INDIA
Cyclone hits Lakshadweep
Cyclone Ockhi yesterday barreled into the southwestern Lakshadweep Islands after drenching the neighboring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, claiming at least 14 lives with many fishermen still feared trapped at sea. Authorities including the National Disaster Management Authority, the coast guard and navy have rescued about 223 fishermen and evacuated thousands of people from cyclone-hit areas, officials said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, assuring him of support operations, including emergency funds, local media reported. Ockhi was forecast to travel north toward Mumbai and Gujarat in the next 48 hours, India Meteorological Department Director S. Sudevan said, but added that it is likely to lose intensity.
UNITED KINGDOM
NCSC warns over Kaspersky
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on Friday warned government agencies to avoid using anti-virus software from Russian companies, the latest in a series of moves targeting Moscow-based security software maker Kaspersky Lab. In a letter to departmental permanent secretaries, NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin said Russian-made anti-virus software should not be used in systems containing information that would harm national security if it was accessed by the Russian government. He said the agency is in talks with Kaspersky Lab to develop a system to review its products for use in the nation. Kaspersky’s anti-virus software was banned from US government networks earlier this year over concerns the company has close ties to intelligence agencies in Moscow and that its software could be used to enable Russian spying. Kaspersky Lab said in a statement that it looked forward to working with the agency on the issue.
UNITED STATES
Do-gooders stop erratic car
Police said two Good Samaritans used their cars to stop a suspected drunken driver swerving all over a Pennsylvania highway. State police said the driver was traveling west on Interstate 76 in Butler County, north of Pittsburgh, at about 10pm on Thursday, when two people in separate vehicles saw him seemingly unable to keep his car in the lane and nearly hit a concrete barrier. Police said they managed to use their vehicles to box in the driver and bring him safely to a stop on the shoulder in North Sewickley Township. Frank Ray Blackmon, 53, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, police said. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the charge is pending lab results. Police said his license has been suspended.
UNITED STATES
Mom jailed for fastening son
A woman accused of taping her two-year-old son to a wall so she could get housework done and streaming it live on social media has been sentenced to nine months in prison. Prosecutors said 19-year-old Shayla Rudolph was on Friday sentenced for attempted child endangerment. She was indicted in January on charges of child endangerment and abduction, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in October. Her attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Prosecutors said the video streamed live on Jan. 1 showed the crying boy with his arms, head and ankles taped to the wall of their Reynoldsburg home in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Prosecutors said the boy’s mouth was covered by tape. Authorities said a TV station contacted police after receiving a copy of the video from an anonymous tipster.
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