KOREAS
China repatriating refugees
Nine North Korean refugees detained by China are being transferred to a border area in preparation for repatriation despite pleas from South Korea, reports said yesterday. The South’s foreign ministry and human rights groups have urged Beijing not to send them back against their will, saying they may face harsh punishment. Opposition lawmaker Park Sun-young told Yonhap news agency that China was transferring the nine to Tumen and plans to repatriate 10 others held in Shenyang, plus five from Changchun. In addition, a family of three North Koreans was captured by Chinese authorities in Longging on Monday and would also be returned, she said.
SOUTH KOREA
Tour guide arrested
A tour guide has been arrested over the kidnapping of four compatriots by Philippine gunmen, who allegedly included local policemen, police said yesterday. The 33-year-old, identified only as Choi, was held on Thursday during an investigation into the kidnapping of the South Korean tourists in Manila on Tuesday, police said. The guide told investigators he had conspired with Philippine police officers and a South Korean broker staying in Manila, a police spokesman in the central city of Daejeon said. The four were released after their families paid a total ransom of 24 million won (about US$21,000) through a Korean middleman living in Manila, Yonhap news agency said, adding that Choi later shared the ransom with Philippine police.
SINGAPORE
Maid admits to killing
A teenage Indonesian maid is facing a long jail term after pleading guilty to hitting and strangling an 87-year-old Singaporean widow who called her stupid, the Straits Times said on Thursday. Now 19, Vitria Depsi Wahyuno had lied about her age in 2009, saying she was 23 to meet the minimum age requirement, and landed a job working for Sng Gek Wah, the report said. Wahyuno, who had been employed for only five days when the killing took place, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to culpable homicide. Prosecutors have asked for a 20-year-jail term. The defense, pleading for leniency, said Wahyuno was of low intelligence and could not cope with a demanding employer who called her hurtful names.Neighbors told the Straits Times that Sng was a “fierce” woman, who could often be heard scolding Wahyuno. Sentencing is scheduled for March 7.
CHINA
Fifteen miners dead
Fifteen miners died and three were injured when a tramcar derailed in a coal mine in Hunan Province, authorities said on Thursday. The incident happened at a pit near Leiyang City in the early hours of Thursday morning, the work safety administration said in a statement. Rescue efforts were still under way, local officials said. Accidents are common in China’s vast coal mining sector, where work safety is often neglected by bosses seeking a quick profit.
NEPAL
Villager kills daughters
Police said a man crushed his three daughters to death with stones while they slept in a remote mountain village. They said 35-year-old Bhakta Bahadur Rumba killed the girls — aged 7, 10 and 13 — yesterday morning at their house in Faparbari Village, about 80km south of the capital, Kathmandu. The man’s wife was away attending a relative’s wedding. Police said the man was arrested and was being taken with the bodies to Hetauda, the nearest city. They said the motive for the killings was unknown.
UNITED STATES
Immigration agents shot
An immigration agent shot and injured another agent on Thursday, and was then killed by a third colleague in a federal building, the FBI said. The shooting occurred at about 5:30pm, FBI special agent Steven Martinez said. There were conflicting early reports about the number of people shot, with local authorities saying two were dead and one wounded, while US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said one was dead and one wounded. Martinez characterized the incident as a case of workplace violence involving two federal agents. He said one agent fired several rounds at another agent, wounding him. At that point, another agent intervened and additional rounds were fired, resulting in the death of the shooter.
BRAZIL
Rio faces dengue epidemic
Health Minister Alexandre Padilla on Thursday warned that Rio de Janeiro was facing a major dengue fever epidemic, although he said the virus strain prevalent was not fatal. “I believe that Rio could this year face one of the worst dengue epidemics in its history, in terms of number of cases,” he said in a TV interview. Padilla said the dengue virus strain prevalent in Rio was not the most serious and was not fatal. Agencia Brasil said since the start of the year, 3,499 dengue cases have been recorded in Rio, compared with 2,322 last year, but none were fatal.
GERMANY
President Wulff resigns
President Christian Wulff resigned amid the threat of a legal probe into corruption allegations, delivering a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel that risks distracting her from the eurozone debt crisis. Wulff is the nation’s second president to quit in less than two years, forcing Merkel to find a fresh candidate with cross-party support for the largely ceremonial post. Merkel canceled a planned trip to Rome yesterday where she was due to hold talks on the debt crisis with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. “I have made mistakes but I have always been sincere,” and acted correctly in office, Wulff told reporters. He stepped down with immediate effect.
BRAZIL
Free condoms for carnival
The government of Rio de Janeiro State will distribute more than 3 million condoms free of charge during Brazil’s five-day carnival that began yesterday. State health officials said their “using a condom rates 10 in harmony” campaign aims to prevent AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, particularly among the young. The prophylactics will be handed out to revelers who will pack the Sambodrome to watch the dazzling parades of leading samba schools tomorrow night and Monday night, as well as those who attend the various dancing and drinking street parties across the city.
UNITED STATES
Party crasher sues wife
White House party crasher Tareq Salahi is suing his wife, claiming she had an affair with a Journey guitarist as part of a calculated attempt to make money for herself and the band at his expense. The US$50 million lawsuit was filed on Monday in Virginia. Tareq Salahi says Michaele Salahi’s actions have ruined him “physically, emotionally and financially.” The Northern Virginia Daily reported that Tareq Salahi accuses his wife of running away with the guitarist in September and “campaigning to show him as a buffoon with respect to that affair and humiliating him.” The Salahis married in 2003, but are now going through a divorce. The couple gained notoriety in 2009 when they crashed a White House state dinner.
‘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