JAPAN
Woman set on fire
A man set a woman on fire following an argument in a restaurant in Ibaraki Prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. The 52-year-old Iranian man was seen pouring liquid over his 36-year-old Filipina girlfriend before setting her alight at the eatery on Friday, reports cited police as saying. Workers at the restaurant called an ambulance. The couple was taken to hospital with severe burns and both remain unconscious, NHK said. Police are treating the case as attempted murder.
CYPRUS
Peace talks on hold
Intensive talks at a Swiss resort on how much land Greek and Turkish Cypriots would administratively control under a deal reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus have broken off and are to reconvene in Geneva on Sunday next week, officials said on Friday. Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said important progress has been made narrowing differences on how much territory would make up Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones in an envisioned federation. The UN-backed negotiations are to continue in Geneva for three or four days. Christodoulides said the goal for a deal to be reached by the end of the year remains. The talks were designed as a precursor to a final summit that would also include Greece, Turkey and Britain, to sort out the pivotal issue of security.
Australia
PM banned from Mardi Gras
Organizers passed a motion preventing Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull from being invited to next year’s Mardi Gras as an official guest due to his handling of marriage equality issues. The first sitting prime minister to attend the Sydney Mardi Gras, Turnbull has been blocked from attending next year’s parade. The Mardi Gras membership at their annual general meeting yesterday passed a motion that the meeting “does not believe that a prime minister who denies us equality should be welcome as an official guest at our parade.” The move follows Turnbull’s statement that the Coalition government had “no plans” to advance marriage equality after a bill to run a plebiscite on the issue was defeated in the Senate on Monday last week.
AUSTRALIA
Casino employee released
One of 18 employees of Australia’s Crown Resorts Ltd detained in China last month for suspected gambling crimes has been released on bail, the company said yesterday. A Chinese national who was a junior employee was the first of the staff to be released, the company said. Crown did not identify the employee. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the employees had been detained for suspected involvement in gambling crimes, but did not provide further details.
MYANMAR
UN calls for assault probe
A UN official is calling for an investigation into allegations of sexual assault in northern Rakhine state following recent border attacks. In a statement issued on Friday, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura said she was gravely concerned by the reports and said it was essential for the government to allow humanitarian access to the area to provide support for the survivors. “The recent escalation of violence may lead to more incidents of sexual assault and therefore I call upon the government of Myanmar to take measures to stop this spiral of violence, particularly against women and girls,” she said.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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