SOUTH KOREA
New test imminent: report
North Korea is believed to have placed a new, powerful mid-range missile on standby for an impending launch, a news report said yesterday. The reported launch plans came two days after North Korea said it had successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in a continuation of its weapons tests amid ongoing South Korea-US military drills. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified Seoul official as saying that the country’s military had unspecified evidence indicating North Korea would likely soon launch a mid-range Musudan missile. South Korean Defense Ministry said it had no such intelligence.
AUSTRALIA
Teen ‘shaken’ by crocodile
A 19-year-old on a family camping holiday in northern Australia had a lucky escape on Monday when he fought off a crocodile, which bit into his foot as he slept. The reptile struck at about 4:30am as the group slept at their campsite in the Northern Territory. Peter Rowsell told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he was woken by something “shaking” his right foot. “I was sleeping in a mozzie (mosquito) net, and ... I woke up and there was something shaking my foot, and I woke up and had a look and it was 3m to 4m long,” he said. He said he hit the reptile “once or twice” on the head and it went back into the water. His screams woke his fellow campers who drove him to hospital, more than two hours’ drive away.
INDIA
Fire destroys museum
A massive fire yesterday gutted the National Museum of Natural History in India’s capital, one of the country’s top museums, an official said. Firefighters took more than four hours to douse the blaze, which started on the top floor of the six-story museum, New Delhi fire official Harinder Singh said. Thirty-five fire engines were called. Singh said the entire building was gutted by the blaze. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the damage caused to the museum was being assessed. An investigation was ordered to determine the cause of the fire. Five firefighters overcome by heavy smoke were taken to a hospital and released after being treated, Singh said. No other injuries were reported.
EGYPT
Men jailed for being gay
A court has sentenced 11 men accused of homosexuality to jail terms of between three and 12 years, legal sources said. The defendants were arrested in a flat in the leafy Cairo suburb of Agouza in September last year. The court convicted them of “debauchery and incitement to debauchery,” the charges generally used to prosecute alleged homosexuals in Egypt as the law does not formally prohibit same-sex relations. Late on Sunday, it sentenced three of them to 12 years, three to nine years, one to six years and four to three years.
HONG KONG
Leader pans independence
Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly leader yesterday warned that the territory would lose investment and job opportunities if residents continue to seek independence. “The city’s 7 million residents would bear the political and economic consequences with those pushing for independence,” Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) told reporters at the government’s headquarters. “Investors would lose confidence in Hong Kong. People would lose opportunities to develop and to obtain employment,” he said. “Hong Kong would lose the trust and the support of Chinese authorities.”
AgenciesYoga suspect to return home
A tourist whose desire to do yoga on a plane led to his arrest is being allowed to leave Hawaii and return home to South Korea. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang previously allowed Pae Hyong-tae to be released on bond, but prevented him from leaving the state because of concerns about him being on a plane. On Monday, Chang made the modification after Pae’s defense attorney asked that Pae return to the Honolulu Federal Detention Center, saying his client cannot afford to keep staying in a bed and breakfast or to pay to see a doctor for more medication.
HUNGARY
‘Fart’ weatherman fired
A TV weatherman has been fired after giving a windy forecast some oomph with a range of fart sound effects. Szilard Horvath used recorded bottom noises to animate a windy outlook earlier this month, but his performance appears to have fallen flat with his employers. The TV2 channel, who hired the breezy forecaster last year to freshen up the weather slot, swiftly removed the offending clip from its Web site. “If Mr Bean or Benny Hill farts, everyone laughs, but now a big deal is being made about this,” Horvath said afterward. “It’s turned out I can’t do the weather on TV2 anymore... I need to find work,” he posted on Facebook.
UNITED KINGDOM
Junior doctors start strike
Junior doctors started their first-ever all-out strike Tuesday in a bitter, deadlocked row with Prime Minister David Cameron’s government over pay and conditions. The strike will have a major impact on the National Health Service (NHS), which employs thousands of junior doctors — graduates with years of experience who have not yet completed their professional qualifications. The strike will affect hospital emergency care units such as accident and emergency and maternity units for the first time, although senior doctors and nurses will still be on duty.
FRENCH GUIANA
Theory of relativity tested
Einstein’s theory of general relativity is to be put to the test by a newly launched satellite in an experiment that could upend our understanding of physics. The French “Microscope” orbiter will try to poke a hole in one of Einstein’s most famous theories, which provides the basis for our modern understanding of gravity. Scientists will use the kit to measure how two different pieces of metal — one titanium and the other a platinum-rhodium alloy — behave in orbit. Einstein’s theory suggests that in perfect free-fall, the two objects should move in exactly the same way, but if they are shown to behave differently, “the principle will be violated: an event that would shake the foundations of physics,” Arianespace said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Dog walks 386km home
A sheepdog made a 386km trek to be reunited with his original owners in Wales after apparently deciding that he did not want to settle on a farm in Cumbria, where he had been sent to work. Pero, a four-year-old working sheepdog, will now remain with his previous owners after turning up again on their farm near Aberystwyth, two weeks after making a break from Cockermouth on April 8. “We’d been told that Pero had disappeared, and was nowhere to be seen,” Shan James told the BBC from the family’s sheep farm in Penrhyn-coch. “But then, last Wednesday evening, 20 April, my husband Alan went out to check on the animals after supper and there was Pero on our doorstep. It was a bit of a shock, and the dog was going crazy after seeing Alan.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in