CHINA
Oldest captive panda dies
The world’s oldest captive giant panda, Basi (巴斯), has died at age 37 — more than 100 years in human years — her handlers said yesterday as they gave her an emotional send-off befitting a celebrity. She was something of a beloved star Straits Giant Panda Research and Exchange Center in Fuzhou, where she had lived since being rescued after she fell into a river in southwestern China at the age of five. She was the model for PanPan, the mascot for the first Asian Games in 1990 and was loaned to the San Diego Zoo in California for six months in 1987.
Photo: AFP
THAILAND
Rebel ambush kills soldier
One soldier died and 20 other people were wounded yesterday, including two civilians, as suspected rebels ambushed an army patrol in the Yaha district of Yala Province, officials said. The attack began early yesterday when a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying the army rangers in a remote village. A second explosive was detonated half an hour later as bomb squad experts arrived to clear the scene, followed by a shoot-out in which suspected militants peppered the security forces with fire.
FINLAND
Abducted aid worker freed
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs said a citizen working for the Swedish humanitarian organization Operation Mercy who was kidnapped in Afghanistan has been released and is safe. The woman has not been identified and the ministry said the family asks for privacy. The woman was abducted on May 20 during an attack on an international guest house in Kabul that left a German colleague dead along with an Afghan guard.
AUSTRALIA
Hanson wants veil ban
Senator Pauline Hanson, leader of the One Nation party, yesterday urged lawmakers to ban full-face Muslim coverings in public places. She has introduced a bill to make wearing full-face coverings an offense punishable by an A$4,200 (US$3,400) fine. Three senators, including Hanson, argued over her bill before a majority of senators shut down debate until a later date.
INDIA
Boat capsizes, 19 die
A boat crowded with construction workers capsized in the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh early yesterday and at least 19 people have drowned, officials said. At least 10 people swam to safety while about 31 passengers are missing, police officer Ram Kumar said. More than 60 people were on the boat when it capsized near the town of Baghpat. The boat had a capacity for only 35 passengers, district magistrate Bhawani Singh said.
CAMBODIA
US stops visas for officials
The US embassy in Phnom Penh on Wednesday stopped issuing visas to senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and their families. It said the suspension was implemented under US immigration law in response to Cambodia’s refusal to accept back its nationals whom the US wants to repatriate, adding that the action had been initiated by the US Department of Homeland Security. Under a 2002 agreement with the US, the government had accepted the repatriation of about 500 returnees per year, but it recently stopped.
MEXICO
Students hijack fuel tanker
Radical students in Guerrero State on Wednesday hijacked a fuel tanker truck and two buses, and later kidnapped four police officers to demand the release of about 10 students arrested over the vehicle thefts. Guerrero security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said in a statement that the students took the tanker truck with almost 30,000 liters of gasoline back to their campus and hijacked several delivery trucks carrying food. Police blocked their path and forced them to abandon two hijacked passenger buses, arresting 10 students. Other students later kidnapped four police officers to demand the release of those arrested. The arrested students were let go in exchange for the release of the four kidnapped officers, Alvarez said.
GUATEMALA
Lawmakers reduce penalties
Congress on Wednesday approved legislation reducing the punishment for campaign finance crimes, two days after blocking prosecutors and a UN anti-corruption commission from investigating President Jimmy Morales for alleged irregularities during the election that carried him to office. Lawmakers voted to reduce the maximum sentence from 12 to 10 years and to permit the decade in prison to be commuted with a fine. Critics called the changes an attempt to protect the president and his allies. Adding to the controversy, the vote came after lawmakers decided it was a matter of “national urgency,” postponing votes on school meals and other issues.
GREECE
Oil spill reaches beaches
Authorities have appealed to swimmers to stay away from some popular beaches on the coast of Athens after oil spilled from a sunken tanker started to reach the area. Small slicks were on Wednesday reported at beaches in the suburbs of Glyfada and Piraeus. Glyfada Mayor Giorgos Papanikolaou said municipal workers have set up floating booms offshore and used chemicals to try to dissolve the oil. Small tanker Agia Zoni II sank on Sunday while anchored off the coast of Salamis Island. It was carrying 1995.8 tonnes of fuel oil and 335.7 tonnes of marine gas oil.
FRANCE
Court bans tilde in name
A court on Wednesday banned a couple from giving their baby a name containing a tilde, ruling that the “n with a squiggle over it” was incompatible with national law, even though it was the name of two famous Breton writers. The couple from Brittany wanted to call their newborn baby boy a traditional name in the northwestern region. Born in May, the baby already has an identification card and passport with the tilde on it. His furious father, Jean-Christophe Bernard, said the battle was not over. “He will have his tilde, that’s for sure,” Bernard said. “When? We don’t know. We’ll see with a lawyer and with the town hall what we can do.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Museum eyes ‘fatberg’
Part of a huge “fatberg” blocking a 250m stretch of London’s sewer network could go on display after the Museum of London expressed an interest in obtaining a section of the 130 tonne mass of waste and fat. The museum, which is planning a move to a new site at Smithfield, contacted Thames Water Utilities about acquiring a section of the congealed block of wet wipes, diapers, fat and oil for their general collection following its discovery in a Victorian sewer in Whitechapel, east London. Alex Werner, lead curator for the new museum, told reporters that the fatberg “calls to attention the way we live our lives in a modern city.”
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