JAPAN
US sailors jailed for rape
Two US sailors who raped a woman in Okinawa in October last year, sparking island-wide anger, have been jailed for nine and 10 years, a report said. The Naha District Court said Christopher Browning, 24, should be jailed for 10 years, while Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, should serve nine years, Jiji Press reported. Earlier this week the two men had admitted the offense, which led to a nationwide nighttime curfew on all US military personnel in the nation. Despite the curfew, misconduct involving US servicemen, much of it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communities with bases.
IRAQ
Attacks kill 26 people
Bombings in and around Baghdad, including two car bombs near a soccer field, killed at least 23 people on Thursday, while three people were shot dead in the north of the country, security and medical officials said. With the latest violence, more than 210 people were killed and over 550 wounded in attacks last month, according to security and medical sources.
NEW ZEALAND
Court rules against Dotcom
US prosecutors won a Wellington court victory yesterday in their battle to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and three colleagues accused of facilitating massive copyright fraud through the now-defunct online file-sharing site. The appeals court overturned an earlier ruling that would have allowed Dotcom and the others broad access to evidence in the case against them at the time of their extradition hearing, which is scheduled for August. The court ruled that extensive disclosure would bog down the process and that a summary of the US case would suffice.
SOUTH KOREA
Troops join joint exercises
Thousands of US troops converged on the nation yesterday for the start of annual joint military exercises, a report said, as tensions run high on the peninsula following North Korea’s third nuclear test. A joint air, ground and naval field training exercise known as Foal Eagle is to run until April 30, involving more than 10,000 US troops along with a far greater number of South Korean personnel. Separately, troops from both nations are to stage a computer-simulated drill named Key Resolve from March 11 to March 21. Pyongyang habitually denounces the drills as a rehearsal for invasion, but Seoul and Washington insist they are defensive in nature.
UNITED STATES
Vegas shooting suspect held
A multi-state manhunt came to an end when a self-described pimp was arrested near Los Angeles one week after a vehicle-to-vehicle shooting and spectacular, fiery crash that killed three people on Las Vegas’ main boulevard, police said. Ammar Harris, 26, surrendered on Thursday to police and federal agents, authorities said. Harris, whose Internet posts show him with fists full of money boasting of a high-rolling lifestyle with prostitutes, was the subject of a multi-state search after the Feb. 21 attack at a neon-lit intersection that is home to posh casino resorts. Court documents allege Harris was driving his black Range Rover SUV when he fired into a Maserati sports car, killing self-promoted rapper Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. The two men had argued minutes earlier in the valet area of an upmarket Las Vegas Strip resort.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
ICE DISPUTE: The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a ‘domestic terrorist,’ insisting that the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defense Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a US federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took to the city’s streets on Saturday, amid widespread anger at use of force in the immigration crackdown of US President Donald Trump. Organizers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan “ICE, Out for Good” — referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is drawing growing opposition over its execution of Trump’s effort at mass deportations. The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead on Wednesday in her
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