INDONESIA
Re-vaccinations begin
The government yesterday began re-vaccinating nearly 200 children who received fake versions of imported inoculations from a drug-counterfeiting ring broken up last month after operating for more than a decade. President Joko Widodo urged calm as public uproar intensified over revelations that health officials knew about the syndicate producing the fake vaccines for several years, but did little to stop it. “I want to ask people to stay calm because this incident happened over such a long time,” Widodo told reporters at a Jakarta clinic offering re-vaccinations. “We need more time to investigate so we can get the real data of people who suffered from these fake vaccines.” The ring used stolen vials and forged labels to make the fake medicine look like imported vaccines produced by GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. Many more children are expected to need re-vacinnations.
IRAQ
Al-Sadr targets US troops
Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says the additional 560 US troops to be sent to the country to upgrade an air base recently retaken from the Islamic State group would be a “target” for his supporters. His threat came in response to a question from a supporter about the deployment, announced last week by US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Al-Sadr wrote on his official Web site late on Sunday that “they are a target for us,” without elaborating.
SOUTH KOREA
Senior prosecutor arrested
A senior prosecutor has been arrested for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars following shady stock transaction deals with a leading online game maker, officials said yesterday. Jin Kyung-joon, a vice ministerial-level official, was arrested and put to a detention facility on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Justice. Jin faces allegations that he borrowed 400 million won (US$352,000) from Kim Jung-ju, the founder of Nexon (Korea), to buy unlisted company shares in 2005 before selling them back to the company for 1 billion won the following year. He then allegedly bought shares of Nexon Japan, worth 1 billion won, before selling them for 12.6 billion won last year.
CHINA
Tax evader extradited
Beijing has extradited its first criminal suspect from Latin America following eight years of negotiations, repatriating an alleged crude soybean oil smuggler from Peru who has been on the run for 18 years, the General Administration of Customs said on Sunday on its Web site. The agency said Huang Haiyong evaded more than 700 million yuan (US$104.69 million) in taxes between 1996 to 1998 by selling 107,000 tonnes of smuggled soybean oil. Huang and his two associates fled to the US in 1998. He was caught in Peru in 2008.
AUSTRALIA
Rudd wants top UN job
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has officially requested the support of the government to back a bid for the top job at the UN, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday. Rudd has been rumored to be garnering support to replace UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he steps down at the end of the year. Bishop said the question of backing Rudd would be put to the Cabinet.
KAZAKHSTAN
Four killed in attacks
Suspected Islamist militants yesterday killed three police officers and a civilian in armed attacks on a police station and a security service office in Almaty, the Ministry of the Interior said.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Speedcubing champ crowned
Germany’s Phillip Weyer became the European champion in speedcubing, or solving a Rubik’s Cube puzzle, in Prague on Sunday, reaching an average time of 7.88 seconds. Weyer clocked the second-fastest time, behind Australian world champion Feliks Zemdegs, but won the European title because it goes to the best-placed European contender. Zemdegs, a world record holder, averaged 7.07 seconds at the Prague event, which attracted more than 500 participants. Weyer said it took years of hard work to get to the top. “Practice, practice, practice,” he said. “You do not get fast very fast so you have to practice a lot to [get] serious results. That is the only advice I can give.”
IRAN
S-300 delivery made
Moscow has delivered the missile part of a S-300 surface-to-air defense system to Tehran, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported yesterday, moving to finish the delivery of all divisions of the system to Tehran by the end of this year. “The first shipment of missiles of the S-300 missile system has recently entered Iran that shows Iran’s determination to equip its air defense circle with this system,” reported Tasnim, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards. The agreement to provide Iran with the S-300 has sparked concern in Israel. Russia delivered the first parts of the S-300, the missile tubes and radar equipment, to Iran in April.
UNITED STATES
Nude women protest Trump
More than 100 women stripped and posed naked with mirrors in Cleveland, answering a photographer’s call to blend art with politics and portray Donald Trump as unfit for the White House. They gathered on the eve of the Republican National Convention. “He is a loser,” photographer Spencer Tunick said after the sunrise shoot in which 130 women took part. One hundred of them are to be featured in the picture, which is to be unveiled shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election. The installation took place on private property in sight of the arena where the convention is to be held.
UNITED STATES
Police set Pokemon trap
Police in New Hampshire’s largest city have gotten the Pokemon Go bug, trying to lure fugitives with the popular app. A post on the Manchester Police Department Facebook page announces that police recently detected one of the more rare Pokemon characters — a Charizard — in the booking area. The post invites those whose names appear on a list linked to the post to be “one of the lucky ones” to come capture the Charizard. The list includes the names of the more than 500 fugitives on the department’s wanted persons roundup. Sergeant Eric Knight on Sunday said the post has yet to net an arrest, but it has been popular with its Facebook followers.
UNITED STATES
Alan Vega dies, aged 78
Punk pioneer Alan Vega, whose band Suicide brought a confrontational edge to rock with its jarring electronics, nihilistic lyricism and physically violent shows, has died. He was 78. The New York artist, who once said he expected to be killed in concert, died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, his family said. Born in Brooklyn as Alan Bermowitz, Vega first pursued a career as a sculptor, but took to music when he met future Suicide bandmate Martin Rev.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of