SOUTH KOREA
Man arrested for murder
A man has been arrested for allegedly killing his girlfriend, who was initially believed to have accidentally suffocated while eating a live octopus, a prosecutor said yesterday. After an investigation lasting many months, the suspect, identified only as Kim, was formally arrested for murder on Friday last week, prosecutor Lee Geon-tae said in Incheon. Kim would be charged within the next 10 days, he said. “He’s still denying the charge ... we believe enough evidence has been collected to charge him,” the prosecutor said, without elaborating. The suspect, now 31, checked into an Incheon motel with his girlfriend in April 2010 after buying two live octopuses from a local restaurant. The man later called reception to say his girlfriend had collapsed and stopped breathing after eating one of them. She was taken to hospital, but died 16 days later due to brain damage. Her family initially believed the 24-year-old woman, surnamed Yoon, suffocated after a tentacle was found stuck in her throat — her body was later cremated — but Yoon’s father later discovered the daughter had signed up for a life insurance policy a week before her death, with Kim as the beneficiary. Incheon police reopened the case and questioned Kim, who collected 200 million won (US$189,400) in insurance money. Police said earlier they suspected Kim might have stuffed the octopus into Yoon’s throat or choked her with some other object, such as a pillow.
CAMBODIA
End sanctions, ASEAN says
Southeast Asian leaders yesterday called for the lifting of international sanctions on Myanmar after the country’s historic by-elections, a senior Cambodian official said at a regional summit. The leaders of ASEAN “call for the lifting of all sanctions on Myanmar,” Cambodian Secretary of State Kao Kim Hourn told reporters on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh. “The lifting of sanctions would contribute positively to the democratic process and especially economic development of Myanmar,” he said, quoting leaders inside the closed-door summit room. Myanmar President Thein Sein assured the other leaders of the 10-nation bloc that Sunday’s election were “transparent, free and fair, so he accepts the result,” Kao said.
AUSTRALIA
Decriminalize drugs: minister
Foreign Minister Bob Carr, whose brother died after a 1981 heroin overdose, yesterday urged decriminalization of low-level drug use after a report concluded the war on the scourge was lost. His comments were at odds with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who said tough policing was the answer. “A bit of modest decriminalization, de facto decriminalization at the edges, simply freeing up police to be doing the things they ought to be doing, would be a sensible way of going about it,” Carr told Seven Network. He told fellow broadcaster ABC that by doing so “we wouldn’t have armies of police patrolling outside nightclubs and pubs hoping to snatch someone who’s got an ecstasy tablet in his or her pocket or purse.”
PHILIPPINES
Flights to be diverted
The civil aviation authority said yesterday it would divert flights to and from Japan and South Korea to coincide with a planned North Korean rocket launch over fears of falling debris. Flight paths from Japan and South Korea to Manila airport will be closed from April 12 to April 16, when Pyongyang is expected to fire the rocket into orbit, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokeswoman Joy Songsong said. Airlines concerned have been advised, she said.
IRELAND
Priest gives gay porn show
The Roman Catholic Church said on Monday it was investigating how a priest offering a presentation to parents on their children’s upcoming confessions instead ended up showing them a computer slideshow of gay porn. The leader of the country’s 4 million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, said the priest involved said he had no idea how the explicit images got on the memory stick he intended to use for his Powerpoint presentation to families at St Mary’s Primary School in the Northern Ireland village of Pomeroy. Parents described how, at a March 26 meeting at the school, Reverend Martin McVeigh inserted the memory stick, clicked open a folder and unleashed a cavalcade of sexually explicit pictures of naked men. “He was visibly shaken and flustered. He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room,” the parents said. Two other school and church officials continued the Communion discussion, but they said “the parents who viewed the pictures were horrified and distracted.” They said an eight-year-old child was also present. After about 20 minutes, they said, McVeigh rejoined the meeting “and wrapped up by saying that the children get lots of money for their Holy Communion and should consider giving some of it to the church.”
SOUTH AFRICA
Oldest human firepit found
Scientists said on Monday they have uncovered the earliest evidence of campfires made by human ancestors in Wonderwerk Cave, suggesting that the practice may have started 1 million years ago. Until now, experts have found little consensus on when our prehistoric cousins figured out how to make sparks for cooking food and keeping warm, according to the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hints of such activity have been found in Africa, Asia and Europe, but the earliest signs of fire were believed to be scorched pot pieces in Israel, dating to between 700,000 and 800,000 years ago. Fragments of burnt animal bones and stone tools that appear to be even older have since been found in layers of sediment at the cave, where earlier excavations have shown a significant record of human occupation.
IRAN
US calls for Baha’i rights
The US on Monday renewed its call on Tehran to free leaders of the Baha’i faith, saying it was “deeply concerned” over minority rights in the Islamic republic. Days after a US Senate resolution urged a more active US stance on Bahaists’ rights, the State Department appealed for Iran to release seven leaders of the Baha’i religion who were given 20-year prison sentences in 2010. The Baha’i faith — which calls for unity of all religions and equality between men and women — was born in Iran 200 years ago and has faced severe repression both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
NORWAY
Breivik to call mullah
The lawyer for confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik said in Oslo on Monday that he would call right-wing extremists and Islamists, including a radical jailed mullah, as witnesses in support of his client at this month’s trial. Defense attorney Geir Lippestad said the idea of calling extremists like Mullah Krekar, who founded the radical Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam and has been sentenced to five years in prison for making death threats, was important to show that his client was not criminally insane.
CANADA
Sheen becomes prank victim
Quebec pranksters revealed on Monday they convinced actor Charlie Sheen to star in a sequel to the Oscar-winning silent film The Artist. Marc-Antoine Audette, a Montreal radio personality known locally as half of the duo Masked Avengers, pretended to be the film’s award-winning actor Jean Dujardin in a telephone call to Sheen, once television’s highest-paid actor. He told Sheen in an exaggerated French accent that he wanted to make a comedy with him to raise money for a foundation against dictators. Sheen congratulated Dujardin on his Oscar win. “Thank you for considering me, that’s very sweet,” he also said, accepting the offer despite at times being unable to understand what the caller was saying.
CANADA
Transgender beauty fights on
The Miss Universe Organization announced on Monday that it might reverse an earlier decision and allow a transgender woman to enter the Miss Universe Canada pageant. Jenna Talackova, 23, was born male, leading organizers to disqualify her last month as a finalist in the Miss Universe Canada pageant next month. The Vancouver woman underwent a sex change four years ago. The Miss Universe Organization said in a statement on the Miss Universe Canada Web site that Talackova could compete “provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions.” Vancouver constitutional lawyer Joe Arvay, who is on Talackova’s legal team, said Miss Universe Canada’s statement about Canadian legal gender recognition requirements is “incomprehensible.” Arvay said the pageant requirement for “natural born” females does not comply with domestic human rights legislation and that a complaint would be filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
UNITED STATES
Sheriff introduces chess
A sheriff in Illinois is turning to kings, queens and rooks to help teach inmates at his jail not to behave like pawns. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart launched a chess program at the county jail in Chicago. The law enforcement officer, known for making unusual moves in the name of justice, hopes inmates can take what they learn from a game that rewards patience and problem-solving and apply it to their own lives. “We see it day-in and day-out that people want instant gratification and that often individuals do not think before they act,” Dart said on Monday. “Thoughtless actions will hurt you while playing chess and hurt you more on the street.”
UNITED STATES
Strip searches upheld
The Supreme Court upheld on Monday the power of jails across the country to carry out invasive strip searches on all incoming detainees, including those suspected of minor offenses. In a 5-4 ruling, it threw out a New Jersey man’s claim that his constitutional rights were violated when jailers showered him with delousing agent and lifted his genitals during his week behind bars. “Even assuming all the facts in favor of petitioner, the search procedures at the Burlington County Detention Center and the Essex County Correctional Facility struck a reasonable balance between inmate privacy and the needs of the institutions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. Albert Florence was out driving with his family in March 2005 when he was pulled over by a New Jersey state trooper and arrested over a bench warrant canceled two years earlier, but never removed from police data systems.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was