ASIA / PACIFIC
November 20, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Indonesia museum removes
Hitler display after protests
By Stephen Wright
The Associated Press
AKARTA, Indonesia — An
Indonesian
visual
effects
museum that encouraged
visitors to take selfies with a
waxwork of Hitler against a giant
image of the Auschwitz exter-
mination camp removed the exhibit
after protests.
The De Mata Trick Eye Museum’s
marketing officer said the statue was
removed following an Associated
Press story highlighting outrage from
Jewish and rights groups.
Human Rights Watch denounced
the exhibit as “sickening” and the Los
Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal
Center, which campaigns against
Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism,
demanded its immediate removal.
The museum, which has waxworks
of about 80 famous people, had the
Hitler figure on display since 2014.
It initially defended the exhibit as
“fun” and said it was one of the most
popular waxworks with visitors to the
infotainment-style museum in the
central Java city of Yogyakarta.
The space at the museum occupied
by Hitler is now empty and the image
of Auschwitz, where more than 1
J
FISHERMEN RETURNED. The Japanese coast guard approaches
a capsized wooden vessel, top, for a rescue operation in the water off
Noto Peninsula, Japan. Three crew members rescued from the capsized
boat were North Koreans. The area is a rich fishing ground where poach-
ers from North Korea and China have been spotted. (Photo/9th Regional
Japan Coast Guard Headquarters via AP)
Japan sends home three
North Koreans rescued
from capsized boat
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
OKYO — Japan has handed over three North
Korean crew members who were rescued from a
capsized fishing boat to a North Korean vessel that
will return them home, officials said.
The three men were rescued by Japan’s coast guard
while floating on the small wooden vessel off the northern
coast of the Noto Peninsula, chief cabinet secretary
Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
The men expressed their wish to return home when
interviewed on a Japanese coast guard boat and were
handed over to another North Korean fishing vessel at
sea, said coast guard spokesman Satoru Nanjo.
Coast guard rescuers were still searching for their
fellow crew members believed to be missing.
The three told Japanese officials they came with 12
other crew members from North Korea to fish and their
boat capsized just as they were heading home, Nanjo said.
The area, about 216 miles north of the peninsula, is in
waters where Japan’s exclusive economic zone overlaps
with those of neighboring countries. It’s a rich fishing
ground where poachers from North Korea and China have
been spotted.
Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic ties. The
incident happened as Japan steps up pressure on the
North over Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear threats.
Boats believed to be from North Korea often wash up on
Japan’s northern coast during the winter because of the
seasonal wind from the northwest. Three North Korean
boats with 10 bodies inside washed up on the peninsula in
2015.
This year, 13 cases of wreckages were reported in three
northern prefectures facing the Sea of Japan, but no
bodies have been found, according to the coast guard.
T
Bangkok firefighters on front
line of city’s snake scourge
Continued from page 2
truckloads
of
snakes
caught in the city into the
jungle.
City authorities say the
number of snakes caught in
Bangkok homes has risen
exponentially in recent
years, from 16,000 report-
ed cases in 2013 to about
29,000 in 2016. Figures for
the first half of 2017 are
more than 30 percent
higher than last year.
Penchom Saetang, direc-
tor of the environmental
foundation Ecological Alert
and Recovery Thailand,
said Bangkok is producing
more trash each year
because the city is quickly
expanding under an insuf-
ficient waste management
system.
A July 2017 Greenpeace
report
said
that
in
Thailand “there are 2,490
waste management centers
around the country and
only 466 of them manage
waste accordingly ...”
Piya’s
advice
to
Bangkok’s residents is to
keep the city clean in order
to keep the snakes away.
He said most snakes found
in Bangkok homes and
apartments are harmless,
“but if you spot a venomous
one, firemen will be there
to help.”
Associated Press writer
Kaweewit Kaewjinda con-
tributed to this report.
DISPLAY DISMAY. A visitor walks past the wax figure of Adolf Hitler, left, displayed against the
backdrop of a giant image of the Auschwitz extermination camp next to Star Wars character Darth
Vader, right, at De Mata Trick Eye Museum in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Rights groups expressed out-
rage over the display of Hitler, calling it “sickening” and saying “it mocks the victims who went in
and never came out.” (AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi)
million people were exterminated by Bandung where waiters wore SS
uniforms caused anger abroad for
the Nazi regime, was gone.
It was not the first time Nazism several years until reportedly closing
and its symbols have been its doors at the beginning of this year.
In 2014, a music video made by
normalized or even idealized in Indo-
nesia, the world’s most populous Indonesian pop stars as a tribute to
Muslim nation and home to a tiny presidential candidate Prabowo
Subianto stirred outrage with its
Jewish community.
A Nazi-themed café in the city of Nazi overtones.
Japanese tug boat scrapes U.S. Navy ship during exercise
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese tug boat lost propulsion and
drifted into a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer during a
towing exercise, according to the Navy.
The USS Benfold sustained minimal damage, including
scrapes on its side, the Navy said in a statement. No one
was injured on either vessel. The commercial tug boat was
towed to a port in Yokosuka, the home of the Navy’s
Japan-based 7th Fleet.
The collision occurred in Sagami Bay, which is
q
Sri Lankan police arrest
19 over racial violence
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan police say 19
people were arrested following racial violence in the
country’s south that started over a dispute between
majority Buddhists and minority Muslims.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said four people
were injured in attacks that took place in areas
surrounding the southern town of Galle. Homes, shops,
and vehicles were damaged in the violence, though the
extent was not immediately known.
A curfew imposed overnight was lifted in the morning.
Law and Order minister Sagala Ratnayake said in a
statement that the elite police riot squads and the
military were brought in to prevent an escalation of the
violence and the situation was brought under control. He
thanked everyone who “acted with responsibility to avoid
a bloodbath.”
Ratnayake also warned of stern action against those
carrying out racial propaganda and spreading rumors.
Sinhalese Buddhists make up 75 percent of Sri Lanka’s
population of 20 million, while Muslims make up nine
percent. Even though relations between the communities
have been generally cordial, Muslims have been victims of
hate speech and their businesses attacked by radical
Sinhalese groups in recent years.
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southwest of Tokyo. The Navy said the Benfold remained
at sea under its own power, and that the incident would be
investigated.
The 7th Fleet has had two fatal accidents in Asian
waters this year, leaving 17 sailors dead and prompting
the removal of eight top Navy officers from their posts,
including the 7th Fleet commander.
The USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided
near Singapore in August, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead.
Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a
container ship collided off Japan.
The Navy has concluded that the collisions were
avoidable and resulted from widespread failures by the
crews and commanders, who did not quickly recognize and
respond to unfolding emergencies. A Navy report
recommended numerous changes to address the
problems, ranging from improved training to increasing
sleep and stress management for sailors.
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Difficulty
EASY
level: Easy
#24786
# 29
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #37127 (Hard)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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