SOUTH KOREA
Sedition conviction upheld
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a nine-year prison sentence for a former leftist lawmaker convicted of inciting an armed revolt in the event of war breaking out with North Korea. Lee Seok-ki, a key member of the now-disbanded United Progressive Party, was first convicted of plotting a rebellion in February last year after a rare sedition trial involving a sitting member of the National Assembly, but the 12-year sentence he received was reduced to nine on appeal after the High Court ruled that Lee had not actually plotted a rebellion, but only encouraged one. Yesterday’s ruling agreed there was no proof that an organization for rebellion actually existed and that Lee’s guilt was therefore confined to the charge of incitement. Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae also confirmed that Lee had violated the National Security Law by praising North Korea. Lee’s treason trial had been the first of a lawmaker since the nation’s transformation from a military-backed autocracy to a democracy in the 1980s.
MYANMAR
US calls for killings probe
The US has called for an investigation into the killings of two ethnic Kachin teachers, amid allegations by activists the women were raped and murdered by government forces. The bloodied corpses were discovered earlier this week in a village in Shan state. A medical report indicated the volunteer teachers from the Kachin Baptist Convention died from penetration wounds to their liver, lungs and head, Zau Ra, secretary of the organization, said by telephone yesterday. Their private parts had also been violated, he said, adding that he was “shocked and saddened’ by the news. The military — which has launched fresh attacks in Kachin state, trapping more than 1,000 civilians in several villages — has long been accused of serious abuses in fighting against ethnic rebels. Activists said the two teachers were raped and killed by government forces.
IRELAND
Cocaine granny escapes jail
Helen Heaphy’s number came up at the bingo hall. The prize was a trip to court. The 50-year-old grandmother pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts of possessing cocaine for sale or supply after police caught her with the narcotic outside a Cork bingo hall. Cork District Court Judge Leo Malone accepted her lawyer’s plea for clemency, citing her family obligations and her possession of a relatively small amount of the drug worth 350 euros (US$400). Heaphy insisted she was holding the cocaine for an unspecified friend. Malone fined Heaphy 750 euros, but gave her no jail time, despite having two prior convictions for drugs possession and obstructing a police narcotics unit. She was even allowed to go back to playing bingo at the hall after the owner relented on a ban.
SPAIN
Prostitution ring broken up
Police have broken up a prostitution ring offering the services of more than 400 women, some of them minors, and have arrested 29 people, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. The ring recruited adult women and girls between the ages of 14 and 17 in schools and nightclubs in the southern region of Murcia, as well as over the Internet, to work in brothels, a ministry statement said. Police arrested 29 people as part of the operation, including three women suspected of running the ring and several of their clients who would specifically ask for underage girls. “The ring had put together a photobook which offered ‘a la carte’ more than 400 women, including minors,” the statement said.
UNITED STATES
Baby born over Atlantic
A Jordanian woman gave birth to a premature but healthy baby girl mid-flight over the Atlantic Ocean while traveling to New York from Amman, officials said on Wednesday. The 33-year-old woman was assisted by a nurse and a doctor who happened to be on board Royal Jordanian Flight 261 when she went into labor, four hours before landing in New York. The little girl was born at around 5:30pm on Tuesday, while the twin-jet Boeing Dreamliner was cruising over the Atlantic, airport and airline officials said. Royal Jordanian said the captain had been about to conduct an emergency landing at an airport in Canada, but continued to New York when informed the birth was problem-free.
UNITED STATES
Head-in-trunk man sentenced
A man was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in prison in the fatal shooting and dismemberment of a Minnesota man. Kou Thao, 28, pleaded no contest in September last year to second-degree intentional homicide in the April 2013 death of 58-year-old Tong Pao Hang, of St Paul, Minnesota. Thao was sentenced in Marathon County Circuit Court. The Wausau Daily Herald reported that his sentence also includes 20 years of extended supervision after his release. Thao, who was also convicted of hiding a corpse and possession of a firearm by a felon, was accused of shooting and dismembering Hang, and taking Hang’s severed head to Milwaukee in the trunk of his car in the spring of 2013. Other body parts were found in the basement of a Milwaukee home. A motive in the killing was unclear. Prosecutors have said it appeared the two men met just days before the shooting.
MEXICO
Meth drone discovered
Police in a border city say a drone overloaded with methamphetamine has crashed into a supermarket parking lot. Tijuana Police spokesman Jorge Morrua on Wednesday said that police were alerted after the drone fell on Tuesday night near the border with California at the San Ysidro crossing. Six packets of the drug, weighing more than 2.7kg, were taped to the six-propeller remote-controlled aircraft. Morrua said authorities are investigating where the flight originated and who was controlling it. He said it was not the first time they had seen drones used for smuggling drugs across the border. Other innovative efforts have included catapults, ultralight aircraft and tunnels.
EL SALVADOR
Abortion convict pardoned
Lawmakers on Wednesday pardoned a woman accused of abortion and later sentenced to 30 years in prison for homicide in a landmark case that has put the country’s harsh laws under the spotlight. The vote might signal similar relief for other women who have been convicted and sentenced to jail for abortion, which was criminalized in the nation in 1997. Domestic worker Carmen Guadalupe Vasquez had already served seven years of her sentence prior to the pardon. In 2007, Vasquez suffered major complications during her pregnancy and her child died shortly after she gave birth. She was initially accused of the crime of abortion, which carries up to eight years in prison, but the charge was later dropped and replaced with aggravated murder charges. Left-wing members of congress voted for the pardon, led by lawmakers from the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, while the conservative National Republican Alliance voted against it.
‘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