JAPAN
Scaffold collapse kills two
A 12-story scaffold collapsed on Tuesday, killing two workers and leaving one missing, local media reported. The 40m structure gave way during the dismantling of a crane at a JFE Steel construction site in Kawasaki, public broadcaster NHK reported. Aerial footage showed a large, water-filled hole at the portside complex, with fire engines and rescue crews at the scene and divers conducting searches. Five people fell when the scaffold collapsed, NHK said, citing police and fire officials. Initial reports said that three of them were unconscious in critical condition, while one was conscious and another remained missing, but local media later reported that two of the workers had died. The site is in a part of the Kawasaki waterfront where work was under way to dismantle cranes used for unloading cargo from ships, NHK said.
Photo: Kyodo News via Reuters
AUSTRALIA
Ex-soldier to remain in jail
Military veteran Ben Roberts-Smith did not apply for bail when war crime murder charges against him were listed in a Sydney court yesterday. The charges relate to the deaths of five Afghans who died in 2009 and 2012 while Roberts-Smith served in Afghanistan as an elite Special Air Service Regiment corporal. Police on Tuesday said he had been charged with five counts of war crime murder, but the charges laid in court yesterday were two counts of war crime murder and three counts of aiding or abetting a war crime murder. All charges carry the same potential maximum sentence of life in prison. Roberts-Smith, 47, spent the night in jail after he was arrested at the Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning, and he did not appear in court either in person or by video link yesterday. His lawyers did not enter pleas to the charges or apply for his release on bail. The case was adjourned until June 4.
GREECE
Social media ban approved
The government is to ban access to social media for children younger than 15 from Jan. 1 next year, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said yesterday. “We have decided to go ahead with a difficult, but necessary, measure: ban access to social media for children under 15 years old,” he said in a video posted on TikTok. “Greece is among the first countries in the world to adopt such a measure,” he said, adding that he would put pressure on the EU to follow suit. Mitsotakis said he used social media to make the announcement so he could address teenagers and children directly: “I know that some of you are going to be angry... Our aim is not to keep you away from technology, but to combat addiction to certain applications that harms your innocence and your freedom.” He added that the “science is clear: When a child is in front of screens for hours, their brain does not rest.”
NIGERIA
Armed men kill 20 people
Armed men killed at least 20 people, including security guards, and abducted an unknown number of people after attacking villages in northwestern Niger State, police and residents said late on Tuesday. The attack happened in Shiroro District, where kidnapping gangs and Islamist militants are known to operate. Niger State Police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said gunmen invaded Bagna and Erena villages on Tuesday and, when security responded, two community guards and a driver were killed, and others were injured. However, residents said that at least 20 people were killed and that the attackers, who also destroyed homes, operated for several hours and overwhelmed security personnel in the area.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
RSS