FRANCE
Police accused of abuse
Police are regularly using pepper spray against migrants in Calais, Human Rights Watch said yesterday, an accusation denied by authorities. “Police use of pepper spray in Calais is so common that many asylum seekers and migrants had difficulty recalling precisely how many times they had been sprayed,” it said in a report. Of 61 migrants questioned by the group between the end of last month and early this month, 55 said they had been sprayed during the two weeks before the interview, and some said they had been sprayed every day, author Michael Garcia Bochenek said. Fabien Sudry, prefect for the Pas-de-Calais region, “categorically denied the false and defamatory allegations” in the report, which he said “have no evidential basis.”
THAILAND
1,066 turtles freed for king
Hundreds of people yesterday gathered at a beach to release 1,066 turtles into the sea as part of celebrations to mark the birthday of new King Maha Vajiralongkorn this week. The government has declared the king’s birthday tomorrow as a public holiday. At the Sea Turtle Conservation Center in Chonburi, members of the Royal Thai Navy, students and celebrities released the 1,066 turtles into the sea. The number 1,066 was chosen to symbolize the number 10 for King Rama X, as King Vajiralongkorn is known, and the number 66, one more than his age, to wish him longevity.
? AUSTRALIA
Aboriginal musician dies
A blind Aboriginal musician renowned for singing in his native Yolngu language with a heart-rending voice and a unique guitar-playing style has died at the age of 46. Darwin-based Skinnyfish Music said in a statement that Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, who is now referred to by local media as Dr. G. Yunupingu because of cultural sensitivities among northern Australian Aborigines around naming the dead, died on Tuesday after a long illness in a Darwin Hospital. Skinnyfish said Yunupingu is remembered as one of the most important figures in Australian music history who sold more than half a million copies of his albums across the world.
JAPAN
Woman ‘wrecks’ 54 violins
A woman has been arrested on suspicion of destroying 54 violins and 70 bows worth about US$950,000 owned by her ex-husband, police and media said yesterday. The 34-year-old was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly breaking into a man’s home in Aichi Prefecture and wrecking the instruments in 2014, with reports that the violins had been made or collected by her 62-year-old former partner. The collection included an Italian-made instrument worth ￥50 million (US$445,000), Jiji Press said. At the time of the incident, the couple were reportedly in the middle of a divorce, which was completed last year. The woman, identified as Tokyo resident Midori Kawamiya, traveled to China several times after the incident and was arrested upon her return to Tokyo, the tabloid Nikkan Sports said.
SWITZERLAND
Chainsaw suspect arrested
Police said the suspect in a chainsaw attack on a health insurer’s office that left five people wounded did not resist when he was arrested, but carried a bag with weapons on him. Prosecutor Peter Sticher said during a press conference yesterday that suspect Franz Wrousis, who was arrested on Tuesday evening in Thalwil, carried two loaded crossbows and two sharpened wooden slats. Police said they did not find the chainsaw.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
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