■SOUTH KOREA
Workers rally against laws
Thousands of workers rallied yesterday for a second day, demanding the government scrap plans to enforce contentious laws they say are aimed at weakening labor unions. The government plans to implement labor laws next year allowing multiple unions for each workplace and banning companies from paying wages to full-time union representatives. The laws were passed in 1997 but have never been implemented because of opposition from labor unions. About 4,600 workers staged a rally criticizing the government’s plan in a plaza near the National Assembly yesterday, police said. Tens of thousands rallied on Saturday at the same site. About 14,000 police officers were mobilized to maintain order, and the rally was peaceful. Labor unions have said they would launch a large-scale strike if the government doesn’t cancel its plans to enforce the laws.
■AUSTRALIA
Shark mauls fisherman
A man spearfishing in South Australia was mauled in a shark attack yesterday, officials said as a report warned of several sightings of the deadly predators in the area. The 24-year-old was among a group in the water at Second Valley south of Adelaide when he was bitten, a spokeswoman for the South Australian Ambulance Service said. “This guy was bitten rather savagely on the foot and also on the arm,” a witness told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. A number of sharks have been sighted in the area in the past three weeks, including one measuring nearly 6m, it said. The shark responsible for the latest attack, which is not believed to be life-threatening, was 2m long, it said.
■INDONESIA
Protesters support watchdog
Hundreds gathered in the capital Jakarta yesterday to protest perceived moves to cripple the country’s once-powerful corruption watchdog. Musicians sang songs and supporters made speeches demanding President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono move to protect the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after the release of wiretap recordings of police and prosecutors exposed an alleged high-level official conspiracy against it. “The president must be more tough in protecting the KPK so it can do its job in fighting corruption,” rally spokesman Illian Deta Arta Sari said. The top detective and the country’s deputy chief prosecutor quit last Thursday after wiretap phone recordings implicated them in an alleged plot to falsely imprison two KPK investigators.
■INDIA
Judge warns against sex
A New Delhi judge told Indian women to beware of men who promise marriage after a prospective bride accused her lover of rape because he failed to propose, a newspaper said yesterday. The unnamed woman said she had effectively been raped because she only agreed to sleep with Arif Iqbal, 22, on the understanding that they would soon be man and wife, the Hindustan Times reported. However Justice Kailash Gambhir said the woman, 23, had to accept the consequences after Iqbal went back on his vow to wed her. “Mere promise of marriage should not have prompted [the woman] to establish a physical relationship with the accused,” Gambhir said. “It is the prime responsibility of the woman to protect her modesty. A woman should not throw herself to a man and indulge in promiscuity.” The judge’s statement was likely to anger women’s rights groups after other recent court verdicts backed the charge that a false promise of marriage did amount to rape.
■RUSSIA
Troops kill four militants
Security forces killed four suspected militants during security sweeps in Chechnya and Dagestan on Saturday, officials said. Police acting on a tip tracked the two suspects down in the eastern Chechen village of Belgatoi, regional Interior Ministry spokesman Magomed Deniyev said. The suspects refused to surrender and were killed in fighting, he said. Chechnya’s regional President Ramzan Kadyrov personally led the operation, he said. No details were released about the Dagestan deaths.
■KENYA
Officials could face ICC
Senior government officials suspected of committing crimes against humanity during last year’s election violence could be indicted in The Hague next year, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Saturday. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said two or three cases could be presented for trial by next July. The main suspects include powerful Cabinet ministers on both sides of the coalition government. A report by the state-funded Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights alleged that Kalenjin and Kikuyu Cabinet ministers and lawmakers incited, organized and funded militia groups — charges the politicians deny.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Suspect updates mugshot
A British man on the run from South Wales police sent a picture of himself to his local paper because he disliked the mugshot they had printed as part of a public appeal to track him down. Matthew Maynard is wanted in connection with a burglary. When the police photo appeared in the South Wales Evening Post, the 23-year-old sent the paper a replacement photo of himself standing in front of a police van. The paper printed it on the front page.
■CANADA
War crimes charges filed
Police have charged a Rwandan immigrant living in Windsor, Ontario, with war crimes related to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Jacques Mungwarere, 37, is alleged to have committed an act of genocide in the area of Kibuye. He made a brief court appearance on Saturday in Ottawa, where he was remanded to custody. He is only the second person to have been charged under a new law allowing Canadian residents to be tried for war crimes committed abroad.
■MEXICO
Opium paste cache seized
The army said on Saturday it seized 203kg of opium in Guadalupe y Calvo township in Chihuahua state. It was one of the largest such seizures in the country. The opium paste was found on Thursday hidden in nine plastic containers, along with seven rifles, three pistols and nearly 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
■GUYANA
US helps track suspect
The US is helping the government track down a suspected mastermind in a series of domestic terrorist attacks on government buildings in the South American country. “The request for information is with the Department of Justice and they’re are processing it,” US acting Charge d’Affaires Carol Horning said on Saturday. Police are still looking for at least two of eight men who during pre-dawn raid last Monday attempted to burn down two government buildings, including the High Court, and opened fire on two police stations, injuring two policemen. The government asked Washington for help in tracking telephone calls the suspects made to the US.
■UNITED STATES
Former fugitive ends chemo
A Minnesota teen who fled the state to avoid chemotherapy has finished his cancer treatment. Daniel Hauser of Sleepy Eye underwent his final radiation session on Friday, and his family says the 13-year-old is cancer-free. Daniel gained national attention when he stopped treatment after one session in February and fled, citing his religious beliefs. After he returned, he underwent court-ordered chemo to treat Hodgkin’s lymphoma, then started radiation therapy. A Brown County judge has asked for reports from Brown County Family Services and Daniel’s doctor. If everything looks good, the case will likely be closed.
■UNITED STATES
Files tossed with confetti
New York City office workers who got carried away during the Yankees victory parade on Friday apparently began tossing files and documents out the window when they couldn’t get their hands on confetti. Auditor Damian Salo attended the Manhattan parade honoring the baseball World Series championships. He told the New York Post he found all sorts of personal financial documents in the mountains of shredded paper tossed from skyscrapers as the team rode up Broadway. They included pay stubs, banking data, law firm memos and even some court files. The founder of one financial firm, Alan Sarroff, says his company reprimanded one “overzealous” employee for throwing records out the window that should have been shredded.
■SPAIN
Hikers found frozen
Two women hikers who got lost in the Pyrenees Mountains were found frozen to death after rescuers reached them, officials said yesterday. Authorities in the city of Gerona said three others in the group had survived and were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
TIGHTENING: Zhu Hengpeng, who worked for an influential think tank, has reportedly not been seen in public since making disparaging remarks on WeChat A leading Chinese economist at a government think tank has reportedly disappeared after being disciplined for criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a private chat group. Zhu Hengpeng (朱恆鵬), 55, is believed to have made disparaging remarks about China’s economy, and potentially about the Chinese leader specifically, in a private WeChat group. Zhu was subsequently detained in April and put under investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zhu worked for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for more than 20 years, most recently as the Institute of Economics deputy director and director of the Public Policy Research Center. He