THAILAND
Elephants honor king
Eleven elephants from Ayutthaya yesterday knelt in respect for the late king Bhumibol Adulyadej during a procession in Bangkok. The elephants and about 200 handlers marched to the Grand Palace before the animals crouched down for the observation of a minute of silence in memory of the king, who died last month at the age of 88. “This is the biggest event in my life,” said Ayuthaya Elephant Palace owner Laithongrien Meephan, who led the procession. Nine of the elephants were white and two were painted white.
Photo: EPA
IRAQ
Japanese journalist expelled
Kurdish officials on Monday deported a Japanese journalist whose work on fundamentalist movements and close relationship with extremists has often aggravated authorities. The Kurdistan Region Security Council accused Kosuke Tsuneoka of having a militant nom de guerre, Shamil, and said he was detained over alleged links to the Islamic State group. Tsuneoka was picked up near Mount Zerdk east of Mosul on Oct. 27 and he was later handed over to Japanese authorities, the council said. A Middle East specialist and war zone veteran, Tsuneoka has been detained in several countries because of his proximity to Muslim militants.
JAPAN
Sinkhole opens in Fukuoka
A giant sinkhole appeared yesterday in the middle of Fukuoka, swallowing part of a five-lane street near the main railway station. The gaping hole, about 30m wide, exposed support columns of nearby buildings at a traffic intersection. Television footage showed two separate holes steadily expanding as they sucked in asphalt and soil in front of Hakata Station sometime after 5am. The hole continued to expand and by afternoon was about 15m deep, and filling with water from broken pipes. Police said there had been no reports of any injuries. Officials said the extension to a nearby subway line might have triggered the sinkhole.
GERMANY
Abduction a repeat
A yachting Web site on Monday reported that Juergen Kantner, 70, and his partner, Sabine Merz, who were reportedly abducted by Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines over the weekend, had been seized and held for ransom eight years ago by Somalian pirates. They were held for 52 days in 2008 before their captors freed them, reportedly after a six-figure ransom had been paid, the Web site said. Merz was reportedly shot and killed in the latest attack. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted an Abu Sayyaf spokesman as saying via telephone that the woman had fired upon them. “Our men shot back and killed her,” he said.
JAPAN
Foot fancier arrested
Police in Kyoto have arrested a fetishist who allegedly licked and nibbled a woman’s foot for more than 30 minutes, police said yesterday. Akira Nishiyama was arrested on Monday in connection to a July incident when a man talked the victim into sitting in the driver’s seat of his car under the pretense of helping him check the brakes. Nishiyama, 56, allegedly grabbed the woman’s right foot, removed her sandal and began licking the sole of her bare foot, a police spokesman said.
UNITED STATES
Cue maker gets probation
A famous custom pool-cue maker has been sentenced to two years of probation for his role in trying to help export protected African elephant ivory to Taiwan. Seventy-five-year-old Cesar “Ernie” Gutierrez on Monday was also ordered to immediately pay a US$10,000 criminal fine. Gutierrez pleaded guilty on Aug. 29 to aiding and abetting the attempted smuggling of African elephant ivory. Prosecutors say Gutierrez manufactured and sold two people 41 sections of custom pool cues with inlays of the protected ivory for US$75,000 to US$85.000. Both individuals were later arrested at Los Angeles International Airport.
GERMANY
Nazi tattoo bearer sentenced
A court on Monday sentenced a politician to eight months in jail after he was spotted at a swimming pool with a tattoo of a Nazi slogan and a rendering of the Auschwitz death camp. A district court in Neuruppin, north of Berlin, found 28-year-old Marcel Zech guilty of public incitement and gave him a harsher punishment on appeal than the six-month suspended sentence he originally received in December last year.
ISRAEL
Three teenagers face jail
A court on Monday sentenced three Palestinian teenagers to more than a decade in prison for stabbing Israelis. A 14-year-old was among those involved in one of the most high-profile attacks. Ahmed Manasra, 14, was sentenced to 12 years after having earlier been found guilty of the attempted murder of two Israelis, a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy. He was 13 at the time of the attack in October last year. The stabbings led to a propaganda war between Palestinians and Israelis, sparked by surveillance footage of the incident. Manasra carried out the attack along with his 15-year-old cousin Hassan, who was shot dead by security forces. The two Israelis were seriously wounded.
FRANCE
Briton wins bistro honor
A small cafe run almost singlehandedly by a British chef on Monday was named as the nation’s best village bistro. Manchester-born Chris Wright only set up the Epicerie de Dienne as a shop/cafe/restaurant in a remote village in the mountainous Cantal region in June. With Dienne having less than 200 permanent residents, the entirely self-caught cook was not expecting crowds. “I wanted it to be a low-key thing,” said the 44-year-old, who was looking for a bit of a break after spending more than a decade cooking and serving day and night at Le Timbre, a tiny, but much-loved Parisian eatery.
ITALY
McDonald’s files lawsuit
McDonald’s has filed a US$20 million lawsuit against Florence for blocking a proposed outlet in the city’s most revered square. The US fast-food chain on Monday told reporters that it was claiming 17.8 million euros (US$19.65 million) in damages after the city rejected an application to open an outlet in the historic Piazza del Duomo, one of the most visited places in Europe. McDonald’s said the suit was being filed with the administrative court, which arbitrates in governance disputes. Florence Mayor Dario Nardella turned down McDonald’s application in June in a decision that was confirmed the following month by a technical panel in charge of preserving the city’s ancient heart. Local media reports said McDonald’s is aggrieved, as it had promised to make major changes to its business model to fit in with local regulations.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in