A South Korean cloning company said yesterday it had no plans to screen its future customers, despite a scandal involving a US client accused of abducting a man decades ago.
Ra Jeong-chan, the head of Seoul-based RNL Bio, said he was unaware of the criminal records of Bernann McKinney, accused of kidnapping a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave.
Bernann McKinney gained widespread prominence recently when she had RNL clone five pups from her beloved pit bull, Booger. The firm claims that the puppies, for which McKinney paid US$50,000, represent the first successful commercial cloning of a canine.
But the intense media coverage of the event also helped expose the 31-year-old mystery.
After initial denials, Bernann McKinney admitted to reporters on Saturday that she was Joyce McKinney, who became a British tabloid sensation in 1977 when she faced charges of unlawful imprisonment in the missionary case. She jumped bail and was never brought to justice.
The revelation, however, drew little reaction in South Korea, where newspapers and television broadcasters are focusing on the country’s medal tally in the Beijing Olympics.
Ra said that even if he had known about McKinney’s record, that would not have affected his decision to clone her pet.
“There was no reason to check her background,” when she made a cloning request, Ra said, describing the matter as “a privacy issue.”
He also said that criminal records will not disqualify future customers, saying that the cloned animals could even help them find stability and thus prevent crimes.
South Korea’s welfare ministry also said it has no plans on mandating cloning firms to conduct any background checks of cloning clients.
Lee Byeong-chun, who helped the RNL in cloning the five dogs, was not immediately available for comment. Lee’s team of scientists at Seoul National University created the world’s first cloned dog, a male Afghan hound named Snuppy, in 2005.
Lee’s team has since cloned some 30 dogs and five wolves.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS