SLOVAKIA
PM’s attacker gets 21 years
The Specialized Criminal Court in the city of Banska Bystrica yesterday convicted a man of a terror attack and sentenced him to 21 years in prison over last year’s attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico. Juraj Cintula was accused of opening fire on Fico on May 1 last year, as the prime minister greeted supporters following a government meeting in the town of Handlova, 140km northeast of the capital, Bratislava. Cintula and prosecutors can still appeal the verdict. Cintula, 72, was arrested immediately after the attack and was ordered to remain behind bars. Fico was shot in the abdomen and was taken to a hospital in Banska Bystrica. He underwent a five-hour surgery, followed by another two-hour surgery two days later. He has since recovered.
POLAND
Putin faces arrest threat
Warsaw yesterday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against traveling through its airspace for a summit in Hungary with US President Donald Trump, saying it could be forced to execute an international arrest warrant if he did. Trump last week said that he planned to meet Putin in Budapest as part of his efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine. The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2023 issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction and denies the allegations. “I cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court won’t order the government to escort such an aircraft down to hand the suspect to the court in The Hague,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski told Radio Rodzina. The ICC warrant obligates the court’s member states to arrest Putin, if he sets foot on their territory.
UNITED STATES
Chess champion dies at 29
The chess world has been plunged into mourning following the sudden death of prominent US grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky aged 29. Governing body the International Chess Federation (FIDE) remembered Naroditsky, who was also a chess commentator and streamer, as someone “whose influence extended far beyond the chessboard.” Fellow grandmaster and world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura wrote on social media: “I’m devastated. This is a massive loss for the world of chess.” Charlotte Chess Center announced the death of California-born Naroditsky on Monday, saying: “Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community.” It did not say how he died. FIDE said that Naroditsky “played a pivotal role in popularizing chess content online, bridging the gap between professional and amateur chess.”
POLAND
Lu wins Chopin competition
US pianist Eric Lu (陸逸軒) won the top prize at the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition, the contest’s Polish organizers said yesterday. The competition — held every five years in Frederic Chopin’s homeland — is seen as a gateway to classical music glory, with winners going on to play top global venues and sign recording deals. “This is a dream come true,” Lu, 27, told reporters in Warsaw, thanking “all the Chopin lovers around the world.” A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Lu participated in the competition’s 2015 edition, finishing fourth. Canada’s Kevin Chen (陳禹同), 20, finished second and China’s Wang Zitong (王紫桐), 26, came third.
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
EXTRADITION FEARS: The legislative changes come five years after a treaty was suspended in response to the territory’s crackdown on democracy advocates Exiled Hong Kong dissidents said they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the territory could put them in greater danger, adding that Hong Kong authorities would use any pretext to pursue them. An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to a government crackdown on the democracy movement and its imposition of a National Security Law. The British Home Office said that the suspension of the treaty made all extraditions with Hong Kong impossible “even if
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
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