JAPAN
Search on for abandoned boy
The search for a boy who disappeared after his parents left him behind in a Japanese forest as punishment yesterday pushed into a fifth day, but with no clues to his fate. Yamato Tanooka, seven, has been missing since Saturday after his parents made him get out of their car as punishment for misbehaving, leaving him behind in a wooded area on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. Police said yesterday’s search by more than 180 rescuers, including defense troops, focused on the area where the boy was believed to have been dropped off, and revisiting and combing through the woods. The case has captured national attention, with many praying for the boy’s safe return, while others bitterly criticized the parents, triggering a debate over whether their treatment of the boy was discipline or child abuse. Police said they are considering whether the parents should be charged with child abandonment.
INDONESIA
Strong quake rattles Sumatra
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake yesterday shook buildings and caused momentary panic in the Indonesian port city of Padang, officials and residents said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert immediately after the quake and Indonesia’s BMK weather agency said there was no threat of a tsunami. The quake was centred about 155km south of Padang, off the coast of Sumatra at a depth of about 50km, the US Geological Survey said. It had originally been reported with a magnitude of 6.2. Memories are still fresh in Indonesia of the massive magnitude 9.15 undersea quake that triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami, killing more than 200,000 people in a dozen countries. Most of those killed were in the province of Aceh on Sumatra’s northwest tip.
SRI LANKA
Fireworks spark hotel fire
Fireworks sparked a fire at a luxury beach resort minutes after it was opened by President Maithripala Sirisena, the hotel and local officials said. Police have already begun an investigation into Wednesday’s incident at the 300-room Shangri-La at Hambantota, the upmarket hotel operator’s first hotel on the island. “During the festivities, fireworks sparked a fire on a thatched roof covering a pool installation,” the group’s Hong Kong-based public relations chief Ilona Yim said. “No one was hurt and we are thankful for the help of the fire brigade, which was onsite and extinguished the fire within 10 minutes,” he said. The hotel said the president stayed on for a private dinner that was part of the opening at Hambantota, 240km south of the capital Colombo.
LAOS
Eight killed in bus explosion
A local official yesterday said that an explosion on a bus in the country’s south near the Vietnamese border killed eight people and injured three others. All the victims were Vietnamese returning to their home province of Nghe An in central Vietnam, a border guard official at the Cha Lo checkpoint said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The Vietnamese driver and his assistant were unhurt. The incident on the 45-seat bus that was loaded with lumber to make furniture occurred early yesterday in the province of Khammouane, he said. He added that police were investigating, and that pieces of firecrackers were seen at the scene.
UNITED STATES
Penis transplant patient well
The man who received the first penis transplant in the US left a hospital on Wednesday, three-and-a-half weeks after the operation. He is recovering well, with good blood flow to the transplanted organ and no signs of rejection, his doctors said. “Everything seems to be healing,” said the patient, Thomas Manning, 64, a bank courier from Halifax, Massachusetts. “Everything’s fine. It’s gonna get better, too.” Manning needed the transplant because his penis was removed in 2012 to treat cancer. The replacement organ, from a deceased donor, was attached during a 15-hour operation on May 8 and 9 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
MEXICO
Party use of women slammed
A political party has come under fire for bringing out topless women in body paint at a campaign event promoting women’s rights ahead of weekend elections. The four women appeared at Tuesday’s event in Mexico City wearing white pants and turquoise paint over their breasts and stomachs — the colors of the small New Alliance Party. The word “free yourself” was painted in their backs, under a drawing of an unfastened bra. They stood alongside New Alliance leader Luis Castro, who smiled and applauded in front of a banner reading “For the Women and Girls of Mexico City.” The party, an ally of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in Congress, was closing its campaign for seats in a constitutional assembly for the capital. The event was slammed by the federal government’s National Women’s Institute. The institute said in a statement it “condemns and regrets the existence of political campaign strategies that denigrate women by exhibiting them as objects, and repeating the sexism and stereotypes that encourage discrimination and violence.”
EL SALVADOR
Suspected gangsters killed
Authorities in El Salvador said men wearing military-style clothing and face masks have hacked to death four suspected street gang members. Prosecutors and police on Wednesday said that the killers were armed with rifles and machetes when they attacked the four alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang. The four were taken from a funeral service at a home in a rural area in Usulutan Province, led away and killed. There have long been reports of death squad-style killings in El Salvador, where street gangs have been battling police in a wave of violence that pushed the country’s homicide rate last year to 103 killings for every 100,000 residents.
FRANCE
Union vote to cut power
General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union workers voted on Wednesday to start rolling strikes in the power sector, including at all 19 nuclear power plants, as part of nationwide protests aimed at forcing the government to withdraw a disputed planned labor reform. The strike was expected to cut power output from 7pm on Wednesday as workers downed tools at plants, but it was unlikely to lead to blackouts due to a rule that obliges unions to maintain a minimum output level that prevents outages. However, state-controlled utility Electricity of France (EDF) might be forced to increase electricity imports from neighboring countries to meet demand. “All power production sites voted to strike from Thursday. All 19 nuclear plants voted for the strike,” Laurent Langlard, CGT union official at power utility EDF, told reporters. Langlard said CGT members at hydro and fuel-powered stations also voted for the strike.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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