VIETNAM
Give blood, Jet Li says
Action star Jet Li called on young people to donate blood ahead of the busy Lunar New Year when millions will travel. The actor posed for photos with fans while visiting a park in the capital, Hanoi, where the Red Cross was taking blood donations yesterday. He also awarded gifts to donors who have given blood several times during the year. Li is a Goodwill Ambassador for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. His visit comes ahead of the Lunar New Year, or Tet, which begins on Feb. 3.
JAPAN
Cargo transported to ISS
A rocket successfully took an unmanned cargo transporter to the International Space Station (ISS) into orbit yesterday, the national space agency said. The H-IIB rocket took off from the Tanegashima space center at 2:37pm. About 15 minutes later, it put the cargo unit into a planned orbit, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The “Kounotori [stork] 2” space vehicle is carrying five tonnes of supplies, including food, water and experimental tools for astronauts. It is scheduled to reach the space station on Thursday ahead of the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery on Feb. 24. It was the nation’s second cargo transfer mission to the ISS, where Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa is scheduled to stay for six months from late May.
PHILIPPINES
Grenade goes off at lecture
Bomb squad training for the police became a little too realistic when a grenade went off during a lecture, injuring six officers, an official said yesterday. An instructor was teaching other officers how to handle explosive devices, such as land mines and home-made bombs, when the accident occurred on Thursday on the southern island of Mindanao, police spokesman Christian Carlitos said. “The instructor was demonstrating how to defuse a grenade when he accidentally pulled the safety pin,” Carlitos said. The grenade exploded, injuring the instructor and five of his students. They were sent to hospital, but escaped serious injury, the police said.
PAKISTAN
Three killed by blast
Three people, including two paramilitary soldiers, were killed in a roadside bomb blast in the northwest tribal district of Orakzai yesterday officials said. An improvised explosive device planted by militants went off in the town of Ibrahimzai during a routine patrol by paramilitary soldiers, a security official said. “A military official in the provincial capital Peshawar confirmed the incident, saying the wounded had been taken to a local hospital.
JAPAN
Bird flu chickens culled
The slaughter of about 10,000 chickens began yesterday at a poultry farm in western Miyazaki Prefecture in a bid to contain an outbreak of bird flu, the local government said. Officials in the prefecture, 900km southwest of Tokyo, said 36 chickens were found dead on Friday at the poultry farm. Preliminary tests confirmed that six of the birds had died of the H5 subtype of the avian flu virus, the officials said. In an effort to prevent a larger outbreak, the local government decided to slaughter all the chickens at the farm, setting up 20 checkpoints for disinfection and banning any movement of chickens within a 10km radius. It was the first outbreak of bird flu since 2007 in Miyazaki, where a foot-and-mouth outbreak also forced the slaughter of almost 300,000 farm animals last year.
UNITED STATES
Teacher accused of abuse
A elementary school teacher in San Antonio, Texas, is on leave after being accused of putting transparent tape over a first-grader’s mouth, officials said. Danny Kelly said his daughter was afraid to tell him what happened the day before winter break, but her classmates at Schertz Elementary told their parents, who called the principal. District spokeswoman Rebecca Villarreal said officials put the teacher on administrative leave as soon as the taping was reported. An investigation is ongoing.
UNITED STATES
Sex in class probed
A primary school teacher in northern California was placed on leave while the school investigates a report by a student that classmates engaged in oral sex and stripped off some of their clothes during class, officials said on Friday. “We believe, if the reports are true, there was a serious lapse of judgment or lack of supervision in the classroom,” said Troy Flint, a spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District. The name of the Markham Elementary School teacher has not been released. The teacher said he did not see any of the suspected acts take place, Flint said. The principal learned of the allegations on Wednesday after the student came forward, the Oakland Tribune reported. A letter was sent on Thursday informing parents there was an investigation. Counselors were on hand on Friday to speak with students at the school. Investigators were also interviewing students and faculty to find out what might have occurred last week.
UNITED STATES
Olbermann leaves MSNBC
Cable news TV network MSNBC has ended its contract with its top liberal anchor, Keith Olbermann, it said on Friday. Olbermann signed off for the last time on his Countdown with Keith Olbermann political affairs program on Friday night. His departure came two months after MSNBC briefly suspended Olbermann for giving money to three Democratic politicians during the congressional election campaign, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt on Jan. 8 in Tucson, Arizona. “MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” the network’s statement said. Olbermann’s program helped define MSNBC as a liberal voice in cable TV and a counterpoint to Fox News’ largely conservative bent. MSNBC is now second in cable news ratings behind Fox News and ahead of CNN.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
‘Missing’ piano reappears
The supposed disappearance and re-emergence of a Bosendorfer piano left red faces in the ranks of the ruling coalition party over the past week. Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, whose People’s Partnership party was voted into power last May, attempted to embarrass former prime minister Patrick Manning last week by insisting that an expensive Bosendorfer piano had been improperly moved from the prime minister’s residence and suggested Manning knew its whereabouts. A day later, national security adviser to the prime minister Gary Griffith admitted that the piano was discovered at the Diplomatic Center, exactly where Manning left it when he vacated office, eight months ago. Griffith said that the piano had remained unseen for close to a year due to it being “deliberately tucked and hidden away” under “layers of cloth.” Ramlogan has so far defied demands for a public apology from the opposition
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
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