■SOUTH KOREA
Workers rally against laws
Thousands of workers rallied yesterday for a second day, demanding the government scrap plans to enforce contentious laws they say are aimed at weakening labor unions. The government plans to implement labor laws next year allowing multiple unions for each workplace and banning companies from paying wages to full-time union representatives. The laws were passed in 1997 but have never been implemented because of opposition from labor unions. About 4,600 workers staged a rally criticizing the government’s plan in a plaza near the National Assembly yesterday, police said. Tens of thousands rallied on Saturday at the same site. About 14,000 police officers were mobilized to maintain order, and the rally was peaceful. Labor unions have said they would launch a large-scale strike if the government doesn’t cancel its plans to enforce the laws.
■AUSTRALIA
Shark mauls fisherman
A man spearfishing in South Australia was mauled in a shark attack yesterday, officials said as a report warned of several sightings of the deadly predators in the area. The 24-year-old was among a group in the water at Second Valley south of Adelaide when he was bitten, a spokeswoman for the South Australian Ambulance Service said. “This guy was bitten rather savagely on the foot and also on the arm,” a witness told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. A number of sharks have been sighted in the area in the past three weeks, including one measuring nearly 6m, it said. The shark responsible for the latest attack, which is not believed to be life-threatening, was 2m long, it said.
■INDONESIA
Protesters support watchdog
Hundreds gathered in the capital Jakarta yesterday to protest perceived moves to cripple the country’s once-powerful corruption watchdog. Musicians sang songs and supporters made speeches demanding President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono move to protect the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after the release of wiretap recordings of police and prosecutors exposed an alleged high-level official conspiracy against it. “The president must be more tough in protecting the KPK so it can do its job in fighting corruption,” rally spokesman Illian Deta Arta Sari said. The top detective and the country’s deputy chief prosecutor quit last Thursday after wiretap phone recordings implicated them in an alleged plot to falsely imprison two KPK investigators.
■INDIA
Judge warns against sex
A New Delhi judge told Indian women to beware of men who promise marriage after a prospective bride accused her lover of rape because he failed to propose, a newspaper said yesterday. The unnamed woman said she had effectively been raped because she only agreed to sleep with Arif Iqbal, 22, on the understanding that they would soon be man and wife, the Hindustan Times reported. However Justice Kailash Gambhir said the woman, 23, had to accept the consequences after Iqbal went back on his vow to wed her. “Mere promise of marriage should not have prompted [the woman] to establish a physical relationship with the accused,” Gambhir said. “It is the prime responsibility of the woman to protect her modesty. A woman should not throw herself to a man and indulge in promiscuity.” The judge’s statement was likely to anger women’s rights groups after other recent court verdicts backed the charge that a false promise of marriage did amount to rape.
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