JAPAN
Shooting suspect in standoff
A suspect in a fatal shooting has holed up at an apartment in an armed standoff after he fired at a police car and escaped. Police in Wakayama yesterday said that Yasuhide Mizobata is wanted as a prime suspect in a shooting on Monday at a small construction company, where he allegedly killed one employee and injured three others. Mizobata had been at large since Tuesday night when police spotted him near the murder site. He fired four shots at the police car, shattering its windows and escaped. Nobody was injured in the shooting. Mizobata was seen carrying a handgun in each hand while pacing on an apartment balcony. He is not believed to be holding any hostage.
THAILAND
English program unveiled
The Ministry of Education has embarked on a program to ensure that all elementary students are able to speak enough English to handle everyday situations within 10 years. Deputy Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin this week unveiled a plan that calls for drastic changes to the English language curriculum in schools, including more classes, new textbooks and an intensive training program for top teachers who will become “master trainers” for other teachers.
SOMALIA
Car bomb death toll rises
At least 15 people died when al-Shabaab militants exploded a suicide car bomb outside a popular hotel close to the presidential palace in Mogadishu, police said yesterday, updating an earlier toll. “The number of the people who died in the blast reached 15 and 45 others were wounded, most of them lightly,” Mogadishu police chief Bishar Abshir Gedi said. He said civilians and security forces were among the dead in Tuesday’s attack. Several journalists who were at the hotel at the time of the attack were injured. A vehicle rammed through a checkpoint on Tuesday and was fired on by security forces before it exploded outside the SYL hotel.
JAPAN
Bodies found in Iwaizumi
At least nine elderly people were found dead yesterday at a nursing home as heavy overnight rain from Typhoon Lionrock left towns flooded across the country’s north. Police discovered the bodies in the town of Iwaizumi while checking another facility in the flooded neighborhood, said Takehiro Hayashijiri, an official at the Iwate Prefecture Disaster Management Division. The identity of the victims and other details, including the whereabouts of their caretakers, were not known, Hayashijiri said. Public broadcaster NHK said the home was for people with dementia. NHK also reported that authorities found two more bodies in another town in Iwate Prefecture.
AUSTRALIA
Senator snoozes on first day
A senator has fallen victim to the media freedom he champions when he was photographed snoozing on his first day in parliament. Former veteran journalist Derryn Hinch was caught napping as a senator beside him nudged his arm during Governor-General Peter Cosgrove’s 40-minute speech on Tuesday afternoon opening the country’s 45th parliament. Usually the extraordinary restrictions on press photographers working in the Senate ban such candid and unflattering pictures. However, the rules were relaxed on Tuesday because of the special circumstances of parliament’s first meeting since a national election in July.
UNITED STATES
Hawaii braces for hurricane
Residents of Hawaii’s Big Island on Tuesday were evacuating animals and stockpiling water, bracing for what could be the first hurricane to make landfall in the state in decades. The National Weather Service issued a hurricane warning as the major Category 2 storm dubbed Madeline hurtled west toward the island, urging residents to rush through preparations to protect themselves and their property and expect hurricane conditions within the next 36 hours. Hurricane Madeline, which on Tuesday was downgraded from Category 3 to 2, was weakening as it approached the islands, but is expected to remain a hurricane as it passes the state, meteorologist Chevy Chevalier said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Poll points to Corbyn victory
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is set to win a leadership race with even more support than when he was first elected last year, according to a YouGov poll in the Times yesterday. In the first published poll of those entitled to vote in the election, Corbyn is leading his rival, Owen Smith, by 62 percent to 38 percent, up from the 59 percent share of the vote he won last year. The party of former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is mired in one of the biggest crises in its 116-year history after the nation voted to leave the EU in June. Most of the party’s lawmakers responded by voting to withdraw support for Corbyn, believing that he could not win a national election, prompting the second leadership contest in a year.
VENEZUELA
Government arrests activists
Authorities have arrested several opposition activists accused of plotting violence during an anti-government rally scheduled today, President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday, while opposition leaders slammed the arrests as intimidation. The opposition is calling on sympathizers from across the country to march into Caracas to push for a recall referendum against Maduro, who calls the rally a plot to stir up violence and set the stage for a coup.
UNITED STATES
Ohio abandons alcohol limit
Craft brewers in Ohio now have the freedom to make boozier beers. A new state law yesterday took effect, scrapping caps on alcohol content for beer. Ohio is following the lead of other states in getting rid of its 12 percent cap that has been on the books since just after Prohibition. Craft brewers have flinched at anything restricting their ability to be creative and make stronger ales. Legislators said the law levels the playing field and makes Ohio even more attractive to smaller breweries looking to establish operations in the state. Craft beer is a US$22 billion industry in the nation, and sales were last year up by nearly 13 percent over the previous year.
ITALY
Venice Film Festival begins
A musical with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, Jude Law as a chain smoking pope and Mel Gibson’s comeback with a war drama are all tipped as must-sees at the Venice Film Festival, which yesterday opened its 73rd edition on Lido under heightened security. Space drama Gravity, comedy Birdman and last year’s clergy sex abuse film Spotlight secured Oscars after premiering in Venice, and those wins have helped attract talent to this year’s festival, artistic director Alberto Barbera said. “The second element is that this year there is a lot of good stuff around,” he told reporters as the red carpet was laid out in preparation for the star-filled lineup.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of