SOUTH KOREA
Senior doctors to quit
A group of senior doctors yesterday said that they would resign starting March 25 in support of junior medics in a nearly month-long strike over government training reforms that has plunged hospitals into chaos. Representatives of medical professors at 20 universities — who are also senior doctors at general hospitals — held a meeting late on Friday, with those at 16 institutions “overwhelmingly in favor” of supporting their junior colleagues, said Bang Jae-seung, head of the group. Professors at “each university have decided to voluntarily submit resignation letters starting from March 25th,” Bang told reporters yesterday. However, “we have reached a consensus that until the resignation is finalized, each individual should do their best in the treatment of patients in their respective positions, just as they have done so far,” he added. Bang did not disclose the exact number of professors expected to walk off the job on March 25.
FIJI
China police deal to stay
The country would maintain a policing cooperation deal with China after a review of the agreement, the Guardian Australia news site reported on Friday. “We are now back on the original police agreement [with China] — that has been restored. We had reviewed it for 12 months,” Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration Pio Tikoduadua was quoted as saying. Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka put on hold the decade-old police cooperation deal between Fiji and China shortly after forming a government in December 2022, citing differences in policing, investigations and legal systems. Guardian Australia reported that Tikoduadua said “there will only be Fijian officers training in China and no embedding of Chinese officers in the Fiji police force.”
THAILAND
Cannabis faces partial ban
Thodsapol Hongtong is enjoying a smoke with his friends at the “Green Party,” a venue where recreational cannabis enthusiasts meet in Bangkok to chat and have a good time, but it is a pastime that might be coming to an end. The booming cannabis sector is estimated to be worth US$1.2 billion by next year, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce has said. However, the government is looking to stamp out cannabis culture with a ban on its recreational use to be rolled out by the end of the year. Medical use would still be permitted. Minister of Public Health Cholnan Srikaew last month described recreational marijuana as a “misuse” of cannabis that has a negative impact on Thai children and could lead to other drug abuses. The draft law banning recreational use of cannabis is be up for cabinet approval later this month.
UNITED STATES
Judge delays Trump trial
The New York judge presiding over former president Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs on Friday ordered a delay in proceedings that had been scheduled to start on March 25. “Trial on this matter is adjourned for 30 days from the date of this letter on consent of the People,” Judge Juan Merchan said in a court filing that would push the trial to at least the middle of next month. The exact date would be determined at a hearing on March 25 that would also address complaints by the defense team about the disclosure of evidence ahead of trial, the letter said. Prosecutors preparing to try Trump on Thursday said they would accept a delay of up to 30 days after both sides received a deluge of case documents.
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
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