SOUTH KOREA
Lippert case suspect indicted
Prosecutors yesterday indicted a man who allegedly slashed the US ambassador in Seoul last month on charges of attempted murder. Kim Ki-jong, 55, was also indicted on charges of assaulting a foreign envoy and obstruction, according to an official at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, who did not want to be named, citing department rules. South Korean law requires the trial to start within 14 days and there is a possibility that it could start as early as next week, according to an official at the Seoul Central District Court, who refused to be named, citing office rules. He said it was too early to comment on the potential penalties Kim could face. Prosecutors have also been investigating whether Kim violated a controversial law that bans praise or assistance for North Korea. The court official said that it was possible prosecutors may add such charges against Kim during the trial.
INDIA
Four arrested in nun’s rape
Police in Kolkata yesterday said that they have arrested four Bangladeshi nationals in connection with the alleged rape of an elderly nun that sent shockwaves through the Christian community. The nun, who is in her 70s, needed surgery after the incident last month when a gang of robbers reportedly broke into the convent school in the eastern state of West Bengal where she lived. Deputy Inspector General Dilip Kumar Adak said police tracked the suspects down to the northern state of Punjab after closed-circuit TV images and electronic facial identification technique images were circulated nationwide. Two other suspects in the case are already in custody after they were arrested last week.
CHINA
‘Rumors’ spark arrest, fines
Authorities have detained and fined a person for spreading rumors on the Internet that several high-ranking naval officers are being investigated for corruption, an official news Web site reported. The military has been one of the focuses of President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) sweeping crackdown on deep-seated corruption. However, the detention underlines the Chinese Communist Party’s determination to control information about alleged graft cases. The person, from the southern province of Hunan and surnamed Hong (洪), posted the rumor on a social media site last week, the Web site of the party’s People’s Daily said late on Tuesday. The rumor “had a serious negative impact on the navy’s reputation,” and the navy complained to police in Beijing and Hunan, the report said. Hong reportedly admitted to being responsible for spreading the rumor and has been fined and sentenced to “administrative detention,” the Web site added, a term which is normally used for jail sentences of up to 15 days. The site provided no further details.
CHINA
Diplomat probed for bribes
Authorities are investigating a diplomat working at the Chinese embassy in Paris for suspected bribe-taking, Xinhua news agency said. Xinhua identified the diplomat in a report late on Tuesday as Wu Xilin (吳喜林), the minister counselor for commercial affairs at the Paris embassy. It gave no other details. While several senior heads have rolled in a sweeping anti-corruption probe, the diplomatic corps had until recently escaped much censure. The ministry is one of the only government departments that will regularly answer questions from foreign reporters and so has a high profile, but it has little power or influence compared with other ministries.
FRANCE
Air crash video debated
A video purportedly showing the final seconds inside the cabin of the ill-fated Germanwings airliner minutes before it crashed emerged on Tuesday, two European media outlets said, although French police denied the claims to CNN. One sequence reportedly shows a chaotic scene with passengers screaming: “My God.” French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild said the authenticity of the video filmed on a mobile phone is “unquestionable” and that it had been retrieved from the wreckage of the crash on Tuesday last week. However, French police official Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marc Menichini denied that investigators had found mobile phone footage at the crash site, telling CNN that the reports were “completely wrong” and “unwarranted.”
FRANCE
Sarkozy appears at court
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at a Paris court yesterday for questioning over a campaign finance scandal dating back to his failed run for the presidency in 2012. The probe centers on claims that the center-right UMP party — which Sarkozy now heads — should not have paid fines leveled against the former French leader after he broke campaign spending limits. The UMP is accused of using public cash to pay off Sarkozy’s fines. The former president arrived at the financial section of the main Paris court yesterday morning for questioning by investigating judges. Sarkozy’s campaign is also accused of falsifying invoices for events and passing off about 18.5 million euros (US$20 million) in spending as UMP party expenses. Sarkozy denies any knowledge of, or role in, the apparent fraud which meant his campaign spent nearly 50 percent more than it was legally entitled to.
UNITED STATES
Joni Mitchell hospitalized
Groundbreaking musician Joni Mitchell, one of the stars of the Woodstock era, was “in good spirits” at a hospital in California on Tuesday after being found unconscious at her home, her official Web site said. A statement on her Web site said the 71-year-old singer-songwriter had regained consciousness while being transported by ambulance to a Los Angeles-area hospital. Mitchell was undergoing medical testing in the hospital’s intensive care unit, but was “awake and in good spirits,” the statement said. Further details on her condition and the nature of the medical emergency were not immediately provided. Representatives for the musician did not respond to requests for comment.
GERMANY
Cannibal case verdict given
A verdict was delivered yesterday in the trial of a former police officer who allegedly killed a willing victim he met on a Web site for cannibalism fetishists. Detlev Guenzel, 57, was accused of murder driven by sexual lust and disturbing the peace of the dead, although there is no evidence that he ate any part of his victim. A regional court in the eastern city of Dresden handed down a sentence of eight years, six months in the macabre case, which captured international headlines when it broke in 2013. Guenzel went on trial in August last year for allegedly killing 59-year-old Polish-born Wojciech Stempniewicz at the defendant’s home in November 2013. He then allegedly cut his body into small pieces and buried them in his garden. Guenzel was married to his male partner for 10 years in a civil union at the time of the events, but said they divorced before the trial.
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
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