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.
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