SOUTH KOREA
‘Sewol’ owner seeks asylum
A businessman and Christian sect leader wanted on charges tied to a ferry disaster in which more than 300 passengers drowned sought asylum at an embassy in Seoul, but was rejected, prosecutors said yesterday. Yoo Byung-un, 73, is wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from his control of a web of business interests centered on an investment firm owned by his sons that owned the operator of the doomed Sewol that sank on April 16. “By international law, Yoo Byung-un is not a refugee, but is a fugitive with an arrest warrant outstanding, so anyone who helps him flee will be deemed to be aiding his escape and will be firmly punished,” a prosecutor said. A person acting for Yoo contacted an embassy and asked about the possibility of Yoo seeking asylum, he said. He was turned down. Prosecutors did not say which embassy was contacted.
JAPAN
PM may visit North Korea
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may visit North Korea, the government said yesterday, days after announcing a deal to reopen its probe into Japanese citizens kidnapped by spies in the Cold War. Any such visit would be controversial, especially in Seoul and Washington, which have led the charge to further isolate Pyongyang over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Tokyo and Pyongyang have no formal diplomatic ties, partially because of what Japan says is the North’s unwillingness to come clean over the abductions in the 1970s and 1980s. However, in a breakthrough last week, they said an investigation into the fate of missing Japanese would be reopened. In exchange, Tokyo would ease some of the unilateral sanctions it has imposed on the isolated state.
SOUTH KOREA
North fisherman returned
The country yesterday repatriated a North Korean fisherman, but rejected Pyongyang’s demands to return two others picked up by the coast guard at the weekend. Seoul’s Ministry of Unification said the repatriation took place at the border truce village of Panmunjom. The fishermen were picked up on Saturday by a coast guard vessel off the east coast, and the North quickly demanded the immediate return of all three, as well as their boat. However, Seoul said two of the fishermen had expressed a wish to stay in the South and would be kept in custody for questioning. A ministry spokesman said there was “no word or protest” from North Korea when the third fisherman was handed over at the border.
MALAYSIA
Army to search for UK tourist
Authorities insisted on Monday they are committed to finding a Briton who went missing on a popular resort island six days ago, with an army helicopter sent to aid the search. Gareth Huntley, 34, went missing after a waterfall trek on Tuesday last week in the jungles of Tioman Island off Malaysia’s east coast. A search has yet to find any trace of him, police said. “We have no leads. About 90 men are looking for him, as well as search dogs. One helicopter from the army is about to arrive,” said district police chief Johari Jahaya, who is leading the search. Huntley had been a volunteer at the Juara Turtle Project, a conservation and research group. His mother, Janet Southwell, told BBC Radio on Monday she was “positive that with all this effort we are going to find him.” “It’s a roller coaster of emotions. You know, it’s despair one minute and hope the next and back again. He may be injured, but we are going to find him and we will bring him out alive,” she said from Malaysia.
LIBYA
Miitig convenes ministers
A new government announced on Monday that it had taken office, despite the refusal of Abdullah al-Thani’s Cabinet to leave power, as violence intensified in the east of the country following the launch of a deadly “anti-terrorist” campaign. Prime Minister Ahmed Miitig, 42, said in a statement he had convened his ministers for the first time since his disputed election in May, amid an ongoing power struggle in Tripoli. His spokesman said Miitig had “no difficulties” in accessing parliament. “There was no opposition from the security services deployed in front of the building,” the spokesman said. Miitig is Libya’s fifth prime minister since dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising. The General National Congress elected Islamist-backed businessman Miitig in a chaotic vote early last month, days after gunmen stormed the Congress to interrupt an earlier ballot.
NIGERIA
Police ban Abuja protests
Police have banned protests in the capital, Abuja, by supporters of the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, as the activists vowed to challenge the “illegal” move. Noisy street demonstrations in Abuja have become a regular feature of the campaign to put pressure on the government and keep the issue in the public eye seven weeks after the girls were abducted from a school in northern Nigeria on April 14. Federal Capital Territory police spokeswoman Altine Daniel confirmed the ban in a text message, saying the decision was taken “because of security reasons.” Protest organizers questioned the legitimacy of the move and eyed a possible political motive, but police chief Joseph Mbu said the ban was imposed because of the threat of infiltration from “dangerous elements.”
UNITED STATES
Russian hacker charged
A US-led international operation has disrupted a crime ring that infected hundreds of thousands of PCs around the globe with malicious software used for stealing banking credentials and extorting computer owners, the Department of Justice said on Monday. Authorities in nearly a dozen countries worked with private security companies to wrest control of the network of infected machines, known by the name of its master software, Gameover Zeus. Court documents released on Monday said that between 500,000 and 1 million machines worldwide were infected with the malicious software, which was derived from the original “Zeus” trojan for stealing financial passwords that emerged in 2006. Officials charged a Russian man with hacking, fraud and money-laundering, and court documents suggested they suspect he wrote Zeus.
UNITED STATES
Diaper thieves sought
Authorities in North Carolina are searching for whoever made a massive, unauthorized withdrawal from a diaper bank. The Diaper Bank of North Carolina says 13,000 diapers were stolen last weekend. The Durham-based nonprofit provides diapers to struggling families. Founder and executive director Michelle Old said she went on Monday to pick up an order to be distributed to a homeless shelter. She found the order had been strewn across the floor and various sizes of diapers were missing. Old said losing size 4 and size 5 diapers was especially difficult because babies can stay in them for up to a year and they are hard to keep in stock. “We already struggle and usually are low on those, but they completely took every diaper,” Old said.
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