Mayuko Matsumoto’s daughter found her bleeding profusely from about 20 cuts to her face on Monday at her home in a mountainous region of southern Japan.

Police launched an attempted murder investigation after seeing the wounds, some of them relatively severe, according to local broadcaster RKK.

“When we found her, blood covered everything above her chin. Her face was soaked in blood. I didn’t know what had happened,” Matsumoto’s daughter told RKK.

Matsumoto, who is 82 years old and reportedly unable to speak, had to receive emergency care, Kyodo News said.

Investigators found no sign of people entering or leaving the house at the time of the suspected attack, the private network NTV said.

They then realised that Matsumoto’s wounds looked like cat scratches, it added.

Police turned their attention to the stray cats loitering around Matsumoto’s house, and found traces of what may be human blood on one of them, the Nishinippon Shimbun newspaper said Friday.

“Police are analysing a blood sample taken from the claw of the cat which might have scratched the victim,” national broadcaster NHK reported.

A police spokesman declined to directly comment on the case on Friday, but told AFP that investigators were not disputing the media reports.//AFP

Lau Hon Meng from Singapore, Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia, Myanmar journalist Aung Naing Soe and driver Hla Tin were arrested last month when shooting a documentary in the capital Naypyidaw.

The team was working for Turkish state broadcaster TRT, who said the crew wanted to film the parliament building after an interview with an MP.

“They were surprised when they heard their sentence,” the group’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told AFP after their one-day trial in the capital.

He said the defendants had confessed to flying the drone but were only expecting a fine.

The group faces up to three more years in jail for the import of “restricted or banned” goods without a proper license, their lawyer added, with a trial expected to take place on November 16.

TRT claims the reporters informed Myanmar’s Ministry of Information about their filming plans in advance.

In a statement after the arrests the Turkish broadcaster also said police had raided local reporter Aung Naing Soe’s home and confiscated his computer and hard drive.

The incident comes amid tensions between Turkey and the Southeast Asian nation over Myanmar’s treatment of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, who have fled the country in droves after an army crackdown in Rakhine state.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Myanmar of incubating “Buddhist terror” and carrying out a genocide against the Muslim group.

The verdict is also the latest sign of withering press freedoms which had started  that had started to blossom in Myanmar after the end of junta rule in 2011.

The Committee to Protect Journalists earlier slammed the reporters’ arrests as part of an “escalating clampdown on press freedom” in the fledgeling democracy.//AFP

While President Donald Trump jetted off to a summit in Vietnam after his state visit to China, his wife stayed behind to see the Beijing Zoo’s favourite tenants before heading to the Great Wall later in the day.

The former model was greeted by a group of schoolchildren who waved Chinese and American flags and led her to the panda enclosure.

They oohed and aahed as Meng’er crawled onto a platform and began munching on bamboo. His name means “Cute No. 2” in Mandarin.

Trump later “interacted privately” with Gu Gu behind-the-scenes, zoo director Li Xiaoguang told reporters.

Born in 1999, Gu Gu is a “good-looking panda with a robust memory,” traits that serve him well as “goodwill ambassador of the zoo”, Li said.

Gu Gu’s name doesn’t have a particular meaning, but the repetition of syllables is generally used in China to make names sound adorable.

China treated the Trumps to a lavish state visit with a private tour of the Forbidden City on Wednesday and a banquet dinner on Thursday.

Beijing has cultivated a global fascination with pandas as part of its diplomacy by sending the animals to overseas zoos where they have proven a wildly popular draw.

In 2015, former US first lady Michelle Obama and her Chinese counterpart, Peng Liyuan, chose the name for Bei Bei, a panda cub born at the National Zoo in Washington.

Pandas, whose natural habitat lies in mountainous southwestern China, have a notoriously low reproductive rate and are under pressure from factors such as habitat loss.

Trump wrote on Twitter that his wife would later fly to Alaska to meet with US troops.

The US leader was in Vietnam for an Asia-Pacific summit and he will then head to the Philippines on Sunday for the final leg of his five-nation tour of Asia.//AFP

She was ranked among the top ten contestants at the reception along with beauty queens from Vietnam, Nepal, Ecuador, Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, South Africa, the Philippines and Venezuela.

“I appreciate being one of top ten beauty queens in my first appearance at a beauty contest outside the country,” Miss Phounesup said.

She urged everyone in Laos to support her during the contest and promised to do her best to promote Laos and its culture in Japan.

Miss Phounesup said she enjoyed watching and participating in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony with the other contestants.

Director of the First Modelinglao Agency, Ms Viengsamone Chittalath, told Vientiane Time yesterday that Miss Phounesup left for Japan on September 24. Her activities so far have included participating in cultural activities such as learning floral arrangements, the tea ceremony and wearing a kimono. She has also visited well-known tourist attractions.

The activities were organised in various districts of Japan. The contestants have learnt a lot about the beautiful Japanese culture and this will help nurture friendly relations between Laos and Japan, Ms Viengsamone said.

The national costume worn by Miss Phounesup is called “Siengkhaen Daenchampa” and was designed by Mr Si Amphan Chanthavichit (Billy), the winner of Lao Young Designer Project 2015, to symbolize Lao style at the competition.

Billy’s concept costume aims to show the civilisation, fertile arts and handicrafts, and beautiful culture of the country. The costume features frangipanis, the national flower, as well as sticky rice baskets and traditional khaen musical instruments to promote culture.

The final round of Miss International 2017 will be held in Tokyo, Japan, on November 14. This year, the pageant has attracted participants from 72 countries.

First held in 1960, Miss International (Miss International Beauty or The International Beauty Pageant) is a Tokyo-based international beauty contest organised by The International Culture Association.

Along with Miss World, Miss Universe and Miss Earth, this pageant is one of the Big Four international pageants – the most coveted beauty titles when it comes to international competitions.

Participants and winners are expected to serve as “Ambassadors of Peace and Beauty”, demonstrating tenderness, benevolence, friendship, beauty, intelligence, ability to take action, and, most importantly, a great international sensibility. The ultimate goal of the Miss International pageant is to promote world peace, goodwill and understanding.

The Embassy said on its Facebook page that there has been a recent hike in the number of tourists, including Thais visiting Istanbul, who have been cheated in many ways by local people.

Most of the cases happened in crowded tourist sites like Sultanahmet and Taksim Square, where local people befriended foreigners and persuaded them to have joined them for a restaurant meal or to visit a bar.

Food and drinks are then ordered in the restaurants, but the resulting bill is highly inflated over the expected charge. The tourists have been allowed to leave the restaurants only after paying the bill.

Some tourists have been lured to spend the evening in nightclubs, and then overcharged on the bill.

The Thai Embassy in Ankara recommended that Thai tourists be cautious while travelling in Turkey, particularly when local people try to befriend them.

They should exercise utmost caution when in crowded places, tourist attractions and when using public transportation and trains.

Tourists should keep their passports in a safe place. When using a yellow taxi in Istanbul, they should check regularly that the meter is working.

In the event of problems during their visit, they could contact the embassy at +90 312 437 4318 (Monday to Friday at 9am5pm). In an emergency, they could contact the embassy at +90 533 641 5698 around the clock.

The Embassy also noted that most people in Turkey are friendly, helpful and welcoming to tourists.

Seven major rice-producing countries entered into the contest this week in Macau, China, where 21 samples of rice were presented for judging, according to Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation. While Cambodia’s Phka Rumdoul variety of fragrant rice impressed the judges, it was Thailand’s own Hom Mali rice that took the first place prize.

“We came in second after Thailand, but our rice was recognised and widely supported for its good quality during the contest. Many buyers from China and Vietnam are interested in buying our rice,” Lak said. “Thailand had a very strong presentation linking the late King [Bhumibol Adulyadej] to the history of its rice, which was very attractive to the audience and made it difficult for Cambodia to win.”

The rice is judged according to five criteria, both before and after cooking, including appearance, texture, moisture, aroma and length of grain.

Cambodia’s Phka Rumduol rice was once a consistent winner of the competition, coming in first place for three consecutive years between 2012 and 2014, but it lost its crown to the United States’ Calrose rice in 2015 and lost again to Thailand’s Hom Mali last year.

Despite this year’s loss, Deputy Director of Capital Food Chray Son noted that the Cambodian rice market should still benefit from having participated in the competition.

“We always gain experience from this competition, and we learn to prepare for the next,” he said yesterday, adding that Cambodia needs to further strengthen the quality of its rice seeds, improve irrigation and enhance its harvesting and milling techniques.

“Standing in second place does not hurt our market, and it is not a bad thing. It is better than not winning an award,” he said. “We gain a lot of benefits from promoting our rice, and more or less this will help with the growth of our exports.”

The World’s Best Rice Competition may be a useful tool for promoting the quality of Cambodian rice, but the best way for the Kingdom’s industry to attract buyers and enhance its reputation is to focus on efforts from its private sector, according to Hean Vanhan, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Even though we place at the top of this competition every year, rice exports are not increasing much, and rumours of fake or low-quality rice have tarnished the reputation of Cambodia’s rice sector internationally,” he said. “We are also noticing rice exporters have a limited capacity to attract buyers.”

Speaking on the second day of a trip to Beijing marked by pomp and pageantry, Trump also decried China’s “one-sided and unfair” trade surplus with the United States but told Xi “I don’t blame China”, as the two countries signed more than $250 billion in business deals.

Xi hosted Trump at the imposing Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square, for the main event of Trump’s five-nation tour of Asia.

While the two leaders have recently stepped up the flattery, Trump made clear to Xi that he expected China to do more to rein in North Korea.

“We must act fast. And hopefully China will act faster and more effectively on this problem than anyone,” Trump said, while thanking Xi for his efforts to restrict trade with Pyongyang.

“China can fix this problem easily and quickly, and I am calling on China and your great president to hopefully work on it very hard,” the US leader said.

“I know one thing about your president: If he works on it hard, it will happen. There’s no doubt about it.”

The US administration thinks China’s economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyongyang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

Xi, who has repeatedly urged the United States and North Korea to hold negotiations to resolve the crisis peacefully, told Trump that they should “strengthen communication and coordination” on issues including the Korean Peninsula.

Trump, who is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an APEC summit in Vietnam this weekend, also appealed for help from Moscow, which also has economic ties with North Korea.

“I’m also calling on Russia to help rein in this potentially very tragic situation,” he said. He earlier said he and Xi believed there was a solution to the nuclear standoff, without elaborating.

Trade

Washington has made no secret of its frustration at China’s massive trade surplus with the United States, but at a signing ceremony for over $250 billion in US-Chinese business deals, Trump said he did not blame Beijing.

“After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the sake of its citizens?”

However, he pointed the blame at past US administrations “for allowing this out-of-control trade deficit to take place and to grow”.

The Trump administration has aggressively pursued trade remedies in commercial relations with Beijing — investigating Chinese trade practices on intellectual property and in aluminium and steel.

‘Beautiful welcome’

The trip comes as Trump faces the lowest approval ratings for a US president in seven decades, and with the one-year anniversary of his election Wednesday spoiled by big Democrat wins in state and mayoral votes.

Xi, by contrast, cemented his status as the most powerful Chinese leader in a generation at a Communist Party congress last month, when his name was inscribed into the constitution.

On Trump’s first state visit to China, a military band played the US and Chinese anthems, ceremonial cannon fire erupted, and the two leaders reviewed a military honour guard just across from Tiananmen Square — the site of the army’s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

Children waved US and Chinese flags at the two leaders, a day after Xi treated Trump to a tour of the Forbidden City, capped by an opera performance and a private dinner.

“Emphasising pomp over substance is the Chinese way. With President Trump, they think that the state-visit plus treatment will impress him and buy China some goodwill,” Bonnie Glaser, China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told AFP.

Evidently pleased with the first day of his visit, Trump circumvented China’s internet censorship system to post a message to Xi on Twitter, which is banned in the country.

“THANK YOU for the beautiful welcome China! @FLOTUS Melania and I will never forget it!” he Trump.

Both leaders say they have struck up a friendship since Trump hosted Xi for a plush visit at the billionaire’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for their first meeting in April.

“My feeling toward you is an incredibly warm one. As we said there’s great chemistry and I think we’re going to do tremendous things for both China and the United States,” Trump told Xi.

Despite the public bonhomie, the two leaders were expected to have had tough discussions behind closed doors.

“The flattery will not have significant substantive effect,” said Sam Crane, a Chinese history expert at Williams College.

But the pageantry is helpful to Xi’s consolidation of power at home, Crane said.

“Symbolically all of this is being framed in China as Trump coming to pay homage to the ‘core’ leader,” he said.

– ‘Do not try us’ –

Before arriving in Beijing, Trump used a speech at the South Korean parliament to urge China and Russia to act on North Korea.

He later tweeted a warning to North Korea to avoid “a fatal miscalculation. Do not underestimate us. AND DO NOT TRY US.”

Though China has backed the UN sanctions, US officials want Chinese authorities to clamp down on unauthorised trade along the North Korean border.

But experts doubt China will take the kind of steps that Trump wants, such as halting crude oil exports to the North. Beijing fears that squeezing Pyongyang too hard could cause the regime to collapse.

Punjab’s government said it was closing all 25,000 schools in the state for the rest of the week due to the acrid air blanketing north India and parts of neighbouring Pakistan.

The decision came a day after Delhi authorities said they were closing all 6,000 schools in the capital until Sunday.

Low winds and the annual post-harvest burning of crop stubble in Punjab and neighbouring areas have caused the levels of dangerous pollutants in the air to spike to many times the levels considered safe.

Figures on the US embassy website showed levels of PM2.5 — the smallest particulates that cause most damage to health — spiked at over 1,000 on Wednesday afternoon in Delhi, though by Thursday they had fallen to 590.

The World Health Organization’s guidelines say 25 is the maximum anyone can safely be exposed to over a 24-hour period.

A government advisory urged anyone with breathing difficulties to remain indoors and said everyone should avoid strenuous activity.

Media reports said the thick smog had also led to a series of road accidents in north India.

Eight students were killed late Wednesday when a truck ploughed into them as they waited for a bus on a roadside in Punjab.

On Thursday The Times of India joined growing calls for government action to curb the chronic pollution, which the Indian Medical Association this week termed a public health emergency.

It is the second year running that Delhi — now the world’s most polluted capital with air quality worse than Beijing — has faced such high levels of PM2.5.

“Delhi once again has become a veritable gas chamber with denizens finding it difficult to breathe,” India’s most read English-language newspaper said in an editorial blaming “political apathy”.

“Air pollution during winter months has become a catastrophe for large parts of north India. It’s high time the question is asked: why can’t authorities enjoying jurisdiction over the national capital of an aspiring great power… come up with concrete measures to tackle the world’s worst air pollution,” it said.

Since 2014, when WHO figures showed the extent of the crisis, authorities in Delhi have closed power plants temporarily and experimented with taking some cars off the road.

But the temporary measures have had little effect.

Delhi’s air quality typically worsens before the onset of winter as cooler air traps pollutants near the ground and prevents them from dispersing into the atmosphere, a phenomenon known as inversion.

The Delhi government is to meet later Thursday to decide whether to reintroduce restrictions on driving cars in the city.