■SOUTH KOREA
Adoptee accused of murder
Police have arrested a man accused of hiring two hitmen to murder his adoptive mother, reports said yesterday. Police allege the son, identified only as Lee, found the killers online. He allegedly paid them 130 million won (US$103,000) to suffocate the woman who had raised him for more than 30 years after finding him abandoned as a baby. Investigators quoted by the Korea Times and JoongAng Daily said Lee, a gambling addict, decided to kill his mother after she refused to give him any more of her property. Lee claimed the 70-year-old died of diabetes. He inherited property and insurance money totaling 2 billion won, but squandered 1.5 billion of it on gambling. Lee was arrested after friends and relatives of the deceased, along with the insurance firm, raised suspicions.
■VIETNAM
Eggplants sicken 60
Health officials are checking whether pesticides poisoned more than 60 people who ate pickled eggplants, state media reported yesterday. The victims, in Hung Yen Province near the capital Hanoi, were hospitalized with fevers, stomachaches, headaches and vomiting, the Vietnam News reported. Officials were checking if the eggplants were contaminated with preservatives or pesticides, the report said.
■CHINA
Sixty punished for disco fire
Authorities have punished 60 people deemed responsible for a blaze at the “King of the Dancers” disco that killed 44 people in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. A Web site for the country’s State Council, or Cabinet, said yesterday that 35 people, including the club’s boss have faced criminal charges after the fire at the unlicensed nightclub one year ago. No details were given on the punishment but it was earlier announced a police chief and a fire official were jailed for 13 years and six years, respectively. The government says 25 officials, including the vice mayor, were disciplined within the Communist Party and government. The blaze started when a fireworks show ignited the ceiling in the crowded club.
■HONG KONG
Locker sting nets three
Cocaine dealers are using public lockers in shopping malls and sports centers to drop off large orders of drugs, a news report said yesterday. The revelation came after police arrested three people and seized 2kg of cocaine with a street value of more than US$200,000 in a shopping center in Shatin district. Monday’s sting was set up after officers received information that cocaine was being passed to buyers via public lockers that can be rented for US$0.25 an hour for up to seven days using a password set by the hirer. Two men put 1kg of pressed cocaine in separate lockers and a third man arrived to collect the drugs, the Hong Kong Standard reported. All three were arrested. Buyers paid in advance for the drugs and then collected them with the locker number and password, police said.
■SAUDI ARABIA
One executed for killings
A Saudi man who shot dead two compatriots was beheaded by sword on Monday in the holy city of Mecca in the west of the conservative kingdom, the official SPA news agency reported. It quoted the interior ministry as saying the man, named as Ali Assiri, shot the two others dead in a dispute. Saudi Arabia imposes the death sentence for rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking under the country’s strict Islamic Shariah law.
■UNITED STATES
Anchorage vetoes ban
The mayor of Anchorage on Monday vetoed a ban against discrimination based on sexual orientation, saying it was unclear that such discrimination existed. The mayor, Dan Sullivan, a Republican who took office on July 1, said that “the vast majority of those who communicated their position on the ordinance are in opposition.” The ordinance, which would have prohibited such discrimination in employment, housing, education and other areas, was approved by the Anchorage Assembly last week on a 7-4 vote. Eight votes are necessary to override a mayoral veto.
■UNITED STATES
Mutilating mom convicted
A jury has sentenced a Texas mother convicted of mutilating her infant by cutting off his genitals to 99 years in prison. Jurors deliberated for about two hours on Monday before sentencing 28-year-old Katherine Nadal. They chose among possible sentences ranging from probation to life in prison. The same jury had convicted her last week of first-degree felony injury to a child. Prosecutors asked for life in prison. Nadal’s attorneys did not request any specific sentence but had asked the jury to not punish her out of hate or revenge.
■UNITED STATES
Disney stuntman dies
A Walt Disney World stunt performer died after an accident while rehearsing for the Indiana Jones show at the Hollywood Studios theme park in Orlando. A Disney spokeswoman said the stunt performer was rehearsing on Monday evening for the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” and was hurt while doing a tumbling roll. He was taken to the hospital and later died. The performer’s name has not been released. Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said Disney officials have notified the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the accident. Out of respect for the man, Suarez said the Indiana Jones show was not to be performed yesterday.
■UNITED STATES
Musician, violin reunited
A musician has been reunited with his 18th-century violin after he mistakenly left it in a New York City cab. City taxi officials said a GPS device in the cab led to the quick return of the instrument to Korean violinist Hanh-bin on Monday. The violin is valued at about US$600,000. The musician had taken a cab from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to his Chinatown apartment in lower Manhattan early on Monday morning. He inadvertently left behind the violin and a credit card. Hanh-bin’s violin wasn’t the most expensive instrument ever to have been left in a New York City taxi. In 2001, musician Lynn Harrell left behind a 328-year-old Stradivarius cello worth US$4 million.
■UNITED STATES
Album records screams
This new album is a scream — and more. Favorite Recorded Scream is a compilation of 74 brief howls, whoops, cries and other guttural exclamations from songs by the Who, the Pixies, Slayer, Bjork and dozens of others. New York City artist LeRoy Stevens came up with the idea while listening to A Change Is Going to Come by the 1960s soul singer Baby Huey. The song climaxes in a series of screeches. He later asked Manhattan record shop clerks to choose their favorite song scream and to tell him why. With their suggestions, he pressed 500 copies of a 30cm vinyl record. The record is for sale for about US$15 at Manhattan stores and online.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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