SOUTH KOREA
US official offered dog meat
Hospital officials said a well-wishing man tried to offer dog meat to injured US Ambassador Mark Lippert, who is recovering from an attack by a knife-wielding anti-US activist. An official at the Seoul hospital where Lippert was being treated yesterday said that the elderly man arrived on Friday morning with a package that he said was dog meat and seaweed soup. The official said the man asked the food to be delivered to Lippert to help him heal, but the hospital rejected the food.
PHILIPPINES
Malaysian policeman freed
The military said extremist group Abu Sayyaf released a Malaysian police constable eight months after they kidnapped him from a Malaysian resort. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc said Zakia Aliep, a member of the Malaysia marine police, was brought back to Malaysia’s Sabah State early yesterday. He was quoting reports from civilian informants in nearby Sulu Province in southern Philippines. Cabunoc credited military operations in Sulu with the hostage’s release.
UNITED STATES
Bookmaker pleads guilty
The son of a wealthy Malaysian businessman accused of running an illegal sports betting ring with his father during the FIFA World Cup last year is pleading guilty to a lesser charge to return home. Darren Wai Kit Phua was arrested in July with his father and several others after US federal agents raided a Caesars Palace villa where they were staying and seized computers, cell phones and cash. As part of the plea, Phua will be on unsupervised probation for five years and is agreeing to forfeit US$125,000 seized during the raid and pay a US$100,000 fine.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
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