JAPAN
Pilot 10 times over the limit
A Japan Airlines (JAL) pilot who was arrested in Britain shortly before a flight for being drunk was almost 10 times over the legal blood alcohol limit for a pilot, London police said. The copilot, identified as Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, aroused the suspicion of a bus driver taking him to the plane at Heathrow Airport on Sunday. He was arrested by British police and required to undergo a blood test. He had reportedly consumed two bottles of wine and more than 1.8 liters of beer over six hours on the night before the flight.
AUSTRALIA
Man jailed for wife’s suicide
A man was yesterday sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping his wife commit suicide so he could access her life insurance, in what the judge called a precedent-setting case. Graham Morant, 69, was found guilty last month of counseling and aiding his wife Jennifer Morant to kill herself in 2014. She suffered from chronic back pain and depression and was found dead in her car by police. In handing down the sentence, the judge said Morant stood to gain A$1.4 million (US$1 million) from her death. The court heard Morant had planned to build a religious commune with the money.
AUSTRALIA
Ex-NBA star’s dog seized
Former NBA player Lamar Patterson had his French bulldog seized by notoriously strict customs officials who found the animal stashed inside the athlete’s hand luggage. Patterson, who recently signed for the Brisbane Bullets, had the pooch — called Kobe — in his carry-on when he arrived in Australia on Thursday. “I wasn’t trying to scam my way into Australia with the dog, I just didn’t know,” he said. “If this is the biggest news in Australia, it is an amazing place to live, so I’m looking forward to being here.” Patterson was fined A$420 and Kobe was sent back to the US.
UNITED KINGDOM
Party probed for hate crimes
Police have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic hate crimes within the opposition Labour Party. The Metropolitan Police yesterday said that it is acting on a dossier of information given to Comissioner Cressida Dick. A police spokesman said it was handed to her following a radio interview on LBC radio. LBC had in its possession an internal Labour Party dossier that detailed 45 cases that involved social media postings by party members, including one posting that read: “We shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all.” Dick told BBC radio there is evidence a crime could have been committed based on the material given to her.
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