JAPAN
DPP leader admits affair
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP), said that a tabloid report about his extramarital affair with a model was “basically true.” “I apologize for the trouble caused,” Tamaki told reporters at a hastily called news conference after tabloid SmartFlash yesterday reported the affair. Despite the scandal, Tamaki retained the unanimous support of the party’s lawmakers to stay on as party leader, DPP Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba told reporters. SmartFlash reported that Tamaki, 55, and a 39-year-old model and entertainer rendezvoused in July and last month.
AUSTRALIA
Chef Oliver withdraws book
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has withdrawn his latest children’s book from sale after criticism it stereotyped members of the indigenous community. Billy and the Epic Escape, released in May, contains a passage where an indigenous Australian girl living in foster care is abducted by the story’s villain — a sensitive issue in a country where indigenous children were for decades forcibly removed from their parents. It also contained errors made by mixing different indigenous languages. “I am devastated to have caused offence and apologise wholeheartedly,” the Guardian reported Oliver, who is currently in Australia promoting his latest cookbook, as saying in a statement on Sunday. “It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue. Together with my publishers we have decided to withdraw the book from sale.” Oliver’s publisher Penguin Random House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SINGAPORE
Priest ‘stabber’ charged
A Singaporean man was yesterday charged with stabbing a priest celebrating a weekend Mass, court papers showed, but the Ministry of Home Affairs said there was no evidence the attack was religiously motivated or an act of terror. Basnayake Keith Spencer, 37, is accused of using a foldable knife to stab parish priest Christopher Lee Kwong Heng, 57, in the mouth during Saturday’s evening Mass at St Joseph’s Church in the upmarket Bukit Timah District, the charge sheet showed. Spencer was disarmed and held by members of the congregation until police officers arrived. Among the four other weapons on him were a penknife and a mallet, authorities said. Spencer was charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt using a weapon likely to cause death, which carries a life sentence, or up to 15 years in jail, along with a caning and a fine. Media said he was not represented in court. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear. The ministry said he had a history of offenses of causing serious hurt and drug use. The priest, who suffered cuts to his tongue, upper lip and a corner of his mouth, is recovering in hospital.
MEXICO
Mariachis ‘break’ record
More than 1,000 mariachis on Sunday gathered in Mexico City’s main plaza, strumming guitars and singing classics like Cielito Lindo to end a mariachi congress celebrating the musical form. The number of musicians apparently topped the previous record of 700 mariachis at an earlier gathering in the city of Guadalajara. The Guinness World Records organization has not replied to a message from The Associated Press asking whether Sunday’s gathering broke the previous record. The musicians, many of whom had traveled from other cities, expressed their joy at singing in the giant iconic plaza, saying the music is a family tradition they start learning at a young age.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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