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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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