SOUTH KOREA
Navy to build frontline base
The navy is to build an advance base on a frontline island to bolster defenses near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea, officials said yesterday. The navy has been given local government approval to reclaim 23,489m2 at Baengnyeong Island to build the base, said an official at Incheon, which oversees the islands. The defense ministry said the navy would build a dock for small warships, but declined to give details. Yonhap news agency said the new base would include barracks and a training ground and accommodate about 100 troops. It would be completed by the end of 2014.
JAPAN
Official in probe found dead
An official being probed as the possible source of news reports claiming China had breached UN weapons embargoes on North Korea has been found dead, media reports said yesterday. The official, 47, who worked at the foreign ministry’s unit in charge of collecting information on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, was found hanged at his home east of Tokyo on Wednesday last week, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun and other media reported. A police spokesman said the death was not thought to be suspicious, but refused to comment further.
SOUTH KOREA
Iranian oil imports halted
The government yesterday said it would halt oil imports from Iran starting next month due to a EU ban on insuring shipments of Iranian crude. The insurance ban, which is part of broader EU sanctions aimed at cutting the sources of finance for Iran’s nuclear program, makes it impossible for local companies to ship Iranian crude as they rely on EU companies to insure the shipments. The move affects two oil refiners, SK Energy Co and Hyundai Oil Bank Co.
FRANCE
Joly to help Afghanistan
Crusading judge and former Green party presidential candidate Eva Joly said on Monday she would head a UN mission aimed at tackling corruption in Afghanistan. Joly, 68, said she and two other international experts would carry out regular missions to Afghanistan to fight corruption, which has been fueled by the billions of dollars that have poured into the country since a US-led invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US. “Our role will be to give advice and to verify progress in the creation of institutions able to fight against corruption,” she said at a press conference, adding that her first mission would be from July 7 to 20.
SOUTH KOREA
Dolphins to be protected
The government will ban the catching of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins for use in shows by designating them as protected mammals, the maritime affairs ministry said yesterday. An upcoming bill will also designate sea turtles and sea horses as protected species, the ministry said. Currently it is legal to catch dolphins and whales for a show or for research if authorities give prior approval. Otherwise, it is punishable by a jail term of up to two years or a fine of up to 5 million won (US$4,300).
JAPAN
Police probe cooked genitals
Tokyo police are investigating whether a man who cooked his own severed genitals and served them to five paying diners committed a crime. Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before cooking them at a public event last month. Diners each paid ¥20,000 (US$250) for a portion.
UNITED STATES
Octopus chooses name
A giant Pacific octopus that is the star attraction at an Ohio zoo’s new reef exhibit has chosen her name by pulling shrimp from a labeled ball. A list of 2,200 suggestions submitted to the Akron Zoo in a public naming contest was narrowed to three options on Monday for the 9kg, 1.2m long octopus, and she chose Cora. It is a shortened version of coral, which is a popular octopus habitat and the theme of the exhibit. The Akron Beacon Journal reported that the octopus made her decision by selecting the ball labeled Cora, pulling out shrimp and then holding up the winning name with a tentacle. The most-submitted name suggestion had been Octavia. The other option, Scarlet, referred to the creature’s reddish skin.
BRAZIL
Inmates to read for early exit
The government will offer inmates in its crowded federal penitentiary system a novel way to shorten their sentences: four days less for every book they read. Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of the country’s most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced. Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay, which must “make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing,” said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette. A special panel will decide which inmates are eligible to participate in the program dubbed “Redemption through Reading.” “A person can leave prison more enlightened and with an enlarged vision of the world,” said Sao Paulo lawyer Andre Kehdi, who heads a book donation project for prisons.
UNITED KINGDOM
Olympic marathon for courts
London courts will work extended sessions during the Summer Olympics to deal instantly with anyone committing offenses linked to the Games, the Times reported yesterday. Courts will sit from 8am and will not wrap up until 7:30pm to ensure they deal with defendants within 24 hours of arrest, the public prosecutor told the newspaper. “Many people who come to the Olympics won’t live here, so it is important that if offenses are committed, we act quickly,” London Chief Crown Prosecutor Alison Saunders said. “People who commit offenses on Tuesday will be in court on Wednesday.”
WEST BANK
Illegal settlers evacuated
Israel started evacuating Jewish settlers from an unauthorized outpost, following a court order to dismantle the enclave. Authorities say about 30 families — half of the Ulpana community — were to leave the outpost yesterday, while the rest are to leave later this week. Unlike more violent settler evacuations in the past, the Ulpana residents have promised to leave quietly.
UNITED STATES
Bank heist inspired by movie
A man said he was so moved by a documentary exploring the cause of the Great Recession that he decided to rob a bank. Then he drove straight to police and confessed. The Oregonian reports that 50-year-old Raymond Carl Knudson pleaded guilty on Monday to sticking up a Bank of America branch in April. He told investigators he felt compelled to rob the bank after watching Inside Job. Court documents say he then carried the US$425 to the Gresham Police Department and turned himself in. He is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 10.
‘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
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
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