AUSTRALIA
UN expert opposes reform
A UN expert on racism yesterday urged the government not to water down hate speech prohibitions, as bigots and extremists become more vocal. UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance Mutuma Ruteere joined the debate surrounding the Racial Discrimination Act at the end of a week-long fact-finding mission. The government had planned to amend Section 18C of the act, which prohibits offending someone on the basis of race, color or ethnicity, but shelved those plans at the insistence of Muslim leaders in the interests of forging closer community cooperation against extremists. However, several conservative lawmakers have argued that the law unreasonably restricts freedom of speech and want the 21-year-old section scrapped. Ruteere said the section “presents an interesting and useful balance” between freedom of speech and protecting minorities.
INDIA
Jayalalithaa has heart attack
The life of Tamil Nadu leader Jayalalithaa Jayaraman hung in the balance yesterday after she went into cardiac arrest, drawing large crowds to the hospital where doctors were fighting to save the hugely popular former actress. Jayalalithaa went into cardiac arrest on Sunday night, her condition deteriorating sharply after her admission with a severe respiratory ailment in September, the Chennai-based Apollo Hospital said. Jayalalithaa remains hugely popular, despite being jailed more than once for corruption. She has no obvious successor — during her latest illness, her picture was put on the chair at the head of the table at state Cabinet meetings. Police were deployed in large numbers in case emotional crowds of devoted supporters reacted strongly to further developments. Supporters have been known to commit suicide in the past in reaction to bad news.
JAPAN
Abe hopes for peace treaty
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday said that he hopes for progress in peace treaty talks with Russia, but that the decades-old issue cannot be settled in one meeting. Abe said he wants to discuss the issue candidly with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visits Japan on Dec. 15-16. Abe has been betting that his close ties with Putin and the lure of Japanese investment in fields from medical technology to energy could ease progress in the dispute over four islands seized by Russia at the end of World War II. The feud over the Northern Territories, known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia, has kept Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty formally ending their conflict. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov over the weekend said it would be difficult to close the gap in positions over a peace treaty and the territorial dispute.
VIETNAM
Flooding leaves 13 dead
Floods from torrential rains have killed 13 people in the nation’s central region, with more rain forecast for the area. Local disaster officials yesterday said that floods since late last month have killed six people in Binh Dinh Province and three in Quang Nam Province. The floods have largely receded, they said. The government said in a report that another four died in Quang Ngai Province. The floods damaged the region’s infrastructure, agriculture and livestock, it said. The report said a cold spell from the north is expected to bring heavy rains to the region starting yesterday. The region has suffered two bouts of floods since October, killing nearly 50 people.
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