SOUTH KOREA
Doctors facing suspension
Seoul yesterday said it would take steps to suspend the licenses of striking trainee doctors who have defied orders to return to work in a standoff over medical training reforms. About 9,000 junior doctors walked out nearly two weeks ago to protest against an increase in medical school admissions from next year. The strikers defied a government deadline on Thursday last week for them to return to work or face legal action, including possible arrest or suspension of their licenses. Despite repeated government appeals, the number returning to work “has been minimal,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told a news conference. “Starting today the government is enforcing legal measures,” he said, adding that inspections at hospitals nationwide were to be conducted yesterday to find out who had returned or not.
South KOREA
N Korea targets chip firms
North Korean hacking groups have broken into at least two makers of chipmaking equipment, as Pyongyang looks to evade sanctions and produce its own chips for weapons programs, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said yesterday. The NIS said local firms had been a key target of North Korean hackers since late last year, and called for tougher security. North Korea penetrated the servers of two companies in December and last month, stealing product design drawings and photographs of their facilities, it said. “We believe that North Korea might possibly be preparing to produce its own semiconductors in the face of difficulties in procuring them due to sanctions,” it said in a statement. Also driving the North’s efforts could be higher demand from its satellite, missile and other weapons programs, it added.
INDIA
Police hunt tourist’s rapists
Three Indian men have appeared in court after the gang rape of a Spanish tourist on a motorbike trip with her husband, with police hunting four other suspects, reports said yesterday. The attack took place on Friday night in Jharkhand state’s Dumka district, where the couple were camping. Seven men are accused of carrying out the assault. “We have formed a team to hunt the remaining suspects,” senior local police officer Pitamber Singh Kherwar said. On Sunday, three accused were seen being escorted into court with sacks on their heads by police officers holding ropes tied around their waists. The three were later remanded in custody. The Spanish woman and her husband were also in court. Kherwar said a special team including forensic officers had been formed to scour the scene of the attack, while another team was hunting more suspects.
INDIA
Drivers busy with cricket
The drivers of a train that missed a signal and plowed into another train, killing 14 people, were distracted because they were watching cricket on a phone, Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said yesterday. The fatal collision in Andhra Pradesh state in October took place as hosts India played England during the one-day international Cricket World Cup. “The recent case in Andhra Pradesh happened because both the loco-pilot and co-pilot were distracted by the cricket match,” Vaishnaw said in a Press Trust of India report. “Now we are installing systems which can detect any such distraction.” Separately, officials sacked the station master and three other employees after a runaway freight train traveled 70km without a driver last month, the Hindustan Times reported.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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