■ South Korea
Stolen assets recovered
South Korean prosecutors said yesterday they had seized more than US$7 million from ex-president Roh Tae-woo in a continued drive to recover his hidden illegal assets. Prosecutors confiscated a bank account containing 7.4 billion won (US$7.4 million) which Roh had secretly kept under a false name over the past 12 years, prosecution spokesman Chung Dong-min said. Roh served as president from 1988 to 1993. He was later prosecuted for corruption, and in 1997 was ordered by the supreme court to repay 262 billion won in illegal funds amassed while in office. Roh, 73, had declared himself bankrupt.
■ Thailand
Man found eating corpse
A 50-year-old ex-convict found eating a partially cremated corpse in northeastern Thailand was arrested but freed without charge because police could not find a law against cannibalism, police said yesterday. Sakorn Piengphon was arrested and questioned after he was found two weeks ago eating the body of Kote Nonthasorn, who had been cremated but whose body had not completely burned, police Major Suphakorn Hiengboon said. But because Thailand has no law specifically banning cannibalism, Suphakorn said the man was released.
■ Japan
Five found dead in car
Five people were found dead in a car in western Japan yesterday in what is suspected to be the latest in a rash of group suicides using antiquated charcoal burners, police said. The bodies of four young men and one woman were found around 8:20am in a car parked at a roadside in Shiga prefecture. Four charcoal burners were also found inside the vehicle, whose doors were sealed with adhesive tape, a police spokesman said. "Autopsies are taking place now. We suspect it was a group suicide. Though we have not found a suicide note, there is nothing indicating a criminal element in this," he said.
■ North Korea
Bird flu expert to offer aid
A UN veterinary expert has been sent to North Korea to assess a bird flu outbreak there and offer assistance in trying to prevent the spread of the virus, the world body's agricultural agency said yesterday. North Korea acknowledged an outbreak of bird flu for the first time on Sunday, saying hundreds of thousands of chickens were killed to prevent its spread, but no humans have caught the disease. It didn't give other details, including the strain of the disease. Authorities in North Korea, have informed the UN Food and Agriculture Organization about bird flu outbreaks on two or three farms, the agency said in a statement released in Bangkok.
■ China
Web game trial begins
An online game player has been charged with killing a competitor in a dispute over a virtual weapon used in the fantasy game, a news report said yesterday. Qiu Chengwei, 41, went on trial Tuesday in a Shanghai court on charges that he stabbed to death Zhu Caoyuan, a fellow player of a popular game called Legend of Mir III, the China Daily newspaper said. If convicted, Qiu could face a possible death sentence, the report said. Qiu confronted Zhu after learning that he sold the virtual weapon lent to him by Qiu to another player, the newspaper said. It said Qiu reported the loss of the "Dragon Saber" to police but they said it wasn't real property protected by the law.
■ United States
Fetus stolen from exhibit
Two women stole a preserved 13-week-old fetus from an acclaimed exhibit at the California Science Center. The fetus, its tissues infused with polymers in a process called plastination to prevent decay indefinitely, was part of a traveling display, Body Worlds 2. A surveillance camera captured the women removing the fetus from an unlocked display case during the round-the-clock closing weekend of the exhibit. Other people were inside the room at the time but they may not have been aware of the theft, police said.
RSS