NORTH KOREA
Hyundai tours banned
The country has stripped South Korean company Hyundai of its right to run cross-border tours in an apparent bid to press Seoul to soften its stance toward Pyongyang. The Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee said in a statement there would be no more tours run by Hyundai Asan to the scenic Mount Kumgang in the North, where the company has invested millions of dollars. South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said the announcement was unacceptable.
CHINA
Japan import ban expanded
The country has expanded its import ban on food and produce from Japan over fears of radioactive contamination from a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, state media reported yesterday. The ban, which came into force on Friday, includes foodstuffs, farm produce and fodder from 12 prefectures near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, up from five in the original ban, Xinhua news agency said, quoting a statement from the quarantine and food safety administration. The administration also demanded that food imports from other areas be accompanied by certificates showing they were free of radioactivity and giving their places of origin. Beijing has expressed concern over the release into the sea of radioactive water from the nuclear power plant and urged its neighbor to protect the marine environment.
INDIA
Kashmiri shops closed
Shops and schools in Indian-controlled Kashmir are closed to protest the blast that killed a moderate Muslim religious leader outside a mosque in the disputed Himalayan region. Police believe Moulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah was killed on Friday by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a parked bicycle near the mosque. An alliance of separatist political and religious groups called for a public strike yesterday, while police and paramilitary troops set up road blocks and patrolled the near-deserted streets of Srinagar in anticipating unrest. Thousands chanted pro-independence slogans during Shah’s funeral on Friday night. Shah supported pro-independence efforts in Kashmir, but condemned the practice of throwing stones at government forces.
THAILAND
Firefight kills four
A suspected gunman killed in a shoot-out with security forces was among four people shot dead in violence across the troubled deep south, police said yesterday. The 47-year-old Muslim man died in the firefight after 70 police officers and army troops surrounded a house in Yala Province yesterday following a tip-off that militants were hiding in the property. Police said the victim was wanted on several arrest warrants related to security issues including shootings and bombings. Two others are thought to have escaped.
INDONESIA
Allow observers: Cambodia
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong yesterday expressed disappointment over Thailand’s refusal to send Indonesian military observers to the disputed Thai-Cambodia border. At an ASEAN meeting in February, Thailand and Cambodia agreed to accept Indonesian observers to a flashpoint section of the border where heavy fighting erupted the same month. However, Thailand’s military in March said the observers were not wanted in the disputed area near an 11th-century temple because it was too dangerous and they would only complicate matters.
GEORGIA
Old lady denies axing Web
A 75-year-old woman arrested for single-handedly cutting off the Internet in Georgia and Armenia on Friday tearfully insisted she was innocent and said she had never heard of the Web. In a case that has attracted worldwide interest, pensioner Hayastan Shakarian is accused of forcing thousands of people in both countries to go offline for hours after hacking into a fiber-optic cable while digging for scrap metal. However, Shakarian, a Georgian of Armenian origin, told reporters that she was just a “poor old woman” who was not capable of committing such a crime. “I did not cut this cable. Physically, I could not do it,” she said, repeatedly bursting into tears as she spoke. Shakarian, who lives in the poverty-stricken village of Armazi, about 15km from Tbilisi, said that she had only been collecting firewood. “I have no idea what the Internet is,” she added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Paper apologizes for hacking
The owner of the News of the World offered an “unreserved apology” on Friday for phone hacking and said the newspaper would set up a compensation fund. Rupert Murdoch’s News International said it admitted liability in some cases brought against the News of the World, the country’s top-selling newspaper. Actress Sienna Miller is believed to be among those offered a settlement. The apology came three days after police arrested the Sunday tabloid’s chief reporter and a former news editor on suspicion of having unlawfully intercepted mobile phone voice-mail messages.
FRANCE
Habitual art thief charged
Notorious compulsive art thief and collector Stephane Breitwieser was charged with several new crimes on Friday after dozens of old masters were discovered at his home Strasbourg. An investigating magistrate interviewed the 39-year-old and has already charged him with one theft and with handling goods stolen in Belgium and Germany, officials said. Assistant prosecutor Claude Palpacuer said Breiwieser had admitted some of the allegations against him. He is free on bail, but may face further charges and will eventually be put on trial. A grand-nephew of Alsatian painter Robert Breitwieser (1889-1975), Stephane won infamy in 2002 when he admitted stealing hundreds of works from museums, castles and palaces around Europe, supposedly for his own collection. When he was finally arrested in Switzerland in 2001, his mother Mireille Stengel threw around 100 works of art worth several million euros into a canal, most of which were eventually recovered.
KENYA
Anti-rebel aid enhanced
Nairobi has vowed to bolster Somalia’s fight against al-Qaeda-linked insurgents along its border with the Horn of Africa country, where troops from both sides are battling the rebels, the Somali prime minister said. Last month, Somali troops and government-friendly militia took control of the border town of Beledhawo from the al Shabaab rebels. The town is a stone’s throw from the Kenyan border town of Mandera. “Kenya has given us a commitment to give us its support to eliminate al Shabab fighters who have deployed foreign fighters in the border areas,” Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said after meeting his Kenyan counterpart Raila Odinga late on Thursday. He did not specify where the foreign jihadists were from, or the type of support that Nairobi would extend.
UNITED STATES
Survey criticizes N Korea
Washington said on Friday that North Korea’s human rights record was dismal, with a range of abuses including infanticide and apparent shoot-to-kill orders against fleeing refugees. The State Department’s annual human rights survey pointed to problems across the board, though it acknowledged it was mostly relying on second-hand accounts due to a lack of access. Presenting the report, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor Michael Posner said it was difficult to detect any overall trends in North Korea as the situation was “grim, grim, grim.”
CHILE
Catholic Church apologizes
The Catholic Church apologized on Friday for sexual abuse by pedophile priests in the country, taking the blame for a lack of diligence in investigating victims’ complaints. “We humbly offer our apology and any support we can give them [victims] in addition to our prayers,” the Chilean Episcopal Conference said in a statement. “We recognize that we have not always responded promptly and effectively to complaints. We express our solidarity with the victims of these abuses and their families, and we make their sufferings ours.” The statement was the first time the church has issued a formal apology.
ITALY
Berlusconi to defend self
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to defend himself in court tomorrow on accusations of fiscal fraud linked to his Mediaset business empire, his lawyer said. “Barring any last-minute institutional engagement, Silvio Berlusconi will be in court in Milan this Monday for the Mediaset trial,” Piero Longo was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency. Berlusconi is accused of artificially inflating the price of distribution rights for films bought by television companies belonging to him and then setting up slush funds abroad in order to pay less tax.
CANADA
No role for French rock star
A French rock star convicted of killing his girlfriend will not appear in Montreal and Ottawa theatrical productions after his casting provoked a public outcry, the Theatre du Nouveau Monde said on Friday. The company had invited Bertrand Cantat to appear in three plays by Sophocles directed by Wajdi Mouawad. This follows a public outcry this week over his casting. Cantat, the former lead singer of the band Noir Desir, was sentenced to eight years in jail after he beat his girlfriend Marie Trintignant to death in a Lithuanian hotel room in 2003. He was paroled in 2007. Theatre du Nouveau Monde had earlier defended its casting choice, saying Cantat paid for his crime.
GUATEMALA
President’s divorce approved
The courts have approved the divorce of President Alvaro Colom and first lady Sandra Torres, opening the way for her to run for president in September, a judge said on Friday. “They are legally divorced,” said family court judge Midred Roca, who presided over the proceedings. Colom and Torres’ decision to divorce by mutual consent raised a wave of criticism from opponents who called it a cynical attempt to circumvent a constitutional ban on a president being succeeded by his or her spouse. Torres, who is supported by an alliance of the governing National Unity of Hope party and the right-wing Grand National Alliance, said last month she was divorcing despite her love for her husband.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS