CHINA
Cabin crew smoking banned
Pilots and other cabin crew can no longer smoke in the cockpits of domestic flights. The Civil Aviation Administration this week issued a notice to enforce the ban on in-flight smoking with immediate effect, the China Daily reported yesterday. First-time offenders, including those who smoke electronic cigarettes, would be suspended for 12 months and repeat offenders would be barred for 36 months, the regulator was quoted as saying, adding that airlines must carry out routine inspections. The government in October 2017 outlawed in-flight smoking, but individual airlines were given two more years before the cockpit ban was to take effect. Cabin crew who fail to stop other members from smoking in the cockpit would also be suspended for six months, the regulator was quoted as saying, adding that penalties could be more severe should smoking result in serious consequences.
INDIA
Alleged murderer caught
A man accused of murdering his friend, chopping up his body and flushing the parts down the toilet has been arrested, police said on Thursday. The grisly crime was discovered when residents at the Bachraj Paradise Society apartment complex in Mumbai found chunks of flesh blocking their drains. “While sifting through all the flesh we found two fingers, which helped us ascertain these were human parts,” police official Jayant Bajbale told reporters. After detecting a foul smell, police conducted a search of one of the apartments and came across a power tool they believe was used to dismember the corpse. “We identified the tenant and tricked him into coming to his flat and then arrested him,” Bajbale said. The 40-year-old confessed to killing his friend over a minor altercation. He told police that he chopped off the body parts of the victim over two or three days and disposed of them in bags dumped in different locations.
PHILIPPINES
Bill to boost female police
As more than 83 percent of the nation’s police officers are male, legislation is being pushed to recruit more female officers. A proposal to double the police’s annual recruitment allocation for women was passed by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Order and Safety and has been endorsed for plenary approval, said the Philippine National Police, which supports the measure. The 190,000-strong force is authorized to hire 10,000 new cops annually. Under the law, only 10 percent of these positions are reserved for women, leaving many aspiring women waiting for months or years to enter the force. The police force has eased on gender restrictions on recruitment ahead of the legislation, police spokesman Senior Superintendent Bernard Banac said in a statement.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
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