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.
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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