SOUTH KOREA
US official offered dog meat
Hospital officials said a well-wishing man tried to offer dog meat to injured US Ambassador Mark Lippert, who is recovering from an attack by a knife-wielding anti-US activist. An official at the Seoul hospital where Lippert was being treated yesterday said that the elderly man arrived on Friday morning with a package that he said was dog meat and seaweed soup. The official said the man asked the food to be delivered to Lippert to help him heal, but the hospital rejected the food.
PHILIPPINES
Malaysian policeman freed
The military said extremist group Abu Sayyaf released a Malaysian police constable eight months after they kidnapped him from a Malaysian resort. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc said Zakia Aliep, a member of the Malaysia marine police, was brought back to Malaysia’s Sabah State early yesterday. He was quoting reports from civilian informants in nearby Sulu Province in southern Philippines. Cabunoc credited military operations in Sulu with the hostage’s release.
UNITED STATES
Bookmaker pleads guilty
The son of a wealthy Malaysian businessman accused of running an illegal sports betting ring with his father during the FIFA World Cup last year is pleading guilty to a lesser charge to return home. Darren Wai Kit Phua was arrested in July with his father and several others after US federal agents raided a Caesars Palace villa where they were staying and seized computers, cell phones and cash. As part of the plea, Phua will be on unsupervised probation for five years and is agreeing to forfeit US$125,000 seized during the raid and pay a US$100,000 fine.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the