NORTHERN IRELAND
UK legislator: no joint status
The party that supports Britain’s minority government dismissed the idea of giving Northern Ireland joint EU and UK status after Brexit as at best contradictory, one of its lawmakers said, adding that the idea had not been raised with the party. The plan, aimed at allowing the UK province to trade freely with both countries, is one of several being discussed in a bid to break a deadlock in Brexit talks and might not be proposed to the EU, a government official said on Friday. “These convoluted arrangements only arise because of the government’s failure to make it clear to the EU that regardless of EU negotiators’ attempts to keep us in the customs union and the single market, we are leaving,” Democratic Unionist Party Legislator Sammy Wilson said in a statement.
JAPAN
Locker baby’s mom arrested
A mother who allegedly delivered and killed her newborn baby at a Tokyo cafe before dumping the corpse in a locker was arrested yesterday, police said. Officers last month found the decomposing body of an infant, who appeared to have been choked to death, in the locker after unpleasant smells were reported there. The 25-year-old mother, Mao Togawa, was detained on suspicion of abandoning a body, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. The suspect is likely to also later face a murder charge as she largely admitted to the allegations, local media said.
ETHIOPIA
‘Law and order restored’
Ethiopia’s Cabinet has approved a draft law aiming to lift the country’s state of emergency that was imposed in February after months of widespread anti-government protests. It would be the most significant change so far under the country’s young new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has spoken openly about the need for reforms. “The Council of Ministers ... reviewed the security situation of the country. It noted that law and order has been restored,” the prime minister’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, said yesterday on Twitter. The draft law is to be sent to parliament for consideration.
THAILAND
Space trip for smelly fruit
It is one small step for the nation, one giant leap for Southeast Asia’s smelliest fruit. Bangkok plans to shoot durian into orbit to test its durability in a project that could see the staple “king of fruits” consumed in zero-gravity conditions. “In the future we want astronauts to be able to eat Thai food,” a spokesperson for the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency said. “We want to see whether there are any physical changes after it returns to Earth, for example it might get smaller or cracked.” The fruit is infamous for its pungent smell. The test is to use a dried and vacuum-sealed version of the fruit, which packs much less of an odor. Liftoff is scheduled for July.
UNITED STATES
Puppy killer charged
An Idaho teacher accused of feeding a sick puppy to a snapping turtle in front of several students has been charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. Preston Junior High School science teacher Robert Crosland was charged on Friday. He faces up to six months in jail and a US$5,000 fine if convicted. The school is in rural Preston, where the 2004 teen cult classic film Napoleon Dynamite was set. Several parents came forward to say Crosland fed the puppy to the turtle on March 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing