MALAYSIA
Warrants issued in Kim case
Interpol has issued a red notice, the closest to an international arrest warrant, for four North Koreans wanted in connection with the killing of Kim Jong-nam, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said yesterday. “We have obtained a red notice for the four North Korean nationals who were at the airport on the day of the incident and who have since left... We are hoping to get them through Interpol,” he said. Meanwhile, deputy national police chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim said that Kim’s family had given consent to authorities to decide what to do with his body. Officials say police confirmed Kim’s identity on Friday last week using the DNA of one of his children.
FRANCE
Weather girl draws millions
A young woman with Down syndrome presented the weather on national television, attracting the biggest audience of the season. France 2 on Wednesday said that Melanie Segard’s presentation on Tuesday night drew 5.3 million viewers. Segard, 21, arrived early at the network for hair and makeup and appeared about halfway through the weather report to present the weekend weather. She and the regular weather presenter ended the broadcast by clasping hands and embracing. Segard earned the chance after launching a petition called “Melanie can do it” on Facebook. “There we go; I did it,” she wrote on Facebook afterward.
GERMANY
Coconut cannon impounded
A dog walker in Berlin can be thankful he turned out to be a fruitless target after his close call with a coconut cannon. The man was walking in an industrial area on March 1 when he heard a bang and a ball-shaped projectile flew past him, hitting a nearby lamppost. Berlin police say officers called to the scene were surprised to find a large, homemade compressed-air cannon capable of shooting coconuts at high speeds. A 23-year-old man told officers he had helped to build the cannon for an art project in the Antarctic and wanted to test it before it was shipped. Police on Wednesday said that they impounded the cannon and prosecutors are investigating whether it breaches arms control laws.
UAE
Cat menaces put to work
The ruler of Dubai on Wednesday ordered three men accused of feeding a cat alive to two dogs and filming it to clean the city’s zoo for three months. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum ordered “those detained for torturing the cat to perform community service by cleaning the Dubai Zoo for four hours a day for three months,” a government statement said. It is not clear if the men will also face prosecution. A recently enacted law on animal cruelty stipulates punishment of up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 dirhams (US$54,500). Emirati newspapers said a Gulf citizen and two Asians had been arrested over the video, which was widely shared on social media.
UNITED STATES
Popcorn ball stolen
Police say someone swiped a 32kg popcorn ball worth hundreds of dollars from a suburban Cleveland shop where it was being auctioned. The oversized snack dyed red, white and blue was taken from outside the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop over the weekend and police have asked area residents to keep an eye out for it. Shop owner Dewey Forward told Cleveland.com that the popcorn ball can be returned with no questions asked and no charges filed, but it had not turned up so far.
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