UNITED STATES
Guilty plea of trade theft
A former employee of the chemical company Chemours has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal trade secrets and sell them to Chinese investors. Jerry Jindong Xu (徐晉東), a Canadian citizen, in August last year was arrested in New York and entered the guilty plea on Friday last week. He faces up to 10 years in prison at his sentencing on June 27. Prosecutors say the conspiracy involved the theft of trade secrets related to sodium cyanide, a chemical most often used to mine gold, silver and other precious metals.
NICARAGUA
Alliance calls for total strike
The National Alliance for Justice and Democracy on Tuesday called for a nationwide 24-hour strike to protest “extreme conditions” under President Daniel Ortega, who has yet to decide on reviving talks over the crisis that has left at least 148 dead. The strike is set to begin today at noon “in solidarity with the victims” of the two months of unrest. “This is a national and peaceful civil strike that covers the entire country and all economic activities, except those related to the preservation of life and the coverage of basic services for the population,” said the alliance, a key player in the now-stalled crisis talks. The coalition also demanded an “immediate” decision from Ortega on the prospect of reviving negotiations.
MALAYSIA
Top two judges resign
The nation’s top two judges are resigning, court officials said yesterday, the latest senior public servants to leave their posts since the former government lost power. Chief Justice Raus Sharif and appeals court president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin are to step down on July 31, a judiciary statement said. The resignations were approved by the king on Friday last week, as is required by law for such senior legal posts, the statement said.
INDIA
Lesbians’ struggle exposed
The suicide of a lesbian couple who jumped into a river and drowned highlights the hidden struggles of gay women, who are subjected to “corrective rape” cures and family pressure to marry, activists said on Tuesday. The women in Gujarat State left suicide notes on Monday, a police officer told reporters. He refused to confirm whether one woman also threw her toddler into the river, as reported by local media, which quoted the notes as saying: “We are leaving this world to live with each other. The world did not allow us to stay together.” It is more common to hear about lesbians committing suicide than other members of the LGBT community, gay rights campaigner Anjali Gopalan said. “They live a far worse life than gay men, a much tougher life, because there is largely more acceptance of male homosexuality,” she said. Lesbians face a life of double discrimination, first because of their gender and then because of their sexuality, activists say.
AUSTRALIA
Google defamation suit OK’d
The High Court yesterday cleared the way for a rare defamation action against Google, after entertainment promoter Milorad Trkulja claimed that it published material linking him to the criminal underworld. Trkulja was shot in the back at a Melbourne restaurant in a 2004 attack that was never solved. In 2012, Google was ordered to pay A$200,000 (US$151,356 at the current exchange rate) in damages to Trkulja, who claimed he was defamed by material that implied he was a major crime figure and had been the target of a professional hit.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not