World News Quick Take
ICC charges Duterte
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors have charged former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” A heavily redacted charge sheet dated July 4, but only made public on Monday, lays out the accusations against the 80-year-old former leader, currently sitting in ICC detention in The Hague. The first count concerns his alleged involvement as a coperpetrator in 19 murders carried out between 2013 and 2016 while mayor of Davao City. The second count relates to 14 murders of so-called “high value targets” in 2016 and 2017 when Duterte was president. The third charge is about 43 murders committed during “clearance” operations of lower-level alleged drug users or pushers.
Photo: AP
NEW ZEALAND
Mother guilty of killing kids
A mother yesterday was found guilty of killing her two children and stashing their bodies in suitcases, in a high-profile case that drew international attention. Lee Hak-yung, a New Zealand citizen originally from South Korea, was extradited from Seoul in 2022 after the remains of her children were discovered in suitcases left at a storage unit in south Auckland. The children were aged eight and six at the time of their murders, and had been dead for three to four years before their bodies were found.
AUSTRALIA
Body returned without heart
Officials have demanded answers from Indonesian counterparts after the body of a young man who died on the island of Bali was repatriated without his heart. Queensland man Byron Haddow, 23, was found dead in the plunge pool of his Bali villa this year while on holiday. His body was returned to Australia four weeks later, where a second autopsy found he was missing his heart. “They just rung us to ask if we were aware that his heart had been retained over in Bali,” mother Chantal Haddow told Channel Nine. “Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any more heartbroken, it was another kick in the guts,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Trump links autism to Tylenol
President Donald Trump on Monday linked autism to childhood vaccine use and the taking of popular pain medication Tylenol by women while pregnant, elevating claims not backed by scientific evidence. In an extraordinary news conference at the White House, the Republican president delivered medical advice to pregnant women and parents of young children, repeatedly telling them not to use or administer the painkiller and suggesting that common vaccines not be taken together or so early in a child’s life. The advice from Trump, who acknowledged he is not a doctor, goes against that of medical societies.
CHINA
Fireworks prompt outcry
The Canadian outdoor brand Arc’teryx has issued an apology after a promotional fireworks display in the Tibetan Plateau led to an outcry over potential environmental damage. The Rising Dragon high-altitude show involved long stretches of pyrotechnics and colored smoke along snow-topped Himalayan ridgelines in the Tibetan region of Shigatse. The organizers said the display used biodegradable, environmentally friendly materials, but videos of the display posted online by the brand were met with a barrage of criticism. “Imagine selling US$800 jackets for mountain lovers, then nuking the mountains,” one commenter wrote on Instagram.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS