SPAIN
Anti-trade pacts rally held
Several hundred people have protested in Madrid against the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a major free trade deal between the US and the EU. The protesters on Saturday also urged officials not to approve the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, a smaller trade agreement between Canada and the EU, and the Trade in Services Agreement, which involves the EU. Protesters carried signs claiming the deals would impoverish locals, chanting “They are not treaties, they are coups d’etat” and “We are people, not merchandise.” Some wore huge yellow foam chains around their necks to signify enslavement, while others dressed up as tycoons.
UNITED STATES
Trump wants drug tests
Escalating his criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton’s debate performances, Republican rival Donald Trump came to a state battling a drug epidemic and on Saturday suggested without any evidence that his opponent had been on drugs during their second debate. “I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” Trump told a crowd of thousands gathered in the parking lot of a Toyota dealership on a chilly afternoon. “We should take a drug test prior, because I don’t know what’s going on with her. But at the beginning of her last debate — she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, ‘Oh, take me down.’ She could barely reach her car,” he said. The Clinton campaign referred reporters to a statement by campaign manager Robby Mook that was put out earlier in the day in response to Trump’s allegations of a “rigged” election. “Campaigns should be hard fought and elections hard won, but what is fundamental about the American electoral system is that it is free, fair and open to the people,” Mook wrote.
GERMANY
Suspect spoke to IS contact
A Syrian refugee arrested on suspicion of planning a major attack in Berlin spoke to a member of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria by telephone about a possible target a day before police discovered explosives in his apartment, Welt am Sonntag reported on Saturday. Jaber Albakr was detained on Monday last week, two days after police discovered about 1.5kg of explosives in his apartment. He was found dead in prison two days later. Authorities said he had committed suicide. The paper cited investigation sources as saying US intelligence had provided a tip-off about Albakr after tapping several phone calls between him and the IS member. During the calls, 22-year-old Albakr spoke about his attack plans, the paper said. In a call on Oct. 7, Albakr told his contact that 2kg of explosives were ready and he named a possible target, saying a “big airport in Berlin” was “better than trains,” the paper said. It said prosecutors investigating the case assumed that Albakr wanted to make a suicide-bomb vest.
SYRIA
Rebels claim Dabiq
Turkish-backed opposition forces captured the town of Dabiq from IS fighters yesterday morning. A commander of the opposition Hamza Brigade said IS fighters put up “minimal” resistance before withdrawing in the direction of al-Bab to the south. About 2,000 opposition fighters pushed into Dabiq with tank and artillery support from the Turkish Army, he said. IS propaganda had boasted of the fight for the town, citing Islamic lore that it would be the scene of a major battle between crusaders and army of the Muslim caliphate that would herald Doomsday.
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
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