JAPAN
No health worries for Abe
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday brushed off lingering worries about his health, saying that he went to a hospital only for a checkup. “I got a checkup a day before yesterday to make absolutely sure I’m healthy,” he told reporters. “I’m getting back to work now, and I hope to keep working hard. Thank you.” He walked off, without responding to follow-up questions about the checkup. Abe was on Monday seen sitting in a car that drove into Keio University Hospital in Tokyo, then emerging several hours later. At that time, neither he nor his office made comments.
PAKISTAN
Vaccine enters final phase
The country’s drug regulatory agency on Monday said it has approved final-phase testing of a Chinese-made vaccine against COVID-19 in the nation where the novel coronavirus has caused 6,201 deaths since February. The National Institute of Health said in a statement that the approval to carry out advanced clinical trials for a potential vaccine was granted by Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan. It said the Phase-3 clinical trials for the vaccine candidate would be conducted at the country’s main health facilities. The vaccine was produced by CanSinoBio and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, it said.
MAURITIUS
Ship’s captain arrested
Authorities on Tuesday arrested the Indian captain of a Japanese-owned ship that grounded off the island nation’s coast, spewing tonnes of oil into pristine waters, police said. The MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef on July 25 and began oozing oil more than a week later, spilling more than 1,000 tonnes into blue waters popular among honeymooners and tourists. Officials have yet to reveal why the ship, which was making its way from Singapore to Brazil, had come so close to the island, which is now reeling from ecological disaster.
CHINA
Typhoon makes landfall
Typhoon Higos yesterday made landfall on the country’s southern coast, bringing high winds and rain as it weakened to a tropical storm. The typhoon came ashore at Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, with maximum sustained winds of 126kph, the National Meteorological Center said. The winds had fallen to 108kph three hours later as the storm moved west toward the Guangxi region. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. There were power outages in the city of Meizhou, Guangdong Province, on Tuesday night after trees fell onto power lines, the electric company said.
GERMANY
Car crashes ‘extremist’ attack
A series of crashes caused by a 30-year-old Iraqi man on a Berlin highway was an extremist attack, prosecutors told the German Press Agency (DPA) yesterday. “According to the current state of our investigation this was an Islamist-motivated attack,” the office said. It did not reveal the man’s identity, as is customary in the country. The suspect is being investigated for attempted murder. Six people were injured, three of them severely, when the man allegedly drove into several vehicles, including a motorcycle, along a stretch of highway on Tuesday evening. There were also indications that the man was suffering from psychological problems, DPA reported.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
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