JAPAN
Fuji view beats building
A property developer is to demolish a near-complete, 10-story condominium in Tokyo after pushback from neighbors who said it blocked a view of Mount Fuji. Sekisui House on Tuesday said that it had “voluntarily decided to discontinue the project” as “there is no denying that the current situation has an enormous impact on the landscape.” The apartments are in part of western Tokyo famous for its views of Japan’s highest mountain from the end of a road named Fujimi, or “Fuji Viewing,” street.
Photo: AFP
GUATEMALA
Animals found in prison
The penitentiary system has asked authorities to investigate more than 100 prison guards for charges including possible abuse of power, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, after a prison clean-out revealed hidden cash and even pets. Of the guards, 102 worked at a prison known as “El Infiernito” (The Little Hell), which until early this month housed 225 suspected members of the Barrio 18 criminal gang. On June 2, authorities transferred the prisoners to take back control of the building from its occupants. The following day, authorities found nearly US$24,000 in hidden cash stashes, 30 mobile phones and animals that were being kept as pets, including raccoons, hawks and crocodiles.
Photo: AFP
ARGENTINA
Building climber arrested
A Polish daredevil was arrested in Buenos Aires on Tuesday as he tried to scale a 30-story building without ropes, only to be removed by firefighters. Marcin Banot, dressed in an Argentina soccer jersey, was intercepted after climbing 25 floors of the Globant building. More than 30 firefighters, ambulances and police cars were rushed to the scene after someone inside the building called an emergency line. He did not resist efforts to remove him. On the ground, Banot was arrested and risks being ordered to pay the costs for the rescue operation, officials said.
UNITED STATES
IS-linked suspects arrested
Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State (IS) group have been arrested in the past few days, people familiar with the matter said. The arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and the individuals, who entered the nation through the border with Mexico, are being held on immigration violations, said the sources, who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. The individuals entered the country last year and passed through the government’s screening process without turning up information that would have identified them as potential terrorism-related concerns, one of the sources said.
FRANCE
Francoise Hardy dies
Singer Francoise Hardy, whose crystalline voice and melancholy lyrics shot her to international stardom in the 1960s, has died, her son, Thomas Dutronc, said on Tuesday. She was 80. “Mom is gone,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a baby picture of himself with his mother. Hardy became a pop icon and fashion muse of the 1960s and beyond. In 1962 she released her debut single, Tous les garcons et les filles (All the girls and boys), in which the singer-songwriter lamented her loveless status. “All the boys and girls my age walk hand in hand in the streets two by two ... but not me, I walk alone through the streets, my heart aching,” she sang. Her career spanned more than 50 years and almost 30 studio albums.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
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