French diplomats are demanding to know why it took Australian immigration officials five months to tell them that a 74-year-old French national was being held in an immigration detention center. \nThe illegal immigrant died of a brain hemorrhage 10 days after French officials were told he was in the Sydney detention center. \nFrench diplomat Olivier Bove yesterday said consular officials were questioning Australia's immigration department over its decision to hold Marc Thao -- a former shopkeeper who was born in Laos -- for five months before notifying the embassy. \nLast month, the embassy received a notice from the immigration department that one of its citizens was to be deported but no name was provided, Bove said. \nAnother week passed before French officials received a phone call from an Australian doctor treating Thao, who had been admitted to hospital in a critical condition. \nThao died on Aug. 29 from a cerebral hemorrhage. \nIn a newspaper report yesterday, French officials expressed outrage over immigration practices in Australia. \n"Frankly, we are appalled at the way our citizen was treated," a spokesman for the embassy told the Australian newspaper. The paper did not identify the spokesman. \nAustralian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone yesterday said that Thao had told officials he did not want the French government to be notified about his detention. \n"In this case, in a record of interview, the gentleman was asked whether the embassy should be notified and specifically instructed that they should not be," Vanstone said. "That is the right of the person that is being detained to do so." \nImmigration officials opted to notify the embassy once Thao was admitted to hospital, Vanstone said. \nThao left New Caledonia in 1999 to live with his stepdaughter in Sydney. After his three-month tourist visa expired, Thao continued to live in Australia as an illegal immigrant. \nHis status went undetected until March this year, when police were called to his home to resolve a domestic dispute. \nThao's stepson told police about the man's illegal status, and he was taken to Sydney's detention center in the suburb of Villawood. \nFrench officials said they are awaiting a response from the Australian immigration department before deciding whether any further action will be taken.
Pins hidden in her shoes, head forced down a toilet, kicked in the stomach: South Korean hairdresser Pyo Ye-rim suffered a litany of abuse from school bullies, but now she is speaking out. The 26-year-old is part of a phenomenon sweeping South Korea known as “Hakpok #MeToo,” where people who were bullied publicly name and shame the perpetrators of school violence — “hakpok” in Korean — decades after the alleged crimes. Made famous globally by Netflix’s gory revenge series The Glory, the movement has ensnared everyone from K-pop stars to baseball players and accusations — often anonymous — can be career-ending, with
One of Australia’s two active volcanoes on an island near Antarctica — known as Big Ben — has been spotted by satellite spewing lava. The lava flow on the uninhabited Heard Island, about 4,100km southwest of Perth and 1,500km north of Antarctica, is part of an ongoing eruption that was first noted more than a decade ago. The image was caught by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Thursday, and is a composite of an optical picture and an infrared image. The lava is seen flowing down the side of Big Ben from near the summit, known as Mawson Peak.
SYMBOLIC: The bill sponsored by a cross-party group of lawmakers was hailed as a ‘historic moment’ in the fight for marriage equality, but is unlikely to pass Lawmakers in South Korea have proposed the country’s first same-sex marriage bill, in a move hailed by civic groups as a defining moment in the fight for equality. The marriage equality bill, proposed by South Korean lawmaker Jang Hye-yeong of the minor opposition Justice Party and co-sponsored by 12 lawmakers across all the main parties, seeks to amend the country’s civil code to allow same-sex marriage. The bill is unlikely to pass, but forms part of a trio of bills expected to increase pressure on the government to expand the idea of family beyond traditional criteria. The two other bills relate to
TIME TO TALK: Among China’s grievances were economic and trade issues related to Taiwan, but both countries emphasized the need to maintain communication US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) on Friday raised complaints about China’s state-led economic policies during a meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤), who objected to US tariffs and trade policies, as well as issues related to Taiwan, their offices said. However, statements from the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce emphasized the need for Washington and Beijing to maintain communication on trade. “Ambassador Tai highlighted the need to address the critical imbalances caused by China’s state-led, non-market approach to the economy and trade policy,” the USTR said in a statement released after the
RSS