AUSTRALIA
New sex scandal hits military
The head of the country’s prestigious military training college in Canberra yesterday described the alleged rape of a civilian woman by a cadet as “completely abhorrent.” A 23-year-old army cadet has been charged over the incident on the grounds of the Royal Military College at Duntroon on Thursday. The case is the latest scandal to hit the Australian Defence Force, which has been stung in recent years by a string of allegations of abusive and sexist behavior in its ranks.
INDONESIA
Magnitude 5.5 quake strikes
A shallow magnitude 5.5 quake struck the west of the country early yesterday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of damage. The moderate-strength quake struck at 2:24am off the Mentawai Islands at a depth of just 5.5km, and 210km west of Bengkulu on Sumatra Island, the USGS said. Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
BAHRAIN
Hunger striker hospitalized
A jailed activist who has been on hunger strike for 58 days was moved to a hospital and fed intravenously on Friday after his health deteriorated sharply, his lawyer said. Protesters clashed with police at a gathering of more than 5,000 demonstrators in the north of the capital, Manama, to demand the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, one of 14 men in prison for leading “Arab Spring” pro-democracy protests last year. Khawaja’s lawyer, Mohammed al-Jishi, said Khawaja had been moved from an Interior Ministry clinic to a military hospital which was better equipped. His daughter, rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja, was detained during a protest on Thursday in front of the Interior Ministry. The ministry said in a statement she had “assaulted a public employee.”
YEMEN
Military chief fights dismissal
One of two military chiefs sacked by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has refused to give up his post, a military source said yesterday. Air force chief General Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, half brother of Hadi’s predecessor, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, refused to quit unless several senior defense ministry officials, including the minister himself, also leave, the source said. Saba news agency reported on Friday that Hadi fired the air force general as well as the head of the presidential guard, General Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh.
RUSSIA
Agency joins mission to Mars
The country will join the European Space Agency to launch a mission to Mars to sample dirt for signs of life, stepping in after NASA pulled out, the Russian space agency said on Friday. Despite describing the ExoMars project as the “Holy Grail of Mars exploration,” NASA left the US$1.3 billion project in February, citing a budget crunch and a change in focus. That gave Europe little choice but to turn to Russia or China for a launch vehicle for the two-spacecraft mission to collect and return soil from the Red Planet. Launches are planned in 2016 and 2018. Russia’s involvement in the ambitious mission could boost the status of its once-pioneering space agency after a string of costly and embarrassing recent mission failures. Among five botched launches last year was the Phobos-Grunt craft, which had been intended to reach one of Mars’ moons and would have marked the agency’s return to deep space after a two-decade absence.
UNITED STATES
Suspect in tuition dispute
The founder of the California Christian university where a gunman shot and killed seven people this week said the former nursing student returned to campus because of a tuition dispute, but had not previously shown any signs of violence. Jongjin Kim said that Korean-born One Goh became upset when administrators refused to grant him a full tuition refund after he dropped out of the nursing program last fall. Kim says Goh came to campus Monday morning looking for the person in charge of handling tuition, but before then, Kim says Goh had not exhibited violent tendencies, as far as he knew, and seemed “normal.”
UNITED STATES
Artist Thomas Kinkade dies
Artist Thomas Kinkade, whose brushwork paintings of idyllic landscapes, cottages and churches have been big sellers for dealers across the country, died on Friday, a family spokesman said. Kinkade, 54, died at his home in Los Gatos in the San Francisco Bay Area of what appeared to be natural causes, David Satterfield said. Kinkade called himself the “Painter of Light,” and his sentimental paintings, with their scenes of country gardens and churches in dewy morning light, were beloved by many, but reviled by the art establishment. He claimed to be the nation’s most-collected living artist, and his paintings and spin-off products were said to fetch about US$100 million a year in sales, and to be in 10 million homes in the US.
UNITED STATES
Heidi Klum divorces Seal
German supermodel Heidi Klum filed for divorce on Friday from her British singer husband Seal, two-and-a-half months after the pair announced their separation, spokesmen for the pair said. Klum cited “irreconcilable differences” in her divorce petition filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, which showed that the pair signed a post-nuptial agreement, according to the TMZ celebrity news Web site. The couple vowed to be “civil” for the sake of the children when they announced their split in January, with Seal saying it was “difficult,” but made easier because of their continued feelings for each other.
UNITED STATES
Granny guilty of child abuse
An Ohio woman has admitted keeping her nine-year-old granddaughter in a barricaded bathroom when she was not in school. Prosecutors say 50-year-old Dayton resident Rivae Hart pleaded guilty to abduction and endangering children on Friday. The felony counts are punishable by nine months to three years in prison. Hart and her husband, Brian Hart, had been the girl’s legal guardians since 2004. They were indicted on kidnapping and child endangering charges. Authorities said the girl was kept in a small bathroom blocked by stacked dressers and was rarely allowed out for several years. Police say the Harts told them they confined the girl because of behavioral problems.
UNITED STATES
Wild turtles protected
A nationwide effort to ban harvesting of freshwater turtles to satisfy hungry Asian markets is gaining momentum, with Alabama this weekend prohibiting collection of wild turtles and their eggs. Asia has depleted its own turtle species and has been turning to the US for its supply, said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. The demand for turtle meat for food and medicine is voraciously consuming more than 2 million wild-caught freshwater turtles a year, Miller said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
RSS