JAPAN
Break-in addict arrested
Police yesterday said that they had arrested a man who reportedly admitted to breaking into more than 1,000 homes in an unconventional way of relieving stress. Police took the 37-year-old into custody on Monday on suspicion of trespassing on a property in Dazaifu, a police spokesman told reporters. “Breaking into other people’s homes is a hobby of mine, and I have done it more than 1,000 times,” the Mainichi Shimbun quoted the unnamed man as saying. “I get so thrilled that my palms sweat when wondering if someone will discover me or not, and it relieves some stress,” he told police, according to the newspaper.
Photo: AP
AUSTRALIA
Police officer found guilty
A police officer who shocked a 95-year-old nursing home resident with a Taser was found guilty of manslaughter in court yesterday. A jury found Kristian White guilty in the trial in Sydney after 20 hours of deliberation. White, who is on bail, could get up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced. Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother who had dementia and used a walker, was refusing to put down the steak knife she was holding when the officer discharged his Taser at her in May last year. Nowland fell backward after White shocked her and died a week later in hospital. Police said at the time that Nowland sustained her fatal injuries from striking her head on the floor, rather than directly from the device’s debilitating electric shock.
Photo: AFP
PHILIPPINES
Complaint filed against VP
Police yesterday said that they had filed a complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte and several of her security detail over an incident at the lower house of Congress. The complaint is for direct assault, disobedience and grave coercion during an incident at the lower chamber and a hospital, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said in a statement. Duterte has been the subject of a heated congressional inquiry into the spending of her office as vice president and education secretary, during which she has clashed with lawmakers. “The PNP remains steadfast in its commitment to uphold justice and ensure that all individuals are held accountable under the law, regardless of their position,” police chief Rommel Francisco Marbil said. Duterte has been furious over the detention at the complex of the lower house of her aide, who is also facing a House inquiry. The aide was later transferred to a government hospital for medical attention. On Saturday, Duterte said she had contracted an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife and the speaker of the House, if she herself were killed. Law officials on Tuesday summoned Duterte for questioning over the statements. She said her words had been twisted to create a false narrative that Marcos’ life was under active threat, calling her remarks a “conditional act of revenge.”
UNITED STATES
Trump names trade envoy
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Jamieson Greer his trade envoy, a key figure in implementing the incoming administration’s economic agenda, particularly a plan to use tariffs to raise revenue and help bring in more manufacturing. Trump also picked Kevin Hassett as his top economic adviser. “Jamieson played a key role during my First Term in imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices,” Trump said of Greer. Later, Trump named health economist Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s leading medical research agency.
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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