RWANDA
Radio suspended over insult
The Media Commission on Monday ordered a US-owned Christian radio station shut for three months after a “vile” sermon against women. Amazing Grace FM on Jan. 29 broadcast a sermon by local pastor Nicolas Niyibikora in which he called women dangerous, evil and against the plans of God. The broadcast sparked outrage and prompted separate complaints from the National Women’s Association and the Women’s Journalist Association to the commission, which oversees journalist ethics. “The sermon was denigrating women in the most vile manner,” commission chief Edmund Kagire said in a statement, demanding the station and preacher “issue a public apology for the damage they have caused.” The radio station is owned by US evangelist Gregg Schoof, who has been previously warned for airing inflammatory shows.
CAMBODIA
Rainsy crazy, stupid: PM
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called a rival “crazy and stupid” over his petition to try to get Facebook to release details of the way the nation’s ruler has used social media. Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s legal team filed the lawsuit in California last week, saying that Hun Sen was using the platform to commit human rights abuses and deceive the electorate. Among other allegations was that Hun Sen was paying for false Facebook “likes” to mislead voters about his support. “This person is crazy and stupid,” Hun Sen told thousands of university graduates in the capital, Phnom Penh, saying Rainsy was just jealous because his official Facebook page had 9.4 million “likes” compared with only 4.5 million for Rainsy’s. The case has drawn attention to the central role of Facebook in political discussion in the nation, where the government has shut the main opposition party, arrested its leader and cracked down on media and civil rights groups over the past year.
INDIA
Pakistan warned over attack
The government warned Pakistan that it would “pay for this misadventure” following a deadly attack by militants on an army camp in the northern state of Jammu & Kashmir. Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters on Monday evening that the army has ample evidence to prove that “the handlers of the terrorists were back in Pakistan.” Saturday’s attack on the camp near Jammu was the worst in months, with six soldiers and the father of a soldier killed. Among the 10 wounded were women and children. “Pakistan is expanding the arc of terror ... resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration,” Sitharaman said. “Pakistan will pay for this misadventure.”
UNITED STATES
Woman had 14 eye worms
An Oregon woman who had worms coming out of her eye is being called the first known human case of a parasitic infection spread by flies. Fourteen tiny worms were removed from the left eye of 26-year-old Abby Beckley in August 2016. Scientists reported the case on Monday. Beckley was diagnosed with Thelazia gulosa — a type of eye worm seen in cattle in the northern US and southern Canada, but never before in humans. They are spread by a type of fly known as “face flies,” which feed on the tears that lubricate the eyeball, scientists said. She had been horseback riding and fishing in Gold Beach, Oregon, a coastal, cattle-farming area. After a week of eye irritation, Beckley pulled a worm from her eye. She visited doctors, but removed most of the additional worms herself during the following few weeks.
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