■SOUTH KOREA
Adoptee accused of murder
Police have arrested a man accused of hiring two hitmen to murder his adoptive mother, reports said yesterday. Police allege the son, identified only as Lee, found the killers online. He allegedly paid them 130 million won (US$103,000) to suffocate the woman who had raised him for more than 30 years after finding him abandoned as a baby. Investigators quoted by the Korea Times and JoongAng Daily said Lee, a gambling addict, decided to kill his mother after she refused to give him any more of her property. Lee claimed the 70-year-old died of diabetes. He inherited property and insurance money totaling 2 billion won, but squandered 1.5 billion of it on gambling. Lee was arrested after friends and relatives of the deceased, along with the insurance firm, raised suspicions.
■VIETNAM
Eggplants sicken 60
Health officials are checking whether pesticides poisoned more than 60 people who ate pickled eggplants, state media reported yesterday. The victims, in Hung Yen Province near the capital Hanoi, were hospitalized with fevers, stomachaches, headaches and vomiting, the Vietnam News reported. Officials were checking if the eggplants were contaminated with preservatives or pesticides, the report said.
■CHINA
Sixty punished for disco fire
Authorities have punished 60 people deemed responsible for a blaze at the “King of the Dancers” disco that killed 44 people in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. A Web site for the country’s State Council, or Cabinet, said yesterday that 35 people, including the club’s boss have faced criminal charges after the fire at the unlicensed nightclub one year ago. No details were given on the punishment but it was earlier announced a police chief and a fire official were jailed for 13 years and six years, respectively. The government says 25 officials, including the vice mayor, were disciplined within the Communist Party and government. The blaze started when a fireworks show ignited the ceiling in the crowded club.
■HONG KONG
Locker sting nets three
Cocaine dealers are using public lockers in shopping malls and sports centers to drop off large orders of drugs, a news report said yesterday. The revelation came after police arrested three people and seized 2kg of cocaine with a street value of more than US$200,000 in a shopping center in Shatin district. Monday’s sting was set up after officers received information that cocaine was being passed to buyers via public lockers that can be rented for US$0.25 an hour for up to seven days using a password set by the hirer. Two men put 1kg of pressed cocaine in separate lockers and a third man arrived to collect the drugs, the Hong Kong Standard reported. All three were arrested. Buyers paid in advance for the drugs and then collected them with the locker number and password, police said.
■SAUDI ARABIA
One executed for killings
A Saudi man who shot dead two compatriots was beheaded by sword on Monday in the holy city of Mecca in the west of the conservative kingdom, the official SPA news agency reported. It quoted the interior ministry as saying the man, named as Ali Assiri, shot the two others dead in a dispute. Saudi Arabia imposes the death sentence for rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking under the country’s strict Islamic Shariah law.
■UNITED STATES
Anchorage vetoes ban
The mayor of Anchorage on Monday vetoed a ban against discrimination based on sexual orientation, saying it was unclear that such discrimination existed. The mayor, Dan Sullivan, a Republican who took office on July 1, said that “the vast majority of those who communicated their position on the ordinance are in opposition.” The ordinance, which would have prohibited such discrimination in employment, housing, education and other areas, was approved by the Anchorage Assembly last week on a 7-4 vote. Eight votes are necessary to override a mayoral veto.
■UNITED STATES
Mutilating mom convicted
A jury has sentenced a Texas mother convicted of mutilating her infant by cutting off his genitals to 99 years in prison. Jurors deliberated for about two hours on Monday before sentencing 28-year-old Katherine Nadal. They chose among possible sentences ranging from probation to life in prison. The same jury had convicted her last week of first-degree felony injury to a child. Prosecutors asked for life in prison. Nadal’s attorneys did not request any specific sentence but had asked the jury to not punish her out of hate or revenge.
■UNITED STATES
Disney stuntman dies
A Walt Disney World stunt performer died after an accident while rehearsing for the Indiana Jones show at the Hollywood Studios theme park in Orlando. A Disney spokeswoman said the stunt performer was rehearsing on Monday evening for the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” and was hurt while doing a tumbling roll. He was taken to the hospital and later died. The performer’s name has not been released. Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said Disney officials have notified the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the accident. Out of respect for the man, Suarez said the Indiana Jones show was not to be performed yesterday.
■UNITED STATES
Musician, violin reunited
A musician has been reunited with his 18th-century violin after he mistakenly left it in a New York City cab. City taxi officials said a GPS device in the cab led to the quick return of the instrument to Korean violinist Hanh-bin on Monday. The violin is valued at about US$600,000. The musician had taken a cab from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to his Chinatown apartment in lower Manhattan early on Monday morning. He inadvertently left behind the violin and a credit card. Hanh-bin’s violin wasn’t the most expensive instrument ever to have been left in a New York City taxi. In 2001, musician Lynn Harrell left behind a 328-year-old Stradivarius cello worth US$4 million.
■UNITED STATES
Album records screams
This new album is a scream — and more. Favorite Recorded Scream is a compilation of 74 brief howls, whoops, cries and other guttural exclamations from songs by the Who, the Pixies, Slayer, Bjork and dozens of others. New York City artist LeRoy Stevens came up with the idea while listening to A Change Is Going to Come by the 1960s soul singer Baby Huey. The song climaxes in a series of screeches. He later asked Manhattan record shop clerks to choose their favorite song scream and to tell him why. With their suggestions, he pressed 500 copies of a 30cm vinyl record. The record is for sale for about US$15 at Manhattan stores and online.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS