KOREAS
North frees S Korean man
North Korea has released a South Korean citizen detained last month after crossing the border into the North, the South’s Ministry of Unification Ministry said yesterday. The 34-year-old man, surnamed Seo, was detained after “illegally” entering the North last month, the ministry said. Officials in Seoul have pressed for the return of six other South Koreans believed to have been held for years in the North, and the ministry said they believed Seo’s release is a positive sign.
BANGLADESH
Protest response criticized
New York-based Human Rights Group (HRW) has accused authorities of using abusive measures in handling a student-led protest calling for safer roads. HRW said in a statement yesterday that ruling party men armed with sticks and machetes have swooped in on protesters and journalists since the students took to the streets on July 29 after two students were killed in a road accident in Dhaka. Several journalists, including an Associated Press photographer, have been attacked. HRW also criticized the arrest of a renowned photographer on charges of spreading false information about the protest. The protests grew last week, becoming a major embarrassment to the government, which faces a general election later this year.
JAPAN
Score lowering confirmed
Tokyo Medical School has confirmed after an internal investigation that it systematically altered entrance exam scores since 2000 or even earlier to limit female applicants and ensure more men became doctors. The findings released yesterday by lawyers involved in the investigation confirm recent media reports. The manipulation surfaced during an investigation of an alleged wrongful admission of a bureaucrat’s son. The internal probe found the school first reduced all applicants’ first-stage scores to 80 percent, then added up to 20 points only to male applicants with three or fewer application tries. The school wanted fewer female doctors because it believed they would become mothers, which would shorten or halt their careers.
UNITED STATES
SpaceX on 15th mission
Space Exploration Technologies successfully deployed an Indonesian satellite into orbit early yesterday, notching another milestone in its bid to quickly reuse rockets in its 15th mission of the year. The company reflew a booster for a second mission in less than three months, this time to carry a commercial satellite for PT Telkom Indonesia aloft from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This marks SpaceX’s first reuse of a Falcon 9 Block 5, a version of its workhorse rocket that was built to be launched as many as 10 times, with limited refurbishment between missions. SpaceX is targeting about 30 total missions this year, up from a record 18 last year.
AUSTRALIA
Superbug found in Victoria
The state of Victoria yesterday reported its first case of a superbug in a hospital patient who likely picked up the drug-resistant fungus in Britain. Victoria Deputy Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said health officials were taking a “search and destroy” approach to ensure the Candida auris fungus did not spread. “The man was isolated as soon as the diagnosis was made and intense cleaning and disinfection has occurred,” Sutton said in a statement. First identified in Japan in 2009, the fungus has spread to more than a dozen countries, including the US, where it is becoming a menace in hospitals, mostly in New York and New Jersey.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of