JAPAN
Police nab ‘haiku killer’
Police yesterday arrested a man who left a haiku poem when he disappeared after five people were murdered in a tiny mountain village. Investigators found Kosei Homi, 63, dressed only in his underwear early yesterday in mountains near the hamlet in western Yamaguchi Prefecture, police and reports said. The manhunt began on Sunday after officers found three corpses inside two burned-out houses. They subsequently uncovered two more bodies in separate homes. The five victims, who all appeared to have been battered to death, were in their 70s or 80s and represented a third of the population of the hamlet, local reports said. Police had found a “haiku” poem stuck to the window of Homi’s house, which read: “Setting a fire — smoke gives delight — to a country fellow.” Investigators had found a cellphone registered to Homi and a shirt and a pair of pants, believed to be his, in mountains nearby on Thursday, as they homed in on the fugitive, Jiji press said.
CHINA
Landslides bury people
At least nine people were buried and four missing after landslides hit a province where at least 95 were killed this week by earthquakes, state media reported yesterday. Two separate landslides hit Gansu following heavy rains, Xinhua news agency said. The northwestern province was hit by twin earthquakes on Monday that Xinhua reported left at least 95 people dead and another 1,461 injured. The recent landslides came as the northwest continued to be battered by heavy rains and flooding. Floods in Shaanxi Province have killed 14 people since July 18, Xinhua said. Since rainstorms began last Thursday 189,000 people have been relocated, the agency cited local officials as saying.
CHINA
Man stabs five to death
Police say a lone knifeman stabbed five people to death and wounded three others in the latest in a string of rampage attacks. Henan provincial police said yesterday that Ding Jinhua killed three people in the village of Dazhuzhuang. The 38-year-old furniture salesman then drove to a nearby furniture market where he killed a shop owner and taxi driver, and drove off in the cab.
THAILAND
Two arrested for ‘ice’
Two Indian men have been arrested and charged with trafficking crystal methamphetamine worth an estimated US$1.4 million, a customs official said yesterday. The suspects were detained on Thursday on the holiday island of Samui after flying in from Chennai in southern India via Singapore. Custom authorities said they had found 12.3kg of methamphetamine hydrochloride, known as “ice,” in their luggage.
UNITED STATES
Researcher arrested
A University of Pittsburgh medical researcher accused of poisoning his neurologist wife with a supplement she apparently thought would help them have a baby has been arrested. Police say Robert Ferrante, 64, laced an energy supplement with cyanide and gave it to Autumn Klein hours after they exchanged text messages about how the supplement could help them conceive. Klein, chief of women’s neurology at the university’s medical center, died on April 20 after suddenly falling ill at home on April 17. Blood drawn from Klein had high levels of acid so doctors had it tested for cyanide as a precaution. Those tests revealed a lethal level of cyanide, but only after Klein had been cremated at her husband’s insistence, police said. Defense attorney William Difenderfer has said Ferrante denies involvement in his wife’s death. Two days before his wife became ill he purchased more than 227g of cyanide.
RUSSIA
Pussy Riot appeal rejected
A court yesterday rejected an appeal by a member of the punk band Pussy Riot against a previous ruling that denied her an early release. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has served a year and a half out of her two-year prison sentence and was appealing for parole. She was convicted, along with two other band members, of hooliganism following a punk performance against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral last year. Representatives of the penal colony where Tolokonnikova is serving her sentence told the court that she should not be released because she never repented. She said that she would never plead guilty because she did the right thing.
UNITED STATES
More Weiner sexting
New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner said that he had traded racy messages with as many as three women since similar sexting forced him out of Congress. A new poll said the fresh scandal was hurting his campaign. The Democrat also said he supposed he had had sexually charged exchanges with a total of six to 10 women; previously he put the number at six. The scandal got seamier on Thursday when gossip Web site The Dirty posted an unredacted crotch shot that it said Weiner sent to a woman last year.
UNITED STATES
New oldest man named
A 112-year-old self-taught musician, coal miner and gin rummy aficionado from western New York is the world’s oldest man, according to Guinness World Records. Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez became the world’s oldest man when Jiroemon Kimura died on June 12 at age 116. Guinness says the world’s oldest person is a woman, 115-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan. However, a South African woman says she was born in 1894, which would make her 119.
SWEDEN
Tattoo photo too revealing
A politician who wanted to show his new tattoo to followers on a social media site accidentally revealed far more than he intended. Lars Ohly, former leader of the Left Party, posted a picture of the English soccer club Liverpool’s liver bird tattooed on his leg. What he failed to notice was that his genitals were visible in the background. Ohly quickly removed the picture after posting it on Wednesday on Instagram, but could not stop the avalanche of comments in social media. He said he would be more careful when he posts online.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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