■SOUTH KOREA
Man charged with murders
A masseur who confessed to strangling eight women has been indicted on additional charges of killing his wife and mother-in-law, prosecutors said on Sunday. Prosecutors said Kang Ho-sun, 38, set fire to his mother-in-law’s home, killing both women, to claim insurance money in 2005. Kang, who was arrested last month, has admitted killing eight women after abducting them between September 2006 and last December, prosecutors said. In an indictment released on Sunday, prosecutors added two counts of murder and arson. Kang has denied the new allegations.
■PHILIPPINES
Radio broadcaster killed
A radio broadcaster was shot dead yesterday shortly before he was due to begin his daily talk show, police said. Ernie Rullen, 58, was waiting for a minibus to take him to work in Ozamiz City on the island of Mindanao when two unidentified gunmen on a motor bike shot him at point-blank range. Joy Reyes of Radio DXSY in Ozamiz City told local media that police were investigating. “Rullen had parked his motorcycle and was walking to the bus stop when he was gunned down,” Reyes said. Reyes said the motive for the shooting was not known but could be related to Rullen’s morning talk show, which discussed corruption and crime.
■THAILAND
Head found below bridge
Police were searching yesterday for the body of a foreigner whose head was found hanging by a rope from a Bangkok bridge over the weekend. The head of a Western man aged between 30 and 40 was found on Sunday afternoon. “We still don’t know the name of the victim, nor where his body is,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Atcharat Haemthanon said. “We’re hoping to get some clues from the bridge’s surveillance camera.” Written on the bridge’s railing was the sentence: “Cath. I want but I cannot ... I came to Bangkok to be with you.”
■SINGAPORE
Teacher had sex with minor
A female teacher who had sex with a 15-year-old student was jailed for 10 months yesterday, a court spokesman said. The woman’s identity had been withheld to protect the victim, said the spokesman, who confirmed that District Judge Sarjit Singh handed down the sentence, but gave no further details. Now unemployed, the 32-year-old woman earlier pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor under the age of 16, The Straits Times said on its Web site. The friendship between the teacher and boy began when he was a 14-year-old student, the report said. They later had sex when he was 15, after the boy said he loved the woman, who had declared him her godson. They had sex five more times, but when she tried to end the affair the boy threatened to kill her, leading her to contact police.
■HONG KONG
Driver in crash was drunk
A truck driver involved in a crash that killed six men was nearly seven times over the legal alcohol limit, a court was told yesterday. Law Siu-kuen, 41, was driving a container truck that collided with a taxi carrying five construction workers last month. He was allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road when his truck slammed into the taxi, dragging it 50m and killing the driver and passengers. A breath test at the scene found him to be three times over the alcohol limit, but a later blood test discovered he was almost seven times over the limit.
■RUSSIA
Thieves get huge haul
Police in Tula Province are searching for suspects accused of stealing more than US$1 million in cash in a highway robbery. Two bank employees told authorities that assailants with automatic rifles blocked their car on Saturday on a highway and stole about 43 million rubles (US$1.2 million) in cash at gunpoint. The pair said two of the seven attackers had posed as traffic police, provincial police spokesman Sergei Yelinsky told local television. Police said the money from First Processing Bank was allegedly being taken to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don. Still, the report raised many questions. The two employees — a cashier and a driver — were traveling in a Toyota with no armed escort despite the large amount of cash, Vesti-24 reported. It said investigators were considering whether the employees themselves could have been behind the robbery.
■SPAIN
ETA blamed for blast
A bomb exploded yesterday outside the headquarters of the Basque Socialist Party in the town of Lazkao after a warning call from the armed separatist group ETA, police said. The 3am blast, which comes ahead of regional elections on Sunday, caused extensive damage but no injures, police said. It came nearly two hours after the DYA road assistance service received a telephone call from someone speaking in the name of ETA warning that a bomb would explode at that time, the statement said. ETA guerrillas traditionally call the DYA to warn of its attacks. Just minutes before the call was received at 1:10am, police on a routine patrol had spotted a rucksack containing the bomb, the statement said. The agents then cordoned off the area and warned local residents with a megaphone.
■GERMANY
Acupuncture works on backs
Acupuncture is more effective than painkillers for chronic back pain and migraines, researchers said in a new study, although they admitted that no one knows how or why the needles work. The study also showed that needles, which were deliberately inserted at the wrong acupuncture points, were just as effective as needles inserted at the points specified by Chinese medicine tradition. The German study aimed to reveal differences between acupuncture and Western medicine. It was also aimed at proving whether there was any difference in how or where the needles were applied. Scientists at Munich’s Technical University reported on 33 separate trials involving more than 6,700 people.
■TURKEY
Poll results unflattering
Turks are xenophobic, socially conservative people who rarely read books, relegate women to second-class status and harbor ambivalent views about democracy, a new poll shows. The unflattering picture has emerged from a survey by one of the nation’s most respected polling organizations, Konda, which interviewed 6,482 people on behalf of Hurriyet newspaper. Some 73 percent opposed allowing foreigners to own Turkish land or property, while nine out of 10 said they had never taken a holiday abroad. Just under 70 percent said they never read books. Nearly 70 percent said wives needed their husband’s permission to work while 57 percent believed that a female should never leave home wearing a sleeveless top. While 88 percent agreed that Turkey should be governed by democracy “under each and every condition,” this was undermined by the 48 percent who said the military should intervene “when necessary.”
■CANADA
Spanish sailors rescued
The Coast Guard on Sunday rescued 22 Spanish fishermen from a sinking ship engulfed in flames off the coast of Newfoundland Province, officials said. A spokeswoman for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax said the crew of the 30m Monte Galineiro abandoned ship into rafts after a fire broke out onboard about 400km east of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
■UNITED STATES
Royals treated to profanity
The king and queen of Spain got a dash of profanity from celebrity chef Mario Batali at a US$1,000-a-plate dinner during the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. At a Thursday dinner honoring Spain’s growing international culinary presence, Batali dropped some royally naughty words as he hosted the event in the presence of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. Growing impatient when the crowd did not quiet down quickly enough after he stepped to the microphone, he used the “f-word,” and asked the audience if he could have “10 seconds of your time.” Batali dropped the “f-word” again while introducing chef Jose Andres, whose Los Angeles restaurant, The Bazaar, has been heralded by critics. He finished by grabbing Andres’ bottom. Those seated near the royal couple said the queen blanched.
■JAMAICA
Sex, violence banned on air
Regulators said they were forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence over the airwaves. The new rules from the island’s broadcast commission ban any song or music video that depicts sexual acts or glorifies gun violence, murder, rape or arson. The Saturday announcement follows a Feb. 6 ban that specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting “daggering” — a dance style popular among youth that features pelvic grinding simulating sex. The beat-driven fusion of reggae and rap known as “dancehall” is hugely popular despite recurrent controversy over its lyrics and the dance style.
■UNITED STATES
First lady opens kitchen
First lady Michelle Obama opened the White House kitchen on Sunday to six culinary students so they could learn about preparations for a big official dinner. The first lady was joined by White House chef Cristeta Comerford, executive pastry chef Bill Yosses and social secretary Desiree Rogers. The group guided the students through the menu and planning for President Barack Obama’s dinner with the nation’s governors. Mrs. Obama told them about the value she places on fresh and regionally grown food. Comerford said she designed the menu for the governors dinner to reflect the season and represent the American spirit. Asked for her favorite dishes served from the White House kitchen, Mrs. Obama said the waffles and grits at breakfast were particular family favorites. She added that her husband, the president, is a big fan of scallops and pie.
■UNITED STATES
Goings lawyer charged
A 36-year-old attorney fatally shot the former girlfriend and infant daughter of New York Knicks player Eddy Curry during a domestic-related dispute, police and published reports said. Fredrick Goings of Chicago was charged on Sunday with two counts of first-degree murder, Cook County State’s Attorney spokeswoman Sally Daly said. Police said Goings was arrested on Friday evening as he was getting into his car outside a relative’s place in Chicago. Goings has not made any statements to authorities and is not cooperating in the investigation, Lieutenant Denis Walsh said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in