Japan
Dolphin hunting challenged
A court yesterday began hearing arguments over whether dolphin hunting breaks animal cruelty laws. The plaintiffs are asking the district court in Wakayama Prefecture to stop the permits from being issued. Wakayama Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka issues the permits for the village of Taiji, where the hunts have drawn protests. The 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove showed the village’s hunts, where dolphins were chased into a cove and bludgeoned to death, turning the waters blood red. In the past few years, the hunting method has changed to suffocation. The plaintiffs, a former Taiji resident and activist Ren Yabuki have said that the killings remain traumatic and painful, despite the new method. Taiji officials and fishermen have defended the hunt as tradition and have said that eating dolphin meat is no different from eating beef or chicken.
SOUTH KOREA
Ex-justice official arrested
A former vice justice minister has been arrested on allegations of bribery, including being provided with prostitutes by a construction contractor. Kim Hak-ui, a former prosecutor who briefly served as the No. 2 at the Ministry of Justice in 2013, has been accused of accepting bribes totaling 130 million won (US$108,722) and sexual entertainment on more than 100 occasions from businessman Yoon Jung-cheon. Kim was late on Thursday taken into custody after the Seoul Central District Court granted an arrest warrant, citing the possibility of “fleeing and tampering with evidence,” Yonhap news agency reported. Kim was appointed by ousted former president Park Geun-hye in March 2013, but resigned a week later in a storm of controversy. He was investigated on allegations including rape and bribery, but was cleared due to a lack of evidence. Prosecutors earlier this year launched a new probe and Kim was in March stopped at Incheon International Airport as he sought to fly to Bangkok.
VIETNAM
Traffickers to be executed
A total of 10 people have been sentenced to death for smuggling methamphetamine, ketamine and ecstasy across the country by train, state media reported yesterday. The alleged gang shifted 300kg of drugs from the north to the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City between 2015 and 2016, state-run media said. Five men and five women were given the death penalty after the trial this week in Hanoi, while two others got life in prison. “The two ringleaders were paid hundreds thousands of dollars” to traffic the drugs, the state-run Vietnamnet news site said. Court officials could not be reached for comment. Anyone caught with more than 600g of heroin or more than 2.5kg of methamphetamine can face the death penalty.
‘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