CHINA
Outspoken pig farmer jailed
Hebei Dawu Agriculture Group chairman Sun Dawu (孫大午), who was detained after praising lawyers during a crackdown on legal advocates by President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government, was yesterday sentenced to 18 years in prison. Sun was among 20 defendants who stood trial in Hebei Province’s Gaobeidian. They were detained after Dawu employees in August last year tried to stop a state-owned enterprise from demolishing a company building. Sun was also fined 3.1 million yuan (US$479,268), the People’s Court of Gaobeidian said. Sun was convicted of gathering people to attack state organizations, obstructing public affairs, picking quarrels, sabotaging production, illegal mining, illegal occupation of farmland and illegally taking public deposits, the court said.
GREECE
Beekeeper charged over fire
A 64-year-old beekeeper was on Wednesday charged with arson by negligence, which is a misdemeanor, over a forest fire in the northern suburbs of Athens, a judicial official said. The blaze, which was raging on Tuesday at the base of Mount Penteli, was “under control,” firefighters said. The man had beehives on the hill overlooking the cemetery of the town of Stamata, where the fire appears to have started. He is suspected of burning foliage near his hives, the Ministry of Civil Protection said. “One house was burned down, 12 others sustained damage, notably to their roofs,” and about 10 vehicles were torched, the ministry added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Anti-Semitism spiked in May
Police recorded about four times as many anti-Semitic incidents in London during May’s Gaza crisis than at any time in the past three years, the city’s force said yesterday. They reported 87 anti-Semitic incidents, 65 more than the previous highest monthly figure recorded since they began reporting the data in May 2018, the London Metropolitan Police told the Press Association news agency. The crisis had repercussions for Jews in London, where the word “Hitler” was written on a block of flats and rocks were hurled at a Jewish home. One resident in north London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood, which has a significant Hasidic Jewish community, said the tires of more than 30 Jewish-owned vehicles were slashed. Two men were also charged in connection with an incident when a rabbi was struck on the head with a concrete block near his synagogue.
PARAGUAY
Cocaine disguised as sugar
More than 3,400kg of cocaine has been seized near the capital city of Asuncion — a record bust for the country, police said on Wednesday. The cocaine was found in a warehouse in the suburb of Fernando de la Mora, where it was being prepared to ship out disguised in a load of organic sugar, National Police Commander Luis Arias told reporters. “We are talking about more than 3,400kg of cocaine. This was the culmination of an investigation by the anti-narcotics police working with prosecutors over nearly a month,” Arias said. “The merchandise was in a container to be transferred to a safe port for export abroad, but we do not know where. The warehouse was being rented and listed as a sugar deposit,” he added. The bust exceeded the previous record in Paraguay, when 2,900kg of cocaine was seized in October last year after the cargo had been hidden in bags of charcoal.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia