SOUTH KOREA
Moon to visit US next month
President Moon Jae-in is to travel to the US for a summit with US President Donald Trump late next month, presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said yesterday, amid high tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Details of the precise date and agenda are to be decided later, Yoon said. Moon backs engagement with the North to try to reduce tensions, while Trump’s administration has said military action is an option under consideration. “We will prepare the summit as an opportunity to cement personal ties and friendship between the two leaders,” Yoon said.
INDIA
Ex-minister’s homes raided
The Central Bureau of Investigation yesterday raided the homes of former minister of finance P. Chidambaram and his son in what it said was a probe into suspected criminal misconduct related to approvals of investment deals. At least 14 locations in Chidambaram’s home city of Chennai were searched by the bureau, TV news channels reported. A bureau spokesman in New Delhi confirmed a raid was taking place at the home of Chidambaram’s son, Karti, but gave no further details. Chidambaram, who served in the Congress government that was voted out of office in 2014, declined to comment when asked about the raids by reporters.
NEW ZEALAND
Millions of trash found
When researchers traveled to a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces of trash washed up on the beaches. Almost all of the garbage they found on Henderson Island was made from plastic. There were toy soldiers, dominos, toothbrushes and hundreds of hardhats of every shape, size and color. The researchers said the density of trash was the highest recorded anywhere in the world, despite the island’s extreme remoteness. Henderson is located about halfway between New Zealand and Chile and is recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site. University of Tasmania research scientist Jennifer Lavers was the lead author of the report, which was published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
TURKEY
More arrests ordered
The government has ordered the arrest of 85 energy and education ministry staff in an investigation targeting the network of a US-based cleric whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July last year, broadcaster CNN Turk reported yesterday. About 50,000 people have been formally arrested in court cases targeting supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen. President Tayyip Erdogan, who was to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington yesterday, is seeking Gulen’s extradition. No details were immediately available on the latest arrest warrants.
INDONESIA
Orangutan named ‘Alba’
A conservation group said that a rescued rare albino orangutan has been named “Alba” after thousands of suggestions were sent from around the world. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation said the name means “white” in Latin and “dawn” in Spanish. It hopes the animal will be an ambassador for the critically endangered species. The five-year-old female was rescued after being captured by villagers in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island on April 29. The foundation is collecting information on albinism in great apes to help decide the primate’s future.
ISRAEL
Minister cancels Jordan visit
A Cabinet minister has called off a long-planned visit to Jordan for a joint scientific venture following a spat between the countries over a deadly shooting in Jerusalem. Minister of Science and Technology Ofir Akunis said he was to skip yesterday’s event in Amman marking the launching of the “Sesame” particle accelerator because of Jordan’s reaction to the killing of a Jordanian who stabbed a police officer. Video footage shows the 57-year-old man swiping a knife before knocking the officer to the ground. Police say the officer shot the attacker dead. Jordan said it holds Jerusalem responsible for killing its citizen and denounced it a “crime.” The government called the Jordanian reaction “outrageous.”
ENGLAND
Serial killer Ian Brady dies
Ian Brady, a British serial killer notoriously known for the “Moors Murders,” died on Monday at the age of 79 in a high-security psychiatric hospital, authorities said. Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley — who died in prison in 2002 — tortured and murdered five children between July 1963 and October 1965 near Manchester. Both were jailed in 1966 for three murders before later confessing to another two. They became known as the Moors Murderers after four of their victims were found buried in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor, a national park 26km east of Manchester. “We can confirm a 79-year-old patient in long-term care at Ashworth High Secure Hospital has died after becoming physically unwell,” a spokesman from the Merseyside health service near Liverpool told reporters. Lawyers representing Brady had announced in February that he had been bed-ridden for years and it was “fair to say” that he was terminally ill. He was reportedly receiving palliative care for emphysema. Brady had repeatedly asked to be allowed to die and had been force-fed since 1999 when he started a hunger strike.
UNITED STATES
Russian sues over AP story
A Russian billionaire is suing The Associated Press for defamation over a story about his connections to a former campaign chairman of US President Donald Trump. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska on Monday filed a federal defamation and libel lawsuit over the March 22 story about his business ties with Paul Manafort. Deripaska said the article is inaccurate and hurt his career by falsely accusing him of criminal activity. The AP’s general counsel, Karen Kaiser, said the news organization stands by its story and will defend itself. The AP reported that before signing up with Trump, Manafort secretly worked for Deripaska with a plan to “greatly benefit the [Russian President Vladimir] Putin government.”
MEXICO
Priest stabbed at mass
A knife-wielding assailant stabbed a priest in the neck as he said mass in Mexico City’s cathedral on Monday, then tried to flee the church before being caught, officials said. “We are united in prayer for Father Machorro who just was gored in the neck in the cathedral,” fellow priest Jose Aguilar said on Twitter. The priest was rushed to a hospital for treatment of neck wounds, police said. They declined to give the identity of the assailant, who was turned over to prosecuting authorities. Mexico City prosecutors then said the man identified himself as a US national, called himself an artist and refused to give any motive for the attack. They said he had told authorities he would not offer information that could incriminate him, a prosecutors’ statement said.
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