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.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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