JAPAN
Politician quits over affair
A Japanese politician who made headlines over his quest to take paternity leave quit yesterday after admitting to an affair with a bikini model while his wife was pregnant. Yesterday, ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kensuke Miyazaki announced his resignation after a weekly magazine revealed his affair with the 34-year-old woman while they were in Kyoto, his constituency. The sexual encounter happened several days before Miyazaki’s wife gave birth to their first child. “I’m deeply, deeply, deeply sorry that what I’ve been advocating [on paternity leave[ was contradicted by my careless actions. So, I have decided to quit,” Miyazaki said.
AUSTRALIA
Minister resigns
An embattled minister resigned yesterday for breaching ministerial standards through a business trip to China. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said an investigation found that Stuart Robert had breached the government’s Code of Ministerial Standards through his 2014 trip to Beijing with a friend and donor to the ruling Liberal Party, Paul Marks. Marks made the trip to seal a mining deal with Chinese government-owned Minmetals. Minmetals’ Web site said Robert, then assistant defense minister, spoke at the signing ceremony on behalf of the Australian Defense Department. However, under questioning this week, Robert said he went to China as a private citizen while on leave.
SOUTH SUDAN
Vice president appointed
President Salva Kiir has reappointed his rival Riek Machar as vice president, a decree said on Thursday, sealing a deal to try to end months of civil war in the world’s newest nation. The announcement returned the presidency to where it was soon before fighting erupted between supporters of the two men in December 2013 — a conflict that has killed thousands of people and forced more than 2 million to flee. The decree read out on state TV said Machar would be first vice president, his position before he was sacked in 2013, the move that eventually triggered the violence.
ISRAEL
Soldier jailed
A military court has sentenced a soldier to seven months in prison for abusing captured Palestinians, following the outbreak of anti-Israeli attacks in October last year, the military said on Thursday. The man was found guilty on Wednesday “on multiple accounts of mistreating apprehended individuals.” “The Israel Defense Forces [IDF] see in these extreme incidents a total violation and disregard of the IDF’s Code of Conduct and strongly condemns these actions,” it said.
AUSTRALIA
Smuggling charges dropped
Prosecutors dropped a charge against a 92-year-old retired surgeon yesterday that alleged he had smuggled A$1 million (USUS$700,000) in cocaine hidden on bars of soap into Sydney airport. Victor Twartz was due to appear in the New South Wales District Court in Sydney on a charge of importing a commercial quantity of cocaine, which carries a potential life sentence. However, the Sydney resident did not appear and prosecutors told the judge that the charge had been dropped. No explanation was given. Twartz had said he would fight the charge, because criminals had tricked him into carrying 27 soap bars packed with 4.5kg of cocaine when he returned from New Delhi on July 8, 2014.
FRANCE
Ayrault returns to Cabinet
Former prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is to be the new foreign minister, replacing Laurent Fabius in aAgencies government reshuffle announced on Thursday by President Francois Hollande’s office. Fabius is going to become chief of the Constitutional Council, the nation’s top court. A few Green party members are joining the government as well in an apparent effort to quell tensions within Hollande’s camp ahead of next year’s presidential election. The government now counts 18 ministers and 20 junior ministers in addition to Prime Minister Manuel Valls and as many women as men.
CANADA
Life sentence for patricide
The son of a wealthy beer baron on Thursday was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his father, following a long and sensational trial in New Brunswick Province. However, he will be eligible to seek parole after 10 years behind bars. Dennis Oland, 47, was found guilty in December last year of second-degree murder against his father, Richard Oland, part of the family that owns Moosehead Breweries, who was found dead in a pool of blood in his office on July 7, 2011. Dennis Oland pleaded not guilty at trial and continues to deny involvement in the killing.
UNITED STATES
Cleveland sorry for bill
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson on Thursday apologized after an ambulance bill was sent to the family of Tamir Rice, the black 12-year-old who was shot by police while holding a toy gun. Rice’s death in November 2014 at the hands of a white officer shocked Americans and the US$500 bill sent to his family has only stoked further outrage. “We will start off again apologizing to the Rice family if this has added to any grief or pain they may have” Jackson told a news conference, surrounded by other city leaders. They said that the bill was sent under routine procedure and that it was meant for the boy’s insurance company, not his family.
UNITED KINGDOM
Actor banned from driving
Actor Brendan Coyle, who played beleaguered valet John Bates in Downton Abbey, has been banned from driving after being stopped for drunk driving. He appeared at King’s Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday under his real name, David Coyle, and pleaded guilty. Police said he was stopped while driving a BMW convertible on Jan. 1. A breath test recorded him as almost three times the legal alcohol limit for driving. The Eastern Daily Press newspaper said Coyle’s lawyer told the hearing that the actor was returning from an alcohol rehabilitation clinic in Thailand when he was stopped. Coyle, who is 52, was banned from driving for 50 months and ordered to do 100 hours’ unpaid work.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
MIGRATION: The Supreme Court justices said they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented migrants US President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the US Supreme Court after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying the justices are “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” Trump’s berating of the high court, in a post on Truth Social, came after it dealt another setback to his attempt to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting
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