JAPAN
Beetle threatens blossoms
Across Tokyo, cherry blossoms are emerging, but the famed blooms are facing a potentially mortal enemy: an invasive foreign beetle, experts said yesterday. The alien invader is the Aromia bungii, which is native to Taiwan, China, the Korean Peninsula and northern Vietnam. The beetles live inside cherry and plum trees, stripping them of their bark. In serious cases, an infestation can kill a tree. The beetle was first spotted in 2012 in central Aichi Prefecture, but has now spread across the region, the Ministry of the Environment said.
PHILIPPINES
Police say 13 killed in busts
Police on Wednesday killed 13 suspected drug dealers and arrested more than 100 people in dozens of anti-narcotics operations in Bulacan, provincial police chief Romeo Caramat said. Police ran about 60 “buy-bust” sting, operations in nine towns, Caramat said. “Unfortunately, 13 of the suspects were killed when our officers fired in self-defence shortly after the suspects who were armed with concealed guns sensed they were being entrapped and started firing,” Caramat said. More than 100 people were also arrested and 19 firearms and about 250 packets of suspected drugs were seized during the 24-hour operations, he added.
THAILAND
Bus crash kills 18 people
At least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded on Wednesday when a bus traveling in the northeast of the country veered off the road and smashed into a tree, authorities said yesterday. The accident occurred in Nakhon Ratchasima Province with the double-decker bus carrying about 50 people. “There are 18 people killed, of these 12 women and six men including one boy,” Nakhon Ratchasima Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation chief Suthep Ruenthawil said. The bus driver lost control while the vehicle was going downhill, before it veered off the road and jumped a traffic island then smashed into a large tree, Suthep said.
NEW ZEALAND
Obama shares tips with PM
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday received parenting tips from former US president Barack Obama when she met him in Auckland. Ardern held discussions with Obama after he received a traditional Maori welcome at Government House. “I asked him about parenthood and he had tips that I will probably long remember,” Ardern told reporters. Ardern said they also discussed the state of progressive climate change and engaging young people in politics. Obama is reportedly being paid NZ$400,000 (US$289,608) for a corporate-sponsored speech.
NETHERLANDS
Assisted suicide group probed
Prosecutors on Wednesday launched a criminal probe into Cooperative Last Will, a group seeking to supply people with the means to take their own lives, and ordered it to stop its actions. The group had been on the prosecution service’s radar since September last year when it unveiled plans to procure “a means of suicide and supply it to its members,” prosecutors said. The group announced last week buyers could now actually order the unidentified product via their site. “That means about 1,000 people are shortly expected to have access to this product,” the prosecution service said. Even though the Netherlands was the first country along with Belgium to legalize euthanasia in 2002, it can only be carried out by doctors and under very strict conditions.
AFGHANISTAN
Combat ops key to safe polls
Afghan security forces have identified key areas of the country that must be secure for elections later this year and have planned a series of military operations to free them from Taliban control, US Joint of Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford said. Holding secure and successful elections for parliament this year and the president next year will be important in determining the success of the new US war strategy approved by US President Donald Trump in August last year, said the Marine Corps general who was in the country this week meeting senior Afghan leaders.
UNITED STATES
Mom arrested over video
North Carolina police arrested a mother after a video of her infant child smoking a small cigar set off a social media effort to get authorities involved. The Raleigh Police Department said on Facebook on Wednesday the child was safe and the mother was in custody. A version of the video that has received 1 million views was posted by a user who urged the mother’s arrest. The video shows the hand of an adult off-screen holding what appears to be a cigarillo to the child’s lips. The child then appears to inhale and puff smoke.
UNITED STATES
Trump unclear on Iran
President Donald Trump’s negotiators have a tough sales job as they pressure European allies to accept new restrictions on Iran: Even if Europe agrees, Trump might blow up the nuclear deal anyway. Given a mid-May deadline by Trump, his negotiators are working with Britain, France and Germany on a follow-on pact to address his major complaints. First, Trump wants to penalize Iran for ballistic missiles, which were not part of the original deal. He also wants to expand access for nuclear inspectors and extend the curbs on Iran’s nuclear activity so they do not expire in several years. However, beyond those broad strokes, Trump has refused to give even his own negotiators a clear litmus test for what would be good enough to keep him in the 2015 accord.
UNITED STATES
Unarmed man shot 20 times
Relatives, activists and Sacramento officials are questioning why police shot at an unarmed black man 20 times, killing him, when he turned out to be holding only a cellphone in his grandparents’ backyard. Police said the man was spotted breaking vehicle windows on Sunday night. Sheriff’s deputies in a helicopter said they saw him break a neighbor’s sliding glass door. Two arriving officers chased him into the backyard of his grandparents’ home. The department said they opened fire when he pointed what they thought was a handgun. No gun was found. Relatives identified the man as Stephan Clark, 22.
MEXICO
Groups seek seafood ban
A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit with the US Court of International Trade, seeking a ban on Mexican seafood from the upper Gulf of California. The groups say shrimp and fish imported from the gulf endanger the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. Vaquitas have been decimated by nets set for the totoaba fish, whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and commands high prices. Some nets set for shrimp and other fish may also endanger the species. The Center for Biological Diversity and others on Wednesday said the US government has failed to ban seafood that endangers marine mammals, despite a petition and lawsuit filed last year.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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