■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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of