■SOUTH KOREA
'Widow' scammer caught
A woman who held a funeral for her husband after claiming he was lost at sea scammed insurers out of US$800,000 before he was found alive and well, police said yesterday. The fraud in the southeastern town of Tongyeong is part of an increasing trend of bogus claims, insurers say. It began in March 2006 when she told police that her husband had failed to return from a fishing trip, a police spokesman in the nearby city of Changwon said. The husband had left his boat adrift and sneaked back ashore on a different boat as a major sea search was launched. He went to ground for some three years elsewhere in the country as his wife successfully filed claims totaling 1.1 billion won (US$800,000) with six insurance firms. She even held a funeral for her spouse, receiving the customary condolence cash payments from mourners.
■JAPAN
Woman sentenced to death
The Supreme Court sentenced a woman to death yesterday for killing four people and making more than 60 ill by poisoning a large pot of curry at a summer festival in 1998, a case widely covered in domestic media. The incident shocked the nation, where crime rates are relatively low and mass killings extremely rare. Public broadcaster NHK reported the Supreme Court upheld a lower court death sentence on Masumi Hayashi, 47, for the crime that took place in the western city of Wakayama. The Supreme Court called the crime “cruel and despicable,” NHK said. Prosecutors charged Hayashi became enraged after being shunned by her neighbors and put arsenic in the curry when she was alone in the garage where it was being prepared, media said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Tourist angered by 'Eskimo'
A New Zealand lolly called an Eskimo and in the stereotypical shape of an Inuit person has angered a Canadian tourist who says it is an insult to her people, a newspaper reported yesterday. Seeka Lee Veevee Parsons, 21, an Inuit from Canada’s Nunavut Territory, told the Taranaki Daily News that the word Eskimo, used by confectionery manufacturer Cadbury/Pascall in its popular lolly mix, was unacceptable because it had negative racial connotations. Eskimo means “eater of raw meat,” she said, and the correct term for her people is Inuit. Parsons said she would send packets of the lollies to both Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and her grandfather, an Inuit tribal elder in the Nunavut Territory, presumably to encourage a protest. She said that New Zealanders would not like to see confectionery in the shape of indigenous Maoris and if anything the lollies should be shaped like a seal, the Inuits’ main source of food.
■THAILAND
Toes lead to robbery suspect
Police have arrested a suspected thief who left his toes at the scene of the crime, media reports said yesterday. Atthapol Maenkrathok, 42, was arrested over the weekend at a hospital in Uttaradit Province where he was being treated for a severed foot. Police said Atthapol was charged with robbing a woman of her cash and a US$1,000 gold necklace on the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok on April 7, the Bangkok Post reported. Investigators linked Atthapol to the theft after finding his bag of tools on the train, including an identification card, and five of his severed toes on the train track in Uttaradit, 380km north of Bangkok. Atthapol told police he had snagged his foot under the wheels while jumping off the train in Uttaradit.
■RUSSIA
Indonesian skipper convicted
A court in the far eastern Primorye region yesterday sentenced an Indonesian captain to three months in jail over a shipping incident that left eight sailors dead, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. Adi Nazvira was convicted of unlawfully crossing the Russian border by a court in Nakhodka, a Russian port on the Pacific where the incident involving the Sierra Leone-flagged New Star took place in February. The ship, with 10 Chinese and six Indonesians on board, was fired on by Russian border guards after it left Nakhodka. Eight of the sailors drowned when the captain ordered the evacuation of the vessel and their rescue boat sunk amid bad weather, although the exact circumstances of the incident are disputed.
■ISRAEL
Israel eyes Phalanx system
The government wants to buy a US radar-guided cannon to shoot down short-range rockets and mortar bombs fired at the Jewish state by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Haaretz reported yesterday. The Raytheon Phalanx system, designed to shred incoming shells after spotting their launch, could complement the Israeli Iron Dome system that fires small interceptor missiles and is due to be deployed on Gaza’s border next year. Phalanxes currently in production are earmarked for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak would ask the Pentagon to free up one unit — costing US$25 million — for Israel, Haaretz said. “The goal is to create a situation where as many rockets as possible launched at Israel are intercepted,” Barak was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said the minister would travel to Washington in June to propose the Phalanx purchase.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Quiet birthday for the Queen
Queen Elizabeth II was to mark her 83rd birthday yesterday with a low-key day at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace said. The queen’s London office said the monarch had nothing special planned or any public engagements scheduled, but she would probably go through the stack of official papers she receives as head of state. She has long done that every day of the year, except Christmas. “As always, the queen will be working,” her spokesman said on condition of anonymity, in line with palace policy. A royal salute will be fired at noon in Hyde Park in central London to mark the occasion by the King’s Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery. The queen’s birthday is celebrated twice a year — once privately, on her actual birthday, and again with an official national celebration in June.
■SOUTH OSSETIA
OSCE observers detained
The pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia has detained several observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for illegally crossing the Georgian-South Ossetian border, a separatist official said yesterday. “OSCE representatives were detained on South Ossetian territory for illegal border crossing,” Irina Gagloyeva said, without giving further details. She was unable to say how many observers had been held. An OSCE spokeswoman confirmed separately that two OSCE military observers had been detained by South Ossetian forces. Since 1992, 28 military observers from the Vienna-based organization have been based in Georgia and conducting patrols in South Ossetia. But since Russia’s brief war with Georgia last year, the separatist authorities have denied the observers access to their region and Moscow has blocked the renewal of the mission’s mandate in Georgia.
■UNITED STATES
Bodies found in hotel
Staff at a suburban Baltimore, Maryland, hotel unlocked a guest door and discovered the bodies of a man, two women and a teenage girl, authorities said, without naming the cause of death. The four were related and police were not looking for any suspects, Baltimore County Police Corporal Michael Hill said. It was unclear whether the deaths might have been the result of a murder-suicide. Hill said the victims were not from the Baltimore area and police were trying to contact the next of kin. Autopsies were planned for yesterday, and police didn’t release their identities. The hotel staff made the discovery on Monday after the room occupants didn’t check out when expected from the Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel.
■UNITED STATES
Kids lie about addiction
A study has found that almost one in 10 kids who play video games shows classic signs of addiction, lying about their habit, failing in efforts to cut back and even stealing to buy games. The study by Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, was published in the journal Psychological Science and used data from a Harris Poll of nearly 1,200 children aged eight to 18. The survey found that 88 percent of kids played video games at least occasionally and on average children played 13 hours of video games a week. Addicted gamers were far more likely to be boys. They reported having trouble paying attention in school, received poorer grades and had more health problems.
■UNITED STATES
Millions living with paralysis
Nearly 2 percent of the population, or more than 5.5 million people, have some kind of paralysis, a survey published yesterday found. The largest group, 29 percent, were paralyzed or partly paralyzed by stroke, the survey by Anthony Cahill of the University of New Mexico and colleagues found. Spinal cord injuries affected 23 percent, the telephone survey of 33,000 people found. The study was paid for by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, set up by the actor who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995 and died in 2004.
■UNITED STATES
Web spies breach jet project
Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the US$300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The newspaper quoted current and former government officials familiar with the matter as saying the intruders were able to copy and siphon data related to design and electronics systems. The spies could not access the most sensitive material, the paper said. The Journal quoted former US officials as saying the attacks seemed to have originated in China.
■UNITED STATES
FBI in mall spying scandal
Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a mall in West Virginia. The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said on Monday. Gary Sutton and Charles Hommema face fines and up to a year in jail on each charge if convicted.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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