■SOUTH KOREA
Roh’s brother sentenced
Former president Roh Moo-hyun’s elder brother was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison for peddling influence in a corporate takeover deal. Roh Gun-pyeong and two accomplices were convicted of accepting some 3 billion won (US$2.4 million) in bribes from a financial firm seeking their help in selling an ailing securities unit to a state-supervised bank in 2006, Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Tae-hyoung said. Roh is the brother of Roh Moo-hyun, who served as South Korea’s president from 2003 to last year. The brother also was fined some 574 million won (US$450,000), Kim said. The former president is also under investigation in a separate bribery scandal over allegations that he took more than US$6 million from a businessman while in office.
■CHINA
Hysterics cause debate
A popular online video showing a woman going hysterical after her male companion refuses to buy her a car is stirring debate about Shanghai’s females, who are renowned for their demanding ways. In the video, apparently shot on a mobile phone or handheld camera and carried on the widely read www.youku.com, the woman is seen screaming at the man in a Shanghai car showroom.
■CHINA
Pollution sickens 160
More than 160 people have been hospitalized and hundreds of others sickened in the northeast in a suspected case of pollution caused by a chemical plant, local media said yesterday. Staff at a plant operated by the Jilin Chemical Fiber Group in Jilin city, as well as residents living nearby, started complaining of headache, nausea, vomiting and general fatigue late last month, the Beijing Times reported. About 1,000 people reported suffering from the symptoms and 161 of them had to be hospitalized, the paper said. Patients said they suspected they had been affected by emissions from Connell Chemical, a Hong Kong-invested chemical producer near the fiber plant, the report said. Environmental authorities have tested the air near the two chemical companies but have not yet been able to identify any pollutant, it said. However, the city government has ordered Connell Chemical to shut down its aniline plant and inspectors are staying on the spot to track the air quality 24 hours a day, the report said.
■AUSTRALIA
List gaffe prompts apology
The government acknowledged yesterday that it had made an embarrassing blunder by making public a secret list of treaty negotiations with countries around the world. The list of more than 200 bilateral treaties under negotiation or review includes a pending agreement with China to increase uranium exports and a revised defense treaty being hammered out with Indonesian officials. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement yesterday that his department “is in the process of advising each of the relevant countries that the document was released in error” in the parliament on Wednesday. “The minister has and does accept responsibility for this error,” the statement said. The 58-page list is not classified. But its cover page carries a warning that such negotiations are “potentially sensitive” and that the list should not be “placed on the public record.” According to international convention, even the existence of such negotiations should not be revealed without the permission of both countries, it said.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
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