SPAIN
Catalans shun King Felipe VI
Catalonia’s pro-independence political leaders are snubbing the king in their latest public challenge to rule from Madrid. Catalan President Quim Torra said his regional government would not invite the monarchy to any official event, nor would it send representatives to any royal event, because King Felipe VI refuses to discuss the possibility of the wealthy northeastern region seceding. The monarch, like the Madrid-based national government, has rejected the unilateral declaration of independence passed by separatists in October. In an announcement in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, on Friday, Torra said: “We are not subjects, we are citizens.” Torra is due to meet with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on July 9.
JAPAN
Legislator heckles patient
A legislator apologized on Thursday for jeering a lung cancer patient testifying about the dangers of second-hand smoke, and said he had spoken out to prevent discrimination against smokers. The country lags behind many others in efforts to fight smoking, with attempts to tackle tobacco often stymied by pro-smoking politicians, restaurateurs and Japan Tobacco, which is one-third owned by the government.
VIETNAM
Soccer gambling ring bust
Police broke up an online soccer gambling ring worth about US$26 million, arresting four people as authorities look to stop illegal betting that surges during sporting events, such as FIFA World Cup. Gambling is illegal in the nation, apart from the state-run lottery and a few casinos that are only open to foreigners. Yet the law is widely flouted, especially during top-tier sports competitions when many punters head online or to illegal gambling dens to try their luck. The four were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, a report published in the police’s official Cong An Nhan Dan newspaper said. The suspects allegedly admitted to operating transactions through a Web site hosted in the Philippines.
SOUTH KOREA
Spy agency founder dead
Kim Jong-pil, founder of the nation’s once-infamous spy agency and former prime minister, died yesterday in Seoul, his aide said. He was 92 years old, and is believed to have died of natural causes. Kim’s political career took off in 1961 when he joined then-major general Park Chung-hee in staging a successful military coup. He helped Park consolidate his grip on power by establishing the notorious Korean Central Intelligence Agency, which wielded unlimited and unchecked power, arbitrarily arresting, torturing and persecuting Park’s political opponents.
UNITED STATES
Zoo’s last white tiger dies
The Cincinnati Zoo’s last white tiger has died. Zoo officials on Thursday said that Popsy has been euthanized due to age-related issues. The female tiger was 22. Zoo director of Animal Health Mark Campbell said Popsy had several health issues, and in the end it was determined that the zoo was unable to maintain her “good quality of life.” The tiger arrived in Cincinnati from Nashville in June 1996. Popsy and her sister Erica were named after the late Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conductor Erich “Prince of Pops” Kunzel. Popsy spent the last 10 years with a male companion named Akere, who died in December last year. The average white tiger lifespan is 15 to 20 years, the zoo said.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
STOPOVERS: As organized crime groups in Asia and the Americas move drugs via places such as Tonga, methamphetamine use has reached levels called ‘epidemic’ A surge of drugs is engulfing the South Pacific as cartels and triads use far-flung island nations to channel narcotics across the globe, top police and UN officials told reporters. Pacific island nations such as Fiji and Tonga sit at the crossroads of largely unpatrolled ocean trafficking routes used to shift cocaine from Latin America, and methamphetamine and opioids from Asia. This illicit cargo is increasingly spilling over into local hands, feeding drug addiction in communities where serious crime had been rare. “We’re a victim of our geographical location. An ideal transit point for vessels crossing the Pacific,” Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan
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