THAILAND
Wearing pink for king
Many people yesterday wore pink for 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a color they believe will help improve the monarch’s health, two days after the palace said he was in an unstable condition. The palace said on Sunday that the king’s health was “not stable,” in a rare public comment on the monarch’s health. Messages shared on social media since the palace statement have urged the public to wear pink, a color which first became important a few years ago when royal astrologers said it was good for the king and would promote well-being.
Photo: Retuers
PAKISTAN
Journalist cannot leave
The government has imposed a travel ban on a leading journalist after he sparked an uproar by reporting that civilian officials had clashed with the military over its covert support for militants. Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor at Dawn, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious English daily, said early yesterday that he had been placed on the “exit control list.” “I am told and have been informed and have been shown evidence that I am on the exit control list,” he tweeted, followed a short time later by “I feel sad tonight. This is my life, my country. What went wrong.” In his report on Friday last week, Almeida said leading civilian officials had warned the powerful army to renounce covert support for proxy fighters or face isolation.
VIETNAM
Blogger arrested
Police have arrested a blogger for anti-state writings which they said distorted the truth, tarnished the nation’s leaders and instigated the public to oppose the government. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 37, was accused of conducting propaganda against the state under Article 88 of the Penal Code and taken into custody in south central Khanh Hoa Province on Monday, police said yesterday on their Web site. If convicted, she could be jailed for up to 12 years. Quynh, who blogged under the name Me Nam (Mother Mushroom), has been blogging about the government’s human rights abuses.
JAPAN
Singer dies of brain cancer
The vocalist of electronic duo Boom Boom Satellites has died after a battle with brain cancer, the band said yesterday. Michiyuki Kawashima, 47, passed away early on Sunday, according to the duo’s official Web site. His partner, Masayuki Nakano, a bassist and programmer, hailed his longtime musical partner who had been left paralyzed by repeated operations for brain tumors. “I imagine he is soaring around the world, finally freed from the restrictions of his body,” Nakano said on the Web site. The duo debuted in 1997 with Belgium label R&S, building a firm fan base in Europe and later at home.
SINGAPORE
Raffles renovation planned
The historic Raffles Hotel is to shut for several months for renovations next year. Restoration of the 129-year-old hotel, declared a national monument in 1987, will be done in three phases beginning with the shopping arcade in January, the hotel’s management told a news conference. Work is to start on the main building and lobby in the middle of next year before the hotel shuts completely at the end of the year, with a reopening scheduled for the middle of 2018.
UNITED KINGDOM
Women happier today: poll
Women today are much happier with being female compared with 70 years ago, according to a BBC poll published on Monday, which also showed they are more positive about marriage and happier with their choice of husband. Nearly nine in 10 women surveyed said they would rather be a woman than a man, compared with just over half in 1947. The poll of 1,004 women also showed that 42 percent thought men and women gave up equal amounts of freedom in marriage. Only a quarter of men and women who took part in a survey in 1951 thought the same. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they would marry the same partner if they had their time again, compared with 77 percent of women and men asked the same question in a Gallup poll of both sexes in 1949. The biggest worriers were women aged 25 to 34, with top concerns including their health and the health of their families, not having enough money in old age and making ends meet.
UNITED STATES
Mother explains killings
An Indiana woman accused of smothering her two children after abducting them says she decided to kill them after hearing that authorities had issued an alert. Amber Pasztor told WANE-TV in a jail interview on Monday that seven-year-old Liliana Hernandez and six-year-old Rene Pasztor were in good hands in her father’s custody, but she did not think they were safe. She said — in her words — “My kids are in a better place. They don’t have no worries no more.”
BRAZIL
Police battle in Rio
Three people were killed and five wounded during pitched gunbattles on Monday between police and drug traffickers in two Rio de Janiero slums, triggering panic in the nearby Copacabana and Ipanema tourist areas. Two “criminals” were wounded in a morning clash and died at hospital. A third “fell off a cliff and died,” military police said in a statement about the shootouts in the Cantagalo and Pavao-Pavaozinho favelas. The man who fell to his death was wearing a backpack containing about 8kg of cocaine, the statement said.
AUSTRIA
Flag draws charges
From a distance, the fierce-looking eagles on the banners builder Markus Voglreiter is flying in the town of Obertrum might look similar to the bird on the national flag, but the bananas his eagles are clutching were enough of a departure to get Voglreiter charged with “vilification of symbols of the republic.” Voglreiter had the satirical banners made because he thinks the nation’s repeatedly failed or postponed attempts to elect a president make the country look like a banana republic. He was ordered to take them down, but raised them again after the vilification charges were dropped.
UNITED STATES
Pumpkin weighs in at 886kg
An annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California has a new winner: a third-grade teacher in Washington state who raised a giant one weighing 886kg. Forty-two-year-old Cindy Tobeck, who lives outside Olympia, said her pumpkin grew steadily since she planted it in April, spending much of that time in a greenhouse with heated soil. She said the secret to growing giant pumpkins is using the right seed. Hers came from a 1,012kg pumpkin that won a different contest last year.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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