AUSTRALIA
Sex-crimes suspect to return
The government yesterday welcomed an Israeli Supreme Court decision to approve the extradition of a former school principal accused of sexually assaulting students at a Jewish school in Melbourne. Malka Leifer, who on Tuesday lost her appeal against extradition, is wanted by federal police on 74 sexual assault charges, including rape, involving girls at her former school.
JAPAN
PM under fire for dinners
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has drawn criticism for joining year-end social gatherings after imploring residents to avoid such parties as the country sees record numbers of COVID-19 cases. Despite his own public warnings, Suga this week went ahead with a series of get-togethers. “The prime minister’s schedule has a message to the people, so I would like to see due consideration,” said Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of the ruling party’s coalition partner, Komeito.
JAPAN
Pajamas Suit for teleworkers
An apparel company has created a “Pajamas Suit” that is meant to resemble office attire, but feel as snug as sleepwear. Aoki Holdings is marketing the suits for men and woman in navy, beige, black or dark gray to teleworkers as “more than pajamas and less than fashionable clothes.” The “pajama suit” highlights the ways that clothing makers are trying to adapt as they struggle to sell business suits with the COVID-19 pandemic keeping office workers at home.
SOUTH KOREA
Shortage of beds looms
The country’s highest priority is securing more hospital beds to handle a record surge in COVID-19 cases and blunt a corresponding spike in deaths, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said yesterday. The number of severe cases has more than doubled over the past two weeks to hit a record high of 226 yesterday. However, only three critical care beds remained free in the greater Seoul area, officials said. “The top priority is securing more hospital beds,” Chung told a government meeting. “No patient should wait for more than a day before being assigned a bed.”
SOUTH KOREA
Cafe cats don Santa suits
This holiday season a Seoul cafe is welcoming cat lovers to cuddle up to about 130 feline friends at tables decked out with tiny Christmas trees. “It is hard to feel the festive atmosphere, but it was great to see cute cats wearing Santa suits and feel like Christmas is nearing,” 22-year-old visitor Cha Seung-Ju said. Park Seo-young opened the Catgarden Cafe in 2016 to take in cats rescued off the streets. “With many people staying at home, more people are adopting cats, but at the same time, more people abandon pets as the coronavirus situation worsens,” Park said. Some lucky enough to drop by said that the furry animals helped them shake off the “corona blues.”
PAKISTAN
Anti-rape law approved
President Arif Alvi on Tuesday approved an anti-rape law that would speed up convictions and launch the country’s first national sex offender registry. The law — which goes into effect immediately, but must be ratified by parliament within three months — was prompted by the gang rape of a mother in front of her children on the side of a motorway in September. The case caused outrage and led to nationwide protests. “The ordinance will help expedite cases of sexual abuse against women and children,” the President’s Office said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Shackleton gear saved
A sledge and flag used in one of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famed expeditions to the South Pole have been bought by a government-funded body to keep the treasured artefacts in the kingdom. The National Heritage Memorial Fund yesterday announced that it had paid ￡204,000 (US$276,000) to help purchase the two items, used in the first of three Antarctic expeditions led by Shackleton in the early 1900s. The artifacts will be donated to two museums. The government had slapped a temporary export ban on the artefacts earlier this year to allow time for a fundraising effort to keep them in the kingdom. The wooden sledge was one of four used to haul supplies and equipment across the Antarctic tundra. The flag, which features a red unicorn head and golden anchor, appears in many grainy photographs from the journey. They were owned by Eric Marshall, a surgeon and explorer who accompanied Shackleton.
FRANCE
Paris fined over women
Paris’ city hall has been fined 90,000 euros (US$109,408) for having appointed too many women to top positions in 2018, in breach of a law aimed at ensuring gender balance. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Tuesday denounced the fine as “unfair” and “absurd” during a meeting of the city council. In 2018, 11 women and five men were appointed to top positions in city hall, leading the Civil Service Ministry to impose the fine. A 2013 law, meant to ensure that women get better access to senior jobs in the civil service, requires a minimum of 40 percent of appointments for each gender. The law has since been changed to provide for exceptions to nominations when the gender balance is respected overall.
CANADA
Tattoo matched to birthmark
Edmonton-based Derek Prue Sr was inspired to get inked after noticing his son did not want to take off his shirt when he went swimming because of a birthmark. “I knew he was self-conscious and that made me want just to show him that he wasn’t the only one, like, we both have the same mark,” Prue said. The tattoo process was much more intense than he anticipated. “I thought it was going to be a few hours. It was, like, 30,” he said. Prue unveiled the surprise to his son, also named Derek, at a hotel pool earlier this month. The dad’s red-wine colored tattoo covers part of his chest and belly, and extends under his left arm.
PERU
Police Santa busts pusher
Police drugs-squad members disguised as Santa Claus and an elf swooped into a house in Lima to capture a suspected cocaine and dope dealer as part of an anti-drug operation. The agents, dressed in red, white and green outfits with flak jackets underneath, arrived in an undercover van on Sunday before breaking into the house with a large hammer to apprehend their suspect. “We are the police, we are the green squad, this is an anti-drug operation,” one of the agents yelled in footage filmed by police of the raid, as he pinned the suspect to the ground and handcuffed him in the Villa El Salvador district.
GERMANY
Fourth arrest over heist
Berlin police have arrested one of two fugitive twins wanted in connection with the spectacular theft of 18th-century jewels from a Dresden museum last year, officials said on Tuesday. Mohamed Remmo, 21, was arrested in a car in Neukoelln district on Monday evening.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
LAOS: The bars of bustling Vang Vieng remain open, but information on the investigation into the deaths of six backpackers from suspected methanol poisoning is scarce The music is still playing and the alcohol is still flowing at the bars along one of the party streets in Vang Vieng. Inside a popular venue, a voice over the speaker announces a special offer on beers, as disco lights flicker on the floor. Small paper flags from nations across the world — from the UK to Gabon — hang from the ceiling. Young people travel from all corners of the globe to party in the small town nestled in the Laos countryside, but Vang Vieng is under a global spotlight, following a suspected mass methanol poisoning that killed six
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