19/04/2025

SATURDAY | APR 19, 2025

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TOKYO: Japan enacted yesterday a revised law to allow municipalities to authorise “emergency shootings” by hunters when dangerous animals enter populated areas amid a rising number of bear attacks. The revision to the law on wildlife protection and management will enable a quicker and more effective response compared with current measures, which only allow dangerous animals to be shot when people are in immediate danger. The government aims to enforce the law by fall when bears start to become active, with ordinance designating brown bears, Asian black bears and wild boars as dangerous animals subject to emergency shooting. Brown bears live in Hokkaido, northern Japan, while black bears live in 34 of the country’s 47 prefectures, according to the Environment Ministry. Sightings of bears coming down to populated areas in search of food have been on the rise amid a decline in human activity in mountainous areas and an increase in abandoned farms as a result of the ageing and shrinking rural population. Under the revamped law, which cleared the House of Councillors, local governments will be able to ask hunters or officials to shoot a bear when it is feared it will enter a residential area or it is deemed an urgent response is necessary to prevent a human being harmed. The law also states certain conditions must be met before an emergency shooting is authorised – for example, it is deemed the animal cannot be captured quickly without the use of a firearm and there is no risk of people being caught in the line of fire. Municipal chiefs will be able to restrict traffic and issue evacuation orders to secure the safety of residents when an emergency shooting is carried out. – Bernama Japan allows shooting of dangerous animals “If strict measures were not accepted, then our organisation could become careless and it could result in eroding the public’s trust.” – AFP TOKYO: A Japanese bus driver with 29 years of service lost his retirement package worth US$84,000 (RM370,284) after being fired for stealing US$7 from passengers’ fares. Kyoto City sacked the man, who was not named, after he was filmed by the security camera of his bus pilfering ¥1,000 (RM30.85) in 2022. After he was denied his retirement money of more than ¥12 million (RM370,284), the driver sued the city but lost the case. The verdict was overturned in his favour, with a court ruling that the punishment was excessive. But on Thursday the Supreme Court delivered a final ruling in the city’s favour, reinstating the original penalty. It ruled that the man’s conduct could undermine public trust in the system and the sound operation of the bus service. In the original incident a group of five passengers entered the bus and paid him ¥1,150, according to the ruling. The driver instructed the group to drop ¥150 worth of coins into a fare collection box, and accepted a ¥1,000 bill by hand and didn’t report it properly. Despite being caught on camera, he tried to deny it during a meeting with his superior. The driver had been reprimanded several times during his career over various incidents, according to the ruling. This included repeatedly smoking an electronic cigarette while on duty, albeit when there were no passengers on board. Kyoto City hailed the decision. “Each bus driver works alone and handles public money. We took it very seriously that embezzlement took place,” said Shinichi Hirai, an official at Kyoto’s public transport bureau. Bus driver steals US$7, loses pension

A student placing flowers at a makeshift memorial near the scene of the shooting on Thursday. – AFPPIC

Two men shot dead at Florida State University

Carney tried to refocus attention on Trump. “The biggest risk we have to this economy is Trump,” said the 60-year-old former central banker, who has never served in parliament or held a publicly elected office. Trump, he added, “is trying to break us so he can own us.” Carney also took fire from the two other party leaders on stage, the head of the left-wing New Democratic Party Jagmeet Singh, and the leader of the Quebec separatist Bloc Quebecois, Yves Francois Blanchet. Both hit Carney over his years in the private sector, questioning whether the Liberal leader would advocate for workers. Carney spent the early part of his career as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs. Carney countered that his private sector experience would help him in government but rejected suggestions that his loyalties were divided. “I’m on the side of Canadians.” – AFP Democrat he had been in the basement of the student union when shooting started. “Everyone started freaking out,” Swartz said, adding he had heard around 10 shots. A group of eight people huddled in a hallway and barricaded themselves with trash cans and plywood. “I remember learning to do the best you can to make them take time,” Swartz said, adding that mass shooters are “just trying to get as many people” as they can. Footage on social media showed a stream of young adults walking through corridors with their hands in the air as they evacuated the building. President Donald Trump called the shooting “a shame, a horrible thing”, but insisted that Americans should retain unfettered access to guns. “I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it,” he said, referring to the part of the US Constitution gun advocates say protects firearm ownership. “These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting – the people do.” – AFP

“Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.” He added that the suspect was part of Sheriff’s Office training programmes, meaning “it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons”. Bystander footage aired by CNN appeared to show a young man walking on a lawn and shooting at people who were trying to get away. Witnesses spoke of chaos as people began running through the sprawling campus as shots rang out near the student union. “Everyone just started running out of the student union,” said a witness named Wayne. “About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots.” The witness said he saw one man who appeared to have been shot in the midsection. The two people who died were “adult males” who were not students, police said. The university, a public institution with more than 40,000 students, cancelled all classes and told students who did not live on campus to leave. Student Sam Swartz told the Tallahassee

o Deputy sheriff’s son held

MIAMI: Two men were killed on Thursday in a mass shooting at a university in Florida allegedly carried out by the son of a local deputy sheriff with her old service weapon. Five people were wounded when the gunman, identified as Phoenix Ikner, rampaged through Florida State University, shooting at students, before he was shot by police. A sixth person was hurt trying to run away from the shooting, said Chief Lawrence Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department. The campus was locked down as gunfire erupted, with students ordered to shelter in place as first responders swarmed the site moments after the lunchtime shootings. Ikner, 20, has been hospitalised with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries”, Revell said. Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil told reporters Ikner was a student at the university and the son of an “exceptional” 18-year member of his staff.

Carney uses ‘Trump woes’ as shield MONTREAL: Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney faced sustained attacks from his Conservative rival at an election debate on Thursday, but the Liberal leader sought to focus attention on what he calls Canada’s top threat, President Donald Trump. the economy during Trudeau’s decade in power and leaving Canada vulnerable to hostile US policies. He continued that strategy at Thursday’s debate, charging the Liberals had given “Donald Trump and the US a near monopoly over our energy” by refusing to build pipelines that could allow Canadian oil to be exported abroad.

Most opinion polls show Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party is trailing Carney’s Liberals ahead of the April 28 vote. But the race remains tight and Poilievre worked hard at the debate to stem Liberal momentum that has picked up since Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister last month. Trump’s trade war and annexation threats have caused broad outrage across Canada and the Tory leader has faced criticism for directing his ire entirely at the Liberals instead of attacking Washington. As the campaign has evolved, Poilievre has increasingly sought to do both: condemning Trump while accusing the Liberals of weakening

Poilievre, a 45-year-old who has served in parliament for two decades, consistently tried to brand Carney as an extension of Trudeau, who became deeply unpopular towards the end of his tenure. “The question you have to ask is, after a decade of Liberal promises, can you afford food? Is your housing more affordable than it used to be?” Poilievre asked. “How can we possibly believe that you (Carney) are any different than the previous 10 years of Liberal government?” Poilievre further said, repeatedly reminding that Carney had served as “Trudeau’s economic adviser”.