SINGAPORE
Lee to step down on May 15
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) is to relinquish his office on May 15 and hand the post to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), his office said yesterday. Lee, 72, is to formally advise the president to appoint Wong, who is currently deputy prime minister and finance minister, to succeed him, his office said in a brief statement. Wong, who has the unanimous support of People’s Action Party (PAP) lawmakers, is to be sworn in at the national palace later the same day, it said. Lee has served as prime minister and head of the PAP since August 2004. He announced in November last year that he would retire this year and has already named Wong as his designated successor.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos limits US access
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday said the US would not be given access to more Philippine military bases. “The answer to that is no. The Philippines has no plan to open or to establish more EDCA [Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement] bases,” Marcos said in response to a question at a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. Manila last year announced the locations of four more military bases it is allowing the US military to use on top of the five agreed on under the 2014 EDCA. The deal allows US troops to rotate through and store defense equipment and supplies. The four additional bases include sites near the disputed South China Sea and another not far from Taiwan.
UNITED STATES
Girl killed in shooting
Eleven people standing outside a family gathering on Saturday night were shot, including a young girl who was killed in what Chicago police believe was gang-related violence on the city’s South Side. Four victims were children, police said on Sunday. An eight-year-old girl was fatally shot, while a one-year-old boy and an eight-year-old boy were each shot multiple times and listed in critical condition. A nine-year-old boy also was injured with a graze wound to his finger and hospitalized. The department’s Sunday statement updated the number of shooting victims to 11 from eight and gave new ages for the victims. As of Sunday, no one was in custody. “This was not a random act of violence. It was likely gang-related,” Department Deputy Chief Don Jerome told reporters. “The offenders’ actions, make no mistake, are horrific and unacceptable in our city.”
AUSTRALIA
Magpie, dog reunited
Authorities yesterday issued a license allowing a magpie called Molly to reunite with a pet dog, after sparking public outrage by keeping the unlikely friends apart. A Queensland couple’s pictures of the bird cozying up with their Staffordshire bull terrier Peggy drew an audience of hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram. However, the Gold Coast couple, who took the magpie in as a nestling in 2020, had to surrender the bird more than six weeks ago to the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation. Under state law, magpies and other protected wildlife can only be cared for by people with a license to show they have the needed skills. The couple’s Instagram page was deluged with outraged reactions to the separation, and an online petition titled “Don’t Break Their 4-Year Bond” garnered more than 150,000 signatures. The department said it has issued a “specialized license” to the couple after they agreed to undergo wildlife carer training and make no commercial gain from the bird or its image. The bird was returned home, it said.
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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