JAPAN
Tsukiji to become expo area
After 80 years of selling seafood, the site of Tokyo’s Tsukiji market is to become an international conference center under plans proposed yesterday by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The city wants to divide the 23-hectare site into space for international conferences and exhibitions, as well as hotels and restaurants. The site would first serve as a transportation hub during the 2020 Olympics. The plans are expected to be finalized in March after gathering views from local residents. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike had suggested that the site could be transformed into a kind of culinary theme park, but she backed off from the idea after business operators at the market’s new location expressed strong opposition, local media reported.
INDONESIA
Dam breaks killing six
Torrential rains that overwhelmed a dam and caused landslides killed at least six people and displaced more than 2,000 in South Sulawesi Province, officials said yesterday. The dead included two infants who drowned and a man who was electrocuted after the floods began late on Tuesday, Gowa District head Adnan Purichta Ichsann said. More than 2,000 people were in temporary shelters, the National Board for Disaster Management said. Staff at the Bili Bili dam, a rock-fill embankment, did not have time to provide advance warning of the water release, Ichsann said. The death toll could rise as areas hit by landslides are waiting for heavy equipment to join the search effort, Ichsann added.
SOUTH KOREA
Initial #MeToo culprit jailed
A former senior prosecutor yesterday was convicted of abuse of power and jailed for two years in connection with a high-profile case that triggered the nation’s #MeToo movement. Ahn Tae-geun was accused of repeatedly groping a female junior colleague at the funeral of another coworker’s father. After Seo Ji-hyun filed a formal complaint, he had her transferred to a provincial position and her career went nowhere. She in January last year went public with a tearful live TV interview, triggering a flood of similar accusations against powerful men. Ahn — who was separately fired for corruption in 2017 — could not be charged with sexual abuse because the one-year statute of limitations had expired, but was punished for abuse of power for having Seo transferred. Announcing the verdict at the Seoul Central District Court, judge Lee Sang-ju said there was sufficient evidence that Ahn transferred Seo away from Seoul “because he was afraid of the consequences of her internal complaint.”
EUROPEAN UNION
‘Golden visas’ to be curbed
The European Commission was yesterday to urge member states to crack down on schemes to grant “golden visas” to foreign investors, saying that they bring corruption and money laundering. The commission was to publish its first report urging members to curb the practice of giving wealthy foreigners residency or citizenship in return for investment, officials said. If member states fail to tighten their rules and become “more transparent ... the commission is clear, we will take action if necessary,” the official added. Wealthy candidates for residency or citizenship do not face sufficient security and background checks to prevent them from posing a security risk or laundering money, the report said. In October last year, Berlin-based Transparency International and London-based Global Witness called EU citizenship and residency as “just like a luxury good” that “can be bought.”
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