AUSTRALIA
Drug van hits police car
Police have charged a driver after methamphetamine with an estimated street value of more than A$200 million (US$140 million) was found in a van that crashed into police cars parked outside a Sydney police station. A police statement yesterday said a Toyota HiAce van hit the cars outside the Eastwood Police Station on Monday morning, causing significant damage to one car, but injuring no one. Police stopped a van in a nearby suburb about an hour later, arrested a 28-year-old man and seized 273kg of crystal meth. The man was charged with supplying a commercial quantity of drugs, negligent driving and not giving his details to police. He was refused bail.
INDONESIA
Two Australians arrested
Two Australian men have been arrested with cocaine on Bali and could face long prison terms if convicted, police said yesterday. William Cabantog and David van Iersel were paraded at a police news conference in handcuffs and leg shackles. A police statement said they were arrested on Friday at the Lost City Club in the island’s trendy Canggu neighborhood with 1.12g of cocaine. It said Cabantog, 36, and Van Iersel, 38, each face prison sentences ranging from four to 12 years if they are convicted. According to police, Cabantog, who was described as a hospitality consultant, was well known for circulating cocaine in Canggu. The Lost City Club was managed by Van Iersel. No other information was immediately available on any court appearance or defense for the two men.
MOROCCO
Lawmakers back French
Lawmakers on Monday evening passed a draft law that would pave the way for strengthening the place of French in Moroccan schools, overturning decades of Arabization. The legislation was adopted in the lower house by 241-4, with 21 abstentions. Most members of the mainly Islamist co-ruling PJD and conservative Istiqlal lawmakers abstained from voting on the articles stipulating the use of French as a language of instruction. The text will enter into force after a second reading in the upper house and its publication in the official bulletin. The nation’s official languages are Arabic and Amazigh, or Berber. Most people speak Moroccan Arabic — a mixture of Arabic and Amazigh infused with French and Spanish influences. However, French reigns supreme in business, government and higher education, giving those who can afford to be privately schooled in French a huge advantage over most other students.
UNITED STATES
New York bans declawing
New York on Monday became the first US state to ban the declawing of cats, a practice already illegal in several countries and condemned as cruel by animal rights activists. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill outlawing the removal of cats’ claws for cosmetic reasons with immediate effect, in a move hailed by cat lovers. The legislation had been passed by the state assembly last month. “Declawing is a cruel and painful procedure that can create physical and behavioral problems for helpless animals, and today it stops,” Cuomo said in a statement. “By banning this archaic practice, we will ensure that animals are no longer subjected to these inhumane and unnecessary procedure.” Declawing is an operation that involves the entire or partial amputation of bones in a cat’s front feet. The practice is common in the nation, where pet owners often do it to stop themselves from being scratched or to protect their furniture.
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