CHINA
City halts poultry trade
A city yesterday said it will suspend trade of live poultry in the interests of public health after neighboring provinces reported cases of human bird flu infections. Suzhou, the second-biggest city in Jiangsu Province, would halt trading of live poultry as of midnight, the official People’s Daily reported on its Web site. Two people have died of the H7N9 strain of bird flu in the nation this winter, the first fatalities among at least seven infections. In the past week, Hong Kong and Macau have also reported their first human bird flu infections for this season.
SOUTH KOREA
Park’s offices to be raided
The nation’s special prosecutor investigating a corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye yesterday said they had no choice but to raid the presidential offices, Yonhap news agency said. Special prosecutors are investigating allegations that Park colluded with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, and aides to pressure big companies to contribute to foundations set up to back her policy initiatives. Prosecutors said they need access to the presidential offices as part of their investigation. The office has denied access. Park has immunity from prosecution as long as she is in office even though her powers are suspended.
JAPAN
Travelers stranded by snow
Heavy snow in the country’s north caused transport chaos over the holiday weekend, with flights and train services canceled and thousands of passengers forced to camp out at a regional airport for three straight nights. Sapporo on Hokkaido island had up to 96cm of snow as of Friday night, the city’s heaviest snowfall in half a century, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The snow blanketed New Chitose Airport, the main gateway to the northern island prefecture, and caused hundreds of flights to be canceled. About 2,500 people were forced to stay there on Thursday night, 6,000 on Friday night and 2,600 in Saturday night, according to a security official at the airport.
TUNISIA
Three held over Berlin ties
Security forces have arrested three suspected militants after uncovering their links to Anis Amri, the Tunisian national believed responsible for the Berlin Christmas market attack that killed 12 people, the Ministry of the Interior said on Saturday. Amri’s nephew was among the three men and had been in touch by social media messaging with Amri, the ministry said. Amri was killed on Friday by Italian police after he pulled a gun on them during a routine search. The three are between the ages of 18 and 27 and had been active around Amri’s hometown of Oueslatia. The nephew had been communicating with Amri about declaring allegiance to the Islamic State group and had also sent him money using a false name, it said.
MALI
French-Swiss kidnapped
A woman with French and Swiss nationality was kidnapped on Saturday in Gao, the biggest city in the nation’s restive north, officials said. “We immediately launched a search,” a security source said on condition of anonymity, without revealing her identity or how she was abducted. Two elected officials in Gao, more than 1,200km from the capital Bamako, confirmed the kidnapping. There have been no claims of responsibility. A French diplomatic source in Paris said they were trying to verify the information.
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