JAPAN
Boat company raided
Coast guard officials yesterday searched the office of a tour boat operator as part of a criminal investigation into suspicions that professional negligence caused the sinking of a vessel carrying 26 people in a national park on April 23. The Kazu 1 sightseeing boat started the tour on the northeastern side of Hokkaido, despite forecast rough seas. It made a distress call that afternoon saying that it was sinking. Footage aired by the Japan Broadcasting Corp showed uniformed officials entering the tour boat operator’s office and the house of the sunken boat’s captain.
INDONESIA
Children die of hepatitis
Three pediatric patients last month died from acute hepatitis, the Ministry of Health said, boosting the global death toll from the liver ailment affecting children from the US to Asia to at least four. The children, hospitalized in Jakarta, had symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, heavy diarrhea, fever, jaundice, seizures and loss of consciousness, the ministry said yesterday, urging parents to immediately bring children who exhibit these symptoms to the hospital. The ministry said it would run a full panel of tests to determine the cause of the disease.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos Jr maintains lead
Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr retained his lead in the presidential race, while his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, remained a distant second, the latest survey by pollster PulseAsia Research Inc found. The son of late president Ferdinand Marcos was favored by 56 percent of respondents last month, unchanged from the previous month. Robredo got 23 percent of the support, down from 24 percent previously, while boxer-turned-politician Manny Pacquiao edged out Manila Mayor Isko Moreno to take third place with 7 percent. The survey of 2,400 adults nationwide was conducted from April 16 to 21. The election is to take place on Monday next week.
IRAQ
Rockets hit oil refinery
Six rockets on Sunday landed in the country’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region, Kurdish counterterrorism forces said, with “minor damage” reported at a key oil refinery, a separate security source said. “Six rockets fell near the Zab River in the Khabat District,” Kurdish counterterrorism forces said, adding that the attack caused no damage. However, two sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that two rockets hit part of the Kawergosk refinery northwest of the Kurdish capital of Arbil, causing “minor material damage.” A fire broke out at the site, but was “quickly contained,” one source said.
IRAQ
Family pleads for Briton
A British man arrested at Baghdad International Airport in late March in possession of pottery fragments alleged to be historical artefacts is being detained pending trial, his family said on Sunday. Jim Fitton, a 66-year-old retired geologist, could face the death penalty if convicted, his family said in a petition on the Change.org online platform, calling for his release. “He has been imprisoned for allegedly attempting to smuggle historical artefacts out of Iraq,” the petition said. Airport customs officers found fragments that Fitton had picked up at an archeological site, his family said. The tour guides had told him that the “shards of pottery and stones” had no economic or historical value, said Sam Tasker, Fitton’s son-in-law.
DENMARK
Boy aged four crashes car
A four-year-old boy on Saturday took his mother’s car for a drive before crashing into two parked vehicles, police said on Sunday. Police in the central city of Utrecht were alerted when residents spotted the boy walking in the street dressed only in pajamas and bare feet. As they arrived, officers received a second report of a three-vehicle accident nearby. While the suspected driver was missing, the car was registered to the boy’s mother, they said. Police said they telephoned the mom “and when she spoke to her son, he made noises resembling a car and used gestures showing turning a steering wheel... We then realized that the child may have been the driver.”
UKRAINE
‘Ghost of Kyiv’ is a myth
On social media, the “Ghost of Kyiv” was a military hero, an ace fighter pilot hailed for supposedly shooting down multiple Russian planes. The tales began just days into the war and circulated for months, but on Saturday, authorities said that the legendary pilot was a myth. “The Ghost of Kyiv is a superhero legend whose character was created by Ukrainians,” the air force wrote on Facebook. The statement came after multiple media reports wrongly identifying air force Major Stepan Tarabalka, a real pilot who died in combat on March 13, as the man behind the moniker. “The #GhostOfKyiv is alive, it embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots of the Tactical Aviation Brigade who are successfully defending #Kyiv and the region,” Ukraine’s air force wrote on Twitter.
HUNGARY
Russia sanctions face veto
The government would veto any European proposal that leads to the restriction of energy imports from Russia, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said on Sunday. “We’ve made it clear that we’ll never support” extending EU sanctions against Russia to the field of energy, Gulyas told HirTV. “Since such decisions require unanimity, it makes no sense for the [European] Commission to propose sanctions affecting natural gas and crude oil that would restrict Hungarian procurements,” he added.
CHILE
Three shot on May Day
Three people were wounded by gunfire and two arrested on Sunday in clashes at May Day demonstrations, police said. The shooting occurred during a march called by a union in the capital, Santiago, as some protesters erected barricades and entered commercial premises. “There were clashes between street vendors who unfortunately used firearms and injured three people, two of them women and a third man was also injured by a ballistic impact,” said Enrique Monras, chief of police for the metropolitan area. Police confirmed two foreigners were arrested on suspicion of firing the shots.
MEXICO
Free solar panels proposed
The country’s biggest opposition party on Sunday proposed installing solar panels for free onto residential housing, staking out its renewable energy credentials as it seeks to challenge the ruling party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Marko Cortes, leader of the center-right National Action Party, said the plan was to have the Federal Electricity Commission and the government put panels for free on all homes, “starting with the poorest.” “People wouldn’t pay anything, or would pay a lot less for their electricity bill,” Cortes said in a video on Twitter, urging the government to adopt the plan.
Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr on Tuesday hit out at China at an international forum after a memo asserting Beijing’s position over their longstanding maritime dispute was delivered to him while he was speaking on stage. The unusual incident was captured on video at the Seoul Defense Dialogue as the secretary was responding to a question about “gray zone” coercion in the South China Sea. The video shows what appears to be a conference staffer placing it on the table next to him while speaking. “I have a note here, I think this is from China,” he said, describing
PAINSTAKING PROCESS: Ice makers freeze water for up to 72 hours, replace tainted water with a fresh batch once freezing begins, and are constantly stirring In the historic Japanese city of Kanazawa, craftsmen painstakingly shape and slice blocks of ice destined to chill negronis in some of the world’s trendiest bars. The men work for Kuramoto Ice, a century-old company in Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast and one of dozens of Japanese firms producing ultra-clear, premium ice. This luxury product, believed by those in the industry to melt more slowly than regular blocks, is a staple of Japan’s cocktail culture, but its popularity is also spilling over to bars abroad, from the US to Australia, who pay as much as ￥200 (US$1.28) per cube. Kuramoto Ice
Thai police yesterday said that they arrested a senior Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling US$2.8 million intended for his monastery, alongside a suspected female accomplice he was having sex with. The case is the latest scandal to hit the clergy in Buddhist-majority Thailand after a sex and extortion case involving senior monks last year prompted public outrage and calls for greater scrutiny of temple finances. Phra Wachirayan Wi, the 66-year-old abbot of the 14th-century Wat Phutthaisawan in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, was arrested on Thursday on charges including embezzlement and money laundering, lead police investigator Pattanasak Bupphasuwan said. A 47-year-old woman
China yesterday marked half a century since the death of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), founder of the People’s Republic, who brought roughly one-quarter of the world’s population under communist rule and whose specter still haunts China’s future. Mao’s death on Sept. 9, 1976, at age 82, mourned by many and welcomed by some who suffered under his nearly three-decade rule, also hastened the end of the Cultural Revolution, a frenzied mass movement he launched in 1966. The party later condemned the Cultural Revolution as a grave error for which Mao bore primary responsibility, but still reveres him, saying his achievements outweigh his mistakes. Mao’s
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