■SOUTH KOREA
Man kills boy over license
A motorist who hit and slightly injured an 11-year-old boy has admitted later murdering the child in an attempt to cover up driving offenses, reports said yesterday. The 48-year-old hit the child while under the influence of alcohol and while he was disqualified from driving. He took the boy to a small hospital but was referred to a larger facility. Instead of visiting the larger hospital, the man drove to an isolated spot in Damyang Country 220km south of Seoul and shot the boy four times with a powerful air rifle, several newspapers reported. The interior decorator, arrested after a tip-off, reportedly told police he killed the boy to avoid a further driving ban. He was to get his license back in September.
■CHINA
Assaulted waitress freed
A waitress who killed a government official when he assaulted her was set free yesterday, ending a case that sparked online debate over widespread abuse of power. Deng Yujiao (鄧玉嬌) was originally detained on suspicion of murder but was found guilty of the lesser charge of causing injury with intent, Caijing.com said. Deng stabbed township official Deng Guida (鄧貴大) to death at a bathhouse on May 10 in Hubei Province when he assaulted her after she refused to provide “special services” — slang for sex. Deng Yujiao’s “mood disorder” limited her criminal responsibility, Caijing said, citing the court decision.
■PHILIPPINES
Manila to keep jewelry
The justice secretary yesterday said jewelry worth US$310 million confiscated from former first lady Imelda Marcos would remain under lock and key in the government’s control. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters the collection was considered part of the Marcos family’s stolen wealth and remained the subject of a pending civil forfeiture case. Devanadera’s predecessor, Raul Gonzalez, issued a legal opinion in which he said that Imelda evidently “remains to be the legitimate owner of the prized jewelleries.” It was not clear why Gonzalez, who was earlier removed from the justice department after a five-year stint, issued the legal opinion.
■AUSTRALIA
Arrests made in gang death
Three people were arrested yesterday over the murder of Melbourne gangland figure Desmond “Tuppence” Moran, who was shot multiple times in a suburban cafe, police said. A 43-year-old man is expected to be charged with murder and two women, aged 64 and 45, will be charged as accessories, police said, after Monday’s execution-style killing. Media reports said one of the arrested women was Moran’s sister-in-law Judy.
■NETHERLANDS
ICC approves Bemba trial
The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Monday that former Democratic Republic of Congo vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba will stand trial on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. A pre-trial panel of judges “found that there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is criminally responsible” for murder, rape and pillaging, said a court statement. They “referred the case for trial” on three counts of war crimes and two of crimes against humanity for atrocities allegedly committed in the Central African Republic from October 2002 to March 2003 by militia commanded by Bemba.
■FRANCE
Scientology faces ban
The prosecutor in a trial involving the Church of Scientology has asked that the group be banned and handed a hefty fine if convicted on fraud and other charges. The prosecutor’s office has asked that fines of 2 million euros (US$2.77 million) be levied against the group and its French bookstore if the two entities are found guilty on charges of organized fraud and illegal pharmaceutical activity. Such fines are exceptionally high by French standards.
■ISRAEL
PM’s popularity grows
A new poll shows a spike in support for Israel’s prime minister in the wake of a policy about-face that saw Benjamin Netanyahu express support for a Palestinian state in a speech this week. Netanyahu’s approval rating has jumped to 44 percent, up from 28 percent a month ago. Seventy-one percent of respondents say they agree with the content of the speech, though 67 percent do not think it will move peace closer. The poll was conducted by the Dialog company and published yesterday in the daily Haaretz.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Puppy survives flushing
A puppy had a lucky escape after a four-year-old boy accidentally flushed it down the toilet when he was trying to wash it, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Monday. The week-old cocker spaniel’s young owner, Daniel Blair, thought the puppy needed a wash after it got muddy playing in the garden, so he put it in the toilet and flushed it. But his plan went disastrously wrong when the animal was swept away and became trapped in a waste pipe for nearly four hours. Firefighters and animal welfare officers could not reach it, so Daniel’s mother eventually called a plumber, who found the dog lying upside down in a pipe about 20m away from their house in London. Plumber Will Craig said he used a long rod to push the puppy to the nearest manhole cover, where it could be fished out to safety. Daniel has apologized, blaming his twin brother for getting the dog dirty and saying: “I had to give him a wash. I’m so, so sorry. I won’t do it again.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
‘Meat-free Mondays’
Beatles legend and famed vegetarian Paul McCartney was joined by John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono on Monday to launch an appeal in Britain for “meat-free Mondays.” McCartney said going vegetarian, even for just one day a week, was good for the environment because of research suggesting it cuts greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s livestock population. “I thought this was a great idea. To just reduce your meat intake maybe by one day a week and this would seriously benefit the planet,” he told reporters, alongside Ono and a bevy of other stars including Kelly Osbourne and Moby.
■VENEZUELA
Alleged killer identified
Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami on Monday said that authorities have identified the person they say is responsible for the weekend murder of opposition politician Jhonathan Rivas. Rivas, 31, of the opposition First Justice (PJ) party, was shot in the chest and killed on Saturday in the town of El Tigre, 320km southeast of Caracas. The alleged killer “has been fully identified,” said El Aissami, who suggested in remarks to reporters that the individual has not yet been detained, but that an arrest is pending.
■MEXICO
Migrant abductions growing
Criminal gangs, but also the authorities, kidnapped almost 10,000 undocumented migrants in six months in an alarming, growing trend, the national human rights commission said on Monday. Most of the 9,758 people abducted between September and February were from Central America, including almost 70 percent from Honduras, and the average ransom demand was US$2,500 per person, the report said. Most abductions were carried out by criminal groups, but Mexican authorities participated in the abductions of at least 91 migrants, the report said.
■UNITED STATES
Alleged fetus cutter indicted
A woman accused of cutting a fetus out of another woman after they met during a search for baby clothes on the Internet has been indicted on aggravated murder charges in Hillsboro, Oregon. Korena Roberts, 27, had been facing a lesser murder charge before a grand jury indicted her on Monday on four counts of the more serious charges. Hermann said the aggravated murder charges allege that Roberts attempted to kidnap the baby of 21-year-old Heather Snively and rob her, and tried to conceal the crimes. Snively was eight months pregnant when she was killed.
■UNITED STATES
Ambulance stopper no ‘ogre’
An Oklahoma state trooper who pulled over an ambulance with a patient inside and then scuffled with a paramedic had every right to make the stop since the vehicle did not have its emergency lights and sirens on, an attorney said on Monday. Gary James, an attorney for trooper Daniel Martin, also said at a news conference that the trooper is not the “ogre” he has been made out to be. Interest in the May 24 incident has soared since authorities released video over the weekend that was taken by the dashboard camera in Martin’s patrol car. The video shows paramedic Maurice White Jr repeatedly telling Martin he has a patient in the back and wants to go to the hospital. James said Martin had a legal right to pull over the ambulance for failing to yield the right of way when the patrol unit tried to pass it moments earlier.
■UNITED STATES
Moms sue over sex tests
Six New York City mothers are suing the maker of a baby sex test that touted its product as “infallibly accurate,” saying the test results they received were wrong. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the women claim they received incorrect results from the US$275 Baby Gender Mentor test by Acu-Gen Biolab Inc, of Lowell, Massachusetts. Lawyer Barry Gainey said the lawsuit charges the product’s makers and marketers with negligence and fraud, and seeks unspecified damages. The suit says the test maker advertised its product as the “gold standard for prenatal gender detection,” the New York Post reported.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
Czech intelligence chief Michal Koudelka has spent decades uncovering Russian spy networks, sabotage attempts and disinformation campaigns against Europe. Speaking in an interview from a high-security compound on the outskirts of Prague, he is now warning allies that pushing Kyiv to accept significant concessions to end the war in Ukraine would only embolden the Kremlin. “Russia would spend perhaps the next 10 to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is central and eastern Europe,” said Koudelka, a major general who heads the country’s Security Information Service. “If Ukraine loses, or is forced
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
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