JAPAN
Cycling on phone banned
Cyclists using a mobile phone while riding could face up to six months in jail under new rules that entered into force yesterday. Those who breach the revised road traffic law can be punished with a maximum of six months in prison or a fine of up to ￥100,000 (US$660). “Making a call with a smartphone in your hand while cycling, or watching the screen, is now banned and subject to punishment,” the National Police Agency said in a leaflet. Some accidents caused by cyclists watching screens have resulted in pedestrian deaths, the government said. Under the new rules, cycling while drunk can land the rider with up to three years in prison or a fine of up to ￥500,000. Those who offer alcoholic drinks to cyclists face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to ￥300,000.
Photo: AFP
NORTH KOREA
Media hail new ICBM
Pyongyang yesterday said that a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) it test-launched is “the world’s strongest,” while experts said that it is too big to be useful in a war situation. The ICBM launched on Thursday flew higher and for a longer duration than any other weapon the nation has tested, but foreign experts say the test failed to show that Pyongyang has mastered some of the last remaining technological hurdles to possess functioning ICBMs that can strike the mainland US. The Korean Central News Agency identified the missile as a Hwasong-19 and called it “the world’s strongest strategic missile” and “the perfected weapon system.” Leader Kim Jong-un observed the launch, describing it as an expression of the nation’s resolve to respond to external threats to its security, it said. The color and shape of exhaust flames seen in media photographs of the launch suggest the missile uses preloaded solid fuel, which makes weapons more agile and harder to detect than liquid propellants that in general must be fueled beforehand. However, experts said the photos show that the ICBM and its launch vehicle are oversized, raising a serious question about their wartime mobility and survivability. “When missiles get bigger, what happens? The vehicles get larger, too. As the transporter-erector launchers get bigger, their mobility decreases,” said Lee Sang-min, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The Hwasong-19 was estimated to be at least 28m long, while advanced US and Russian ICBMs are less than 20m long.
Photo: EPA-EFE
PAKISTAN
Explosion kills seven
A bomb targeting police guarding polio vaccinators yesterday killed seven people, including five children, police said. The bomb targeted officers in the city of Mastung in Balochistan Province as they were traveling in a van to guard medical workers participating in a nationwide vaccine campaign, police said. “Seven individuals: one police officer, five children and one shopkeeper” were those killed in the attack at the city’s main market, senior officer Abdul Fatah told reporters. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic and vaccination teams are frequently targeted by militants waging a campaign against security forces.
Photo: AP
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
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