KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Bernama) – Sabah’s State Disaster Management Committee Secretariat said the number of flood victims remained at 155 people, involving 54 families, at the permanent relief centre (PPK) in Selagon, Beaufort, Friday morning.
Six villages are still affected by floods in Beaufort, it said in a statement.
Elsewhere in Malaysia, the flood situation in Johor is improving, with 37 people still at a relief centre (PPS) as of 8 am Friday, from 41 people the previous day.
Johor’s State Disaster Management Committee chairman Tan Sri Dr Azmi Rohani said the remaining victims, involving 11 families, are at the PPS at Balai Raya Kampung Batu Badak, Segamat. “The areas still affected by floods are Kampung Seberang Batu Badak and Kampung Batu 5 Jalan Muar. The weather in all 10 districts is forecast to be fine this morning,” he said in a statement.
ANN/THE KOREA HERALD – A man in his 50s suspected of killing five of his family members via strangulation has officially been arrested, after a local court issued the warrant for his detention Thursday afternoon.
At around 5:15 p.m. Suwon District Court issued the warrant, citing risks of flight or destruction of evidence.
In an incident that sent shock waves throughout the country, the suspect allegedly killed five members of his family at around 9:55 a.m. on Tuesday at his home: his parents, wife and two daughters. The suspect fled to another one of his residences in the adjacent city of Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, but was captured by police in the city.
It was found that he had left a note saying “I’ll kill everyone and myself.”
The suspect allegedly informed police officials that the crime stemmed from financial problems. It was disclosed earlier on Thursday that the murder method is thought to have been via strangulation.
According to the Yeongin Seobu Police Station, the National Forensic Service told investigators the mass killing appears to have been a “typical case of death by strangulation.” This was in keeping with the preliminary suspicion by police, who found signs of strangulation on the victims along with evidence suggesting they had ingested sleeping pills.
A man in his 50s, suspected of killing his parents, wife and two daughters, is escorted out of the Yongin Seobu Police Station by police officers in Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. PHOTO: Yonhap via ANN/THE KOREA HERALD
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — More than half of Haiti’s population is expected to experience severe hunger through June, and another 8,400 people living in makeshift shelters are projected to starve, according to a new report released this week.
Relentless gang violence and an ongoing economic collapse is to blame, according to an analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a multi-partner UN initiative that analyses food insecurity and malnutrition around the world.
It noted that the number of those facing severe hunger increased by more than 300,000 people to some 5.7 million since last year.
Among those going hungry is Jackie Jean-Jacques, his wife and their three sons, who lost their home to gang violence and have lived in a crowded makeshift shelter for more than a year.
“There are days where the kids have to live on sugar water and bread,” he said. “It hurts me to see that.”
Jean-Jacques, 52, used to work as a bus driver but could no longer afford to rent the bus or buy gasoline. Besides, he worries that one day gangs would open fire on his public transportation vehicle like they have on others.
Dwindling aid
While food and potable water were commonly distributed at shelters, aid began to dwindle after the administration of US President Donald Trump in late February decided to terminate 90 per cent of USAID foreign aid contracts.
“Since March 2025, funding has no longer been guaranteed,” according to the report issued Monday.
It said that from August 2024 to February 2025, nearly 977,000 Haitians received humanitarian food aid monthly, although rations have been reduced by up to half.
UNICEF said Thursday that an estimated 2.85 million children — one quarter of Haiti’s entire child population — “are facing consistently high levels of food insecurity.”
A youth carries a little boy on his back at a school that is now operating as a shelter for those fleeing their homes to escape gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, April 14, 2025. PHOTO: AP
The agency warned that it faces a 70 per cent funding shortfall. It said it has helped more than 4,600 children this year with severe acute malnutrition, which represents only 4 per cent of the estimated 129,000 children expected to need life-saving treatment this year.
Meanwhile, the UN’s World Food Program said it urgently needs USD53.7 million to “continue its life-saving operations in Haiti over the next six months.”
“Right now, we’re fighting to just hold the line on hunger,” Wanja Kaaria, WFP’s country director in Haiti, said in a statement Thursday.
‘I can barely feed them’
In 2014, only 2 per cent of Haiti’s population was food insecure, with gang violence largely under control and most people enjoying the successful spring harvests from the previous year, according to a previous report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
Hunger at that time affected mostly those in poor rural areas.
But in 2016, Hurricane Matthew battered Haiti as a Category 4 storm, destroying crops and livelihoods.
By 2018, more than 386,000 Haitians were experiencing severe hunger, a number that has since grown to an estimated 5.7 million.
“This is very alarming,” said Martin Dickler, Haiti director for the nonprofit CARE. “It really is an extremely serious food crisis, and Haiti is one of the worst in the world.”
The growing hunger coincides with a surge in the price of goods, with inflation reaching more than 30 per cent in recent months.
Experts also blame gang violence, with gunmen controlling the main roads leading in and out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, disrupting the transportation of goods from the countryside.
Makeshift tents fill a camp set up by people displaced from their homes by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, April 14, 2025. PHOTO: AP
Jean Rose-Bertha, a single, 40-year-old mother of two boys, said they have lived almost a year at a makeshift shelter after gangs chased them from their home.
Dickler said women and girls have been disproportionately affected by the crisis, facing greater obstacles in accessing both food and livelihoods..
“They are left to manage the daily family survival,” he said. “In food crises, women often eat least and last.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Endangered sea turtles show signs of recovery in a majority of places where they’re found worldwide, according to a new global survey released Thursday.
“Many of the turtle populations have come back, though some haven’t,” said Duke ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved with the research. “Overall, the sea turtle story is one of the real conservation success stories.”
The study looked at 48 populations of sea turtles around the world. Scientists measured the impacts of threats such as hunting, pollution, coastal development and climate change to the marine animals. In more than half of the areas studied, threats are declining overall, the study found.
But there are some exceptions. Sea turtle populations in the Atlantic Ocean are more likely to be recovering than those in Pacific waters. And leatherback turtles are not faring as well as other species.
Globally, leatherbacks are considered vulnerable to extinction, but many groups are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
All seven of the regions where leatherbacks are found face high environmental risks, said study co-author Bryan Wallace, a wildlife ecologist at Ecolibrium in Colorado.
This photo provided by the Oceanic Society shows olive Ridley turtles nesting in La Escobilla, Mexico in 2021. PHOTO: Ashleigh Bandimere/Oceanic Society via AP
Leatherback turtles are famous for making the longest known marine migrations of any animal – with some individuals swimming as many as 3,700 miles (5,955 kilometers) each way. That feat moves them through a wide swath of regions and may expose them to unique risks, he said.
Meanwhile, green turtles are still considered endangered globally, but their populations show signs of recovery in many regions of the world, researchers found.
“By ending commercial harvests and allowing them time to rebound, their populations are now doing really well” in coastal waters off many regions of Mexico and the US, said co-author Michelle María Early Capistrán, a Stanford University researcher who has conducted fieldwork in both countries.
Sea turtles were protected under the US Endangered Species Act of 1973, and Mexico banned all captures of sea turtles in 1990. But it took a few decades for the results of these actions – alongside efforts to protect nesting beaches and reduce accidental bycatch in fishing – to show up in population trends, she said.
This photo provided by the Oceanic Society shows a hawksbill turtle underwater in Indonesia in 2019. PHOTO: Ben Hamilton/Oceanic Society via AP
Around the world, the problem of sea turtles dying after accidentally becoming entangled in fishing gear remains a major threat, said Wallace. New technologies are being developed to spare turtles, but they must be accepted and used regularly by diverse fishing communities to be effective, he added.
The survey was published in the journal Endangered Species Research and is the first update in more than a decade.
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione was indicted Thursday on a federal murder charge in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a required step as prosecutors work to make good on the Trump administration’s order to seek the death penalty for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Mangione’s indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, includes a charge of murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a criminal complaint brought after Mangione’s arrest last December, also charges him with stalking and a gun offense.
Mangione’s lawyers have argued that US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s announcement this month ordering prosecutors to seek the death penalty was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury process and deprived him of his constitutional right to due process.
Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, faces separate federal and state murder charges after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4 as the executive arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
The killing and ensuing five-day search leading to Mangione’s arrest rattled the business community, with some health insurers deleting photos of executives from their websites and switching to online shareholder meetings. At the same time, some health insurance critics have rallied around Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills.
FILE – Luigi Mangione , accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search is scheduled, appears in court for a hearing, Feb. 21, 2025, in New York. PHOTO: AP
Mangione’s federal indictment came just before a deadline Friday for prosecutors to either file one or seek a delay. It was not immediately clear when he will be brought to federal court in Manhattan for an arraignment.
A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s defense team.
Bondi announced April 1 that she was directing federal prosecutors in Manhattan to seek the death penalty against Mangione. It was the first time the Justice Department said it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to office Jan. 20 with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under the previous administration.
In her announcement, Bondi described Thompson’s killing as “an act of political violence.”
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, countered in a subsequent court filing that “the United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt.” She wants prosecutors blocked from seeking the death penalty.
Friedman Agnifilo and her co-counsel argued that Bondi’s announcement — which was followed by posts to her Instagram account and a television appearance — violated long-established Justice Department protocols and “indelibly prejudiced” the grand jury process that ultimately led to his indictment.
Mangione remains locked up at a federal jail in Brooklyn. His state charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.
Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case expected to go to trial first. It wasn’t immediately clear if Mangione’s indictment Thursday will change the order.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City and whisked to Manhattan by plane and helicopter.
Police said Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used in the shooting and other items including a notebook in which they say he expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives.
Among the entries, prosecutors said, was one from August 2024 that said “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance company CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the largest US health insurer, has said Mangione was never a client.
Friedman Agnifilo has said she would seek to suppress some of the evidence.
(AP) – Hip hop superstar Drake is now complaining about rival rapper Kendrick Lamar’s performance of “Not Like Us” at this year’s Super Bowl, adding it to his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over the diss track and its allegations of pedophilia against Drake.
“The Recording was performed during the 2025 Super Bowl and broadcast to the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever, over 133 million people, including millions of children, and millions more who had never before heard the song or any of the songs that preceded it,” says the amended lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan.
It adds, “It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist.”
Although Lamar removed the word “pedophile” that’s in the track during the halftime show, the fact that it was omitted showed that “nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory,” the suit says. It also alleges Universal Music used financial benefits and leveraged business relationships to secure the headliner spot for Lamar at the Super Bowl, and promoted the performance.
“Drake’s amended complaint makes an already strong case stronger,” his lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said in a statement. “Drake will expose the evidence of UMG’s misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions.”
This year’s Super Bowl and its halftime show were the most-watched ever, according to Nielsen.
In a statement responding to the court filing, Universal Music, the parent record label of both artists, continued to deny Drake’s allegations.
“Drake, unquestionably one of the world’s most accomplished artists and with whom we’ve enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another,” the company said. “It is shameful that these foolish and frivolous legal theatrics continue.”
FILE – Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. PHOTO: AP
A spokesperson for Drake said in a prepared release that the artist is “holding the largest music conglomerate in the world accountable for its actions and doing so without fear.”
The amended lawsuit also adds that defamatory portions of “Not Like Us” were played at the Grammy Awards in February, when the single won five awards, including song and record of the year. The suit claims that Universal Music also helped secure the Grammy nominations and allowed the song to be played at the ceremony.
Drake sued Universal Music, but not Lamar, for undisclosed damages in January, saying the company published and promoted “Not Like Us” despite its false pedophilia allegations and suggestions that listeners should resort to vigilante justice.
The result, the suit says, was intruders shooting a security guard at Drake’s Toronto home and two attempted break-ins there, online hate and harassment, a hit to his reputation and a decrease in his brand’s value before his contract renegotiation with UMG this year. The amended lawsuit also adds more online comments indicating people believe the pedophilia allegations.
Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner with 22 Grammy wins, have been beefing for years. The feud is among the biggest in hip hop in recent years.
The two were occasional collaborators more than a decade ago, but Lamar began taking public jabs at Drake starting in 2013. The fight escalated steeply last year, as both launched diss tracks at each other, including Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has been branded an abusive monopolist by a federal judge for the second time in less than a year, this time for illegally exploiting some of its online marketing technology to boost the profits fueling an internet empire currently worth USD1.8 trillion.
The ruling issued Thursday by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia comes on the heels of a separate decision in August that concluded Google’s namesake search engine has been illegally leveraging its dominance to stifle competition and innovation.
After the US Justice Department targeted Google’s ubiquitous search engine during President Donald Trump’s first term, the same agency went after the company’s lucrative digital advertising network in 2023 during President Joe Biden’s ensuing administration in an attempt to undercut the power that Google has amassed since its inception in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998.
Although antitrust regulators prevailed both times, the battle is likely to continue for several more years as Google tries to overturn the two monopoly decisions in appeals while forging ahead in the new and highly lucrative technological frontier of artificial intelligence.
The next step in the latest case is a penalty phase that will likely begin late this year or early next year. The same so-called remedy hearings in the search monopoly case are scheduled to begin Monday in Washington DC, where Justice Department lawyers will try to convince US District Judge Amit Mehta to impose a sweeping punishment that includes a proposed requirement for Google to sell its Chrome web browser.
Brinkema’s 115-page decision centres on the marketing machine that Google has spent the past 17 years building around its search engine and other widely used products and services, including its Chrome browser, YouTube video site and digital maps.
The system was largely built around a series of acquisitions that started with Google’s USD3.2 billion purchase of online ad specialist DoubleClick in 2008. US regulators approved the deals at the time they were made before realising that they had given the Mountain View, California, company a platform to manipulate the prices in an ecosystem that a wide range of websites depend on for revenue and provides a vital marketing connection to consumers.
The Justice Department lawyers argued that Google built and maintained dominant market positions in a technology trifecta used by website publishers to sell ad space on their webpages, as well as the technology that advertisers use to get their ads in front of consumers, and the ad exchanges that conduct automated auctions in fractions of a second to match buyer and seller.
FILE – A man walks past Google’s offices in London’s Kings Cross area, on Aug. 10, 2024. PHOTO: AP
After evaluating the evidence presented during a lengthy trial that concluded just before Thanksgiving last year, Brinkema reached a decision that rejected the Justice Department’s assertions that Google has been mistreating advertisers while concluding the company has been abusing its power to stifle competition to the detriment of online publishers forced to rely on its network for revenue.
Despite that rebuke, Brinkema also concluded that Google didn’t break the law when it snapped up Doubleclick nor when it followed up that deal a few years later by buying another service, Admeld.
That finding may help Google fight off any attempt to force it to sell its advertising technology to stop its monopolistic behavior.
“This is a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolising the digital public square,” US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
In a statement, Google said it will appeal the ruling.
“We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs. “Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”
Analysts such as Brian Pitz of BMO Markets had been predicting that Google would likely lose the case, helping to brace investors for the latest setback to the company and its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., whose shares declined by about 1 per cent Thursday to close at USD151.22. Alphabet’s stock has plunged by 20 per cent so far this year.
On top of the setbacks in search and advertising, Google also is fighting a federal jury’s 2023 verdict that determined its Play Store for apps on smartphones powered by its Android software is also an illegal monopoly.
As it did in the search monopoly case, Google vehemently denied the Justice Department’s allegations. Its lawyers argued the government largely based its case on an antiquated concept of a market that existed a decade ago while underestimating a highly competitive market for advertising spending that includes the likes of Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Amazon, Microsoft and Comcast.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United’s season isn’t done yet.
On a night of high drama at Old Trafford, the troubled Premier League club put its domestic problems to one side by sealing a spectacular comeback to beat Lyon 5-4 and advance to the semifinals of the Europa League.
United blew a two-goal lead and then had to come back from 4-2 down against 10 men in extra time to produce one of its most memorable victories in its famous stadium.
Harry Maguire’s dramatic winner in added time of extra time sparked scenes of jubilation and kept alive hopes that United could yet salvage a desperate campaign that has left the 20-time English champions languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League.
United will play Athletic Bilbao in the semifinals after the Spanish club beat Rangers 2-0.
Tottenham also overcame its domestic problems by sealing a place in the last four with a 1-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt and a 2-1 aggregate victory.
Bodo/Glimt became the first Norwegian team to reach the semifinals of a European competition by beating Lazio 3-2 on penalties. Lazio sent the game to a shootout after a 3-1 win in extra time meant the tie ended 3-3 on aggregate.
Manchester United’s Harry Maguire, left, celebrates with team mates after his side’s fifth goal during the Europa League quarter final second leg soccer match between Manchester United and Olympique Lyon in Manchester, Britain, Thursday, April 17, 2025. PHOTO: AP
Comeback king
United has been famed for its comebacks over the years — none more famous than victory against Bayern Munich to win the Champions League final in 1999 when late goals by Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sealed a 2-1 win.
Such moments feel a long way away for a team that is languishing 14th in England’s top flight and is guaranteed to end the campaign with a club-record-low points total in the Premier League era.
The Europa League is Amorim’s last chance of success this season, while victory would also secure a place in the lucrative Champions League next campaign.
United had led 2-0 at halftime through goals from Manuel Ugarte and Diogo Dalot and could have been further ahead with Bruno Fernandes hitting the bar and Alejandro Garnacho failing to score when through on goal.
But it let a commanding position slip by conceding twice in six minutes in the second half, with Corentin Tolisso and Nicolas Tagliafico stunning the home crowd.
Despite Tolisso being sent off in the 89th, Lyon led 4-2 in extra time through Rayan Cherki and an Alexandre Lacazette penalty.
As some fans started to leave the stadium, United mounted a comeback with three goals in seven minutes. Fernandes scored from the penalty spot and then Kobbie Mainoo leveled with a curling shot inside the box.
The stage was set for Maguire — playing as a makeshift striker — to head the winner.
Oihan Sancet and Nico Williams were on target for United’s semifinals opponent Bilbao. A 2-0 win against Rangers at San Mames settled the tie after the first leg ended 0-0.
Tottenham advances
Dominic Solanke’s first-half penalty secured victory for Tottenham against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Spurs have also endured a miserable domestic campaign and are one place below United in the league. But the deep run in the Europa League has provided rare moments of optimism and it remains in with a chance of winning a first trophy since 2008.
Spurs needed the assistance of VAR when it was awarded a penalty for a foul by Frankfurt goalkeeper Kaua Santos on James Maddison.
Solanke fired down the middle for the decisive goal in the 43rd minute.
Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the Europa League quarter final second leg soccer match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Tottenham Hotspur, in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, April 17, 2025. PHOTO: AP
Spurs will face Norwegian history maker Bodo/Glimt in the semifinals.
Conference League
Big teams remain in the third-tier UEFA Conference League after Chelsea, Fiorentina and Real Betis all advanced to the semifinals.
Chelsea’s 3-0 first leg win against Legia Warsaw meant it would have taken a remarkable turnaround at Stamford Bridge to prevent the two-time Champions League winner from progressing. And despite a 2-1 loss, Chelsea won 4-2 on aggregate.
Fiorentina needed Moise Kean’s second-half goal to draw 2-2 at home against Celje and a 4-3 aggregate win.
Betis advanced 3-1 on aggregate against Jagiellonia Bialystok after a 1-1 draw.
Djurgarden beat SK Rapid 4-1 to seal a 4-2 aggregate win.
Djurgarden plays Chelsea in the semifinals and Fiorentina plays Betis.
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – A resentencing hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez that the brothers hoped could see them get out of prison was postponed Thursday, with the men’s lawyer demanding the public prosecutor be removed from the case.
The pair, who are serving a life sentence for the 1989 shotgun killings of their parents, are seeking a change in their term that could allow them to be released on parole.
But a hearing that was scheduled for Thursday degenerated into a squabble over a risk assessment document on the brothers prepared by the parole board at the request of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is weighing their clemency bid.
Hours before the court hearing, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who opposes the resentencing effort, said his office needed time to review that document.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, dismissed the move as a desperate bid to needlessly delay proceedings, and said he believed Hochman was hostile and should be removed from the case.
“We are filing a motion to recuse the district attorney,” Geragos told reporters.
Talia Menendez, daughter of Erik Menendez, Attorney Mark Geragos and Tammi Menendez, Erik Menendez’s wife, gather in front of the Van Nuys West Courthouse on April 17, 2025 in Van Nuys, California. PHOTO: AP
“The family does not want to go through this charade anymore with the DA… who made up his mind and did no hard work in terms of his position.”
LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said he would hold a new hearing on May 9 to determine if the report was relevant to the bid for resentencing.
The Los Angeles Times reported Newsom’s office as saying the full report would not be available until June.
“Our office notified Judge Jesic of the status of this report, which is not a stand-alone risk assessment, and offered to share it with the court should he request it,” Newsom’s office said, according to the paper.
Thursday’s developments are the latest in a decades-long saga that has gripped America, and which gained currency for a new generation of TV viewers when Netflix released “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” last year.
Blockbuster trials in the 1990s heard how the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez in their luxury Beverly Hills home, in what prosecutors said was a cynical attempt to get their hands on a large family fortune.
The men hit Jose Menedez five times with shotguns, including in the kneecaps.
Kitty Menedez died from a shotgun blast in her last desperate bid to crawl away from her killers.
The brothers initially blamed the deaths on a mafia hit, but would change their story several times over the coming months.
Erik, then 18, confessed to the murders in a session with his therapist, and the brothers ultimately claimed they had acted in self defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of a tyrannical father.
Supporters say Erik Menendez, now 54, and Lyle Menendez, now 57, are model prisoners who are reformed, and deserving of a second chance.
Hochman claims they continue to cling to untruths and have never fully accepted their guilt.
TOKYO (AFP) – Rice prices in Japan last month were almost twice what they were a year earlier, official data showed Friday, as core inflation accelerated in the world’s number four economy.
The price of the grain has soared in recent months, prompting Japan’s government to release some of its emergency stockpile into the market.
Excluding fresh food, consumer prices rose 3.2 per cent in March year-on-year compared to 3.0 per cent in February — in line with market expectations.
Excluding energy as well, prices rose 2.9 per cent last month, up from 2.6 per cent in February. But overall inflation eased to 3.6 per cent from 3.7 per cent.
The data is likely to strengthen expectations that the Bank of Japan will hike interest rates, with inflation above the BoJ’s target of two percent for almost three years.
However, uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump’s trade policies could prompt the central bank to stick to its current stance for now.
This photo taken on February 18, 2025 shows a man walking past sacks of government stockpiled rice piled up in a warehouse in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo. PHOTO: AFP
The internal affairs ministry said that the prices of both fresh and non-fresh food products rose, as did hotel fees.
But grain prices saw the biggest increase, rising 25.4 per cent. Rice prices logged an enormous 92.5-per cent jump, driven by a shortage of the staple.
Rice shock
Factors behind the shortfall include poor harvests due to hot weather in 2023 and panic-buying prompted by a “megaquake” warning last year.
Record numbers of tourists have also been blamed for a rise in consumption while some traders are believed to be hoarding the grain.
The government began auctioning its rice stockpile last month, the first time since it was started in 1995.
The government has so far released around 210,000 tonnes and plans to auction another 100,000 tons this month, authorities said earlier this month.
Rice also appears to have been a factor in Trump’s hefty tariffs of 24 per cent on Japanese imports — currently paused — into the United States.
The White House has accused Japan of imposing a 700-per cent tariff on US rice imports, a claim that Japan’s farm minister called “incomprehensible”.
But it’s not just rice; cabbage prices have also exploded, including by 111.6 per cent in March compared to the same month last year.
Last year’s record summer heat and heavy rain ruined crops, driving up the cost of the leafy green in what media have dubbed a “cabbage shock”.
The rising prices have increased pressure on the government of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to do more to help consumers.
