sichuan Province’s traditionally Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Kardze. It said the monk called out for Tibetan independence while he burned, and died on the way to a hospital in Chengdu. A 16-year-old Tibetan living in India also set himself on fire on Monday as a protest, but he survived.
THAILAND
Junta warning academics
The ruling junta is intensifying intimidation of academics who criticize its efforts to stay in power by sending army officers to their homes, a rights group said yesterday. At least 77 academics have been harassed at home by officers advising them to adjust their critical mindset or ordered to attend camps for indoctrination, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Those who attend the camps are usually released within a couple of days. However, at least five academics have been forced into exile, said Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a member of the group.
INDIA
Former IPCC head charged
The former head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, on Tuesday was charged with stalking, intimidating and sexually harassing a woman who worked at a think tank he headed, police said. Pachauri, 75, was accused in February last year of sexual harassment by a researcher working at The Energy and Resources Institute. He has denied the charges. The police said that after a year-long investigation, they had sufficient evidence to file charges. The most serious charges — sexual harassment and stalking — carry a maximum jail term of three years.
JAPAN
Google told to delete past
A court has told Google to hide a man’s criminal past from its search results, saying he has “the right to be forgotten” to rebuild his life, according to reports. The Saitama District Court in December last year upheld an earlier, temporary injunction against Google to delete search results about a man convicted of child prostitution and pornography-related offences and who was fined ¥500,000 (US$4,400), the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Google has appealed the case to the Tokyo High Court.
JAPAN
Working women harassed
One-third of working women have experienced sexual harassment at their place of employment, though nearly two-thirds of these women suffer in silence, a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has found. The survey questioned women aged 25 to 44 currently and previously employed, both full and part-time, and received about 10,000 responses. It was conducted over a three-week period in September and October last year. About 30 percent of respondents said they experienced sexual harassment at work, rising to 35 percent among full-time workers. More than half of the total who experienced sexual harassment said that their appearance, age and physical features were subject to casual comments, while 40 percent said they were physically touched in unpleasant ways. More than 63 percent of respondents said they reluctantly remained silent about the abuse.
UNITED KINGDOM
Omagh suspect freed
The Real IRA veteran charged with murdering 29 people in Omagh walked free from prison on Tuesday after prosecutors concluded that the evidence against him — particularly a witness supposed to place him in the Northern Ireland town that day — was too weak. Seamus Daly spent nearly two years in prison awaiting trial for the Aug. 15, 1998, car bomb attack. Daly, 45, did serve a brief prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2004 to membership of the Real IRA.
UNITED STATES
Police killing mentally ill
More than one-third of people hit by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers’ gunfire last year had indications of mental illness, double the prior year, according to a report on the use of force released on Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department. The report analyzed shootings involving police officers and other uses of force over a five-year period from 2011 to last year. It said that over that period, LAPD officers shot at 223 people, killing 97 of them. Last year, 48 suspects were shot, 21 of them fatally, the report said. Of 38 people struck by bullets, 14, or 37 percent, showed signs of mental illness, the report said.
FRANCE
Police death suspects tried
Five suspected robbers face up to life in prison for taking part in a high-speed highway chase with police in which the nation’s first female local police officer was killed in 2010. A total of eight defendants, aged 32 to 58, appeared in a Paris court on Tuesday for the first day of a seven-week trial in which more than 100 witnesses and dozens of plaintiffs and experts are expected to testify. Another suspect was never found and is tried in absentia, while yet another has been arrested in Algeria and is the subject of separate proceedings. Three of the suspects are accused of murdering local police woman Aurelie Fouquet.
ITALY
Lesbian couple can adopt
A court in Rome has allowed a lesbian couple to adopt each other’s children, their lawyer said on Tuesday, less than a week after parliament threw out a bid to give gays limited adoption rights. Each of the partners in the case had given birth to a daughter, and the court gave them parental status regarding both children, their lawyer Francesca Quarato said.
CUBA
Rolling Stones to play
The Rolling Stones on Tuesday announced that the group will play a free concert in Havana on March 25, three days after US President Barack Obama visits the city. Local fans have been buzzing about a possible concert by “Los Rollings” since lead singer Mick Jagger visited Havana in October last year. The Havana “Concert for Amity” will cap the Stones’ America Latina Ole tour through seven Latin American cities.
UNITED STATES
Gray hair gene found
Scientists have identified for the first time a gene behind graying hair. Researchers on Tuesday said an analysis of DNA from more than 6,300 people from five Latin American countries enabled them to pinpoint a gene that affects a person’s likelihood of getting gray hair. The gene, called IRF4, is involved in regulating melanin, the pigment responsible for hair color, as well as the color of the skin and eyes. People with a certain version of the gene are predisposed to hair graying, said University College London human geneticist Andres Ruiz-Linares, one of the researchers in the study in Nature Communications.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other