AUSTRALIA
Man charged over acid lube
A 62-year-old man who allegedly put highly corrosive acid inside a lubricant dispenser at a gay nightclub has been arrested and charged, reports said yesterday. The Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) said it understood the incident occurred on Saturday at Aarows bar, which describes itself as “Sydney’s gay and bi social club.” New South Wales police confirmed a man was arrested and charged. “Following a number of similar incidents, items in the room had been alarmed to alert security officers if they were tampered with,” they said in a statement. It added that an alarm sounded and security detained the man before police showed up. The man, who has not been named, was charged with administering poison intended to injure, cause distress or pain. He has also been charged with entering a building with intent to commit an offense and malicious damage.
CHINA
Guangxi bus crash kills 10
Authorities said 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a bus overturned on a highway. The government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said the accident occurred on Sunday when the bus flipped over as it was approaching its final stop in the regional capital, Nanning. Another 32 people aboard the 47-seat bus were injured, five of them seriously. The bus driver was among those killed and the cause of the accident remains under investigation. Driver fatigue and poor vehicle maintenance are the usual causes of such accidents, although a greater emphasis on safety has greatly reduced road accident death tolls. Bordering Vietnam, Guangxi is among the country’s poorer and less-developed regions.
JAPAN
Police search for gunman
A man who allegedly shot dead a construction worker and wounded three at their office in Japan is on the run, police said yesterday, in a rare incident of gun violence. Public broadcaster NHK reported that the man, who is yet to be identified, was an acquaintance of the victims and is believed to still be armed. He opened fire inside the office of a construction company in the western city of Wakayama, a police spokeswoman said, adding that 45-year-old Junsuke Ishiyama died after being sent to a hospital for a bullet wound to his stomach. The three wounded were also sent to the hospital, the spokeswoman added, one of them unconscious. The city of Wakayama issued a warning, asking residents to stay in their homes, NHK said.
JAPAN
Abe support rating tops 60%
Support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe edged above 60 percent for the first time in almost two years, and nearly the same percentage want him to stay in the top job until Tokyo hosts the Summer Games in 2020, a media survey showed yesterday. However, voters were split over the prime minister’s “Abenomics” growth recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and promised reforms, with 47 percent giving a thumbs down to the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate stance, the poll showed. Support for Abe’s Cabinet hit 62 percent in the survey by the Nikkei business daily, conducted from Friday last week to Sunday, up four points from earlier this month. The newspaper suggested the rise could be due to Olympics fever, after a closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro where Abe appeared dressed as popular video game character Super Mario.
BELGIUM
Brussels building set on fire
Arsonists set fire to Belgium’s National Institute of Criminology in Brussels yesterday, causing an explosion but no casualties, Brussels prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said, adding that there were no immediate indications that the fire at the institute, which was empty at the time, was a militant attack, although nothing had been ruled out. “It was arson, deliberate arson at the laboratory of the federal police,” she said. “With a fire you get explosions, but it’s not that explosives were thrown inside or installed.” Referring to the possibility of militant involvement, she said: “It is a path we are looking down, but certainly not the first one we are thinking about. We are thinking more of deliberate arson by organized crime. We have no indications that it was terrorism,” she said. The attack was carried out by more than one person, van Wymersch said. Belgian broadcaster RTL said that a car rammed through barriers at the center at about 3am local time.
UNITED STATES
Mariah Carey sister arrested
The sister of pop star Mariah Carey has been arrested on prostitution charges in upstate New York. Police told the Daily Freeman of Kingston that 55-year-old Alison Carey was arrested in Saugerties on Friday following an investigation at a hotel. Police said she solicited money in exchange for sex from an undercover police officer. Police describe Alison Carey as a transient and said she advertised her services online. Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra told the newspaper that she identified herself as the performer’s sister when she was arrested. Alison Carey is due in Saugerties Town Court today.
UNITED STATES
Duck boat roof torn off
Part of the roof of a Boston duck boat was torn off after a driver failed to clear a bridge while out on a tour in the city. Fire officials said the Boston Duck Tours boat crashed into an overpass on Sunday evening. About 20 people were aboard the vehicle at the time. No injuries were reported. A Boston Duck Tours spokesman says the first-year driver was diverted off the normal tour route due to a road closure. Despite being unintentional, the driver’s actions will be reviewed by company safety experts. State police say the vehicle was not permitted to travel along the roadway due to height restrictions.
UNITED STATES
LAX closed after loud noises
Part of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was briefly closed on Sunday after loud noises were heard that sounded like gunfire, possibly caused by a man dressed in a black Zorro outfit who was later detained by police. Passengers who fled in panic after hearing the noises slowly filtered back to the busy airport, as the departure and arrival areas of the central terminal that were closed for a police sweep were re-opened. “Report of shooting at LAX proven to be LOUD NOISES only,” Los Angeles Police Department chief spokesman Andy Neiman said on Twitter. “No Shots Fired No Injuries investigation continues to locate source.” An individual “in Zorro costume has been detained” by airport police, airport authorities said on Twitter. It was not immediately known what role the individual played in the incident. Following the reports of an active shooter, passengers “in several LAX terminals self-evacuated onto the tarmac and rushed through federal security screening without being properly screened,” airport public relations director Nancy Suey Castles said after the terminal was cleared.
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