File photo of senior doctors on strike in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: AP
SEOUL (AFP) – A South Korean doctor has been arrested for allegedly creating and distributing a “blacklist of colleagues who are not participating in an ongoing walkout over medical training reforms, media reports and a doctors’ organisation said yesterday.
The case marks the first arrest of a trainee doctor in more than six months of conflict between the government and junior medical practitioners over the prolonged work stoppage, which has resulted in the deaths of some emergency patients.
The medic was arrested on Friday for allegedly creating a list with the names and personal information of colleagues who had either returned to work or otherwise abandoned the walkout, then repeatedly distributing it with malicious intent through applications like Telegram, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The head of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), South Korea’s leading doctors’ body, met with the detained trainee at a police station in Seoul yesterday, saying afterwards that the government was to blame for the situation.
“I believe that everyone on the blacklist, as well as the arrested trainee doctor, is a victim,” KMA chief Lim Hyun-taek told reporters.
The trainee was being detained on stalking charges, as authorities determined he had harassed the victims by sharing their information – such as phone numbers and their alma maters – without their consent, according to Yonhap and other local reports.
File photo of senior doctors on strike in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: AP
A man walks past a television showing a news broadcast featuring a photo of United States soldier Travis King. PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A United States (US) soldier who crossed into North Korea last year pleaded guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement on Friday and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said.
Because of good behaviour and time served, the soldier was released, according to the lawyer.
Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North in July 2023 while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, and prior incidents.
But he pleaded guilty to just five – desertion, assault on a non-commissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying an officer – as part of a deal that was accepted on Friday by a military judge.
“The judge, under the terms of the plea deal, sentenced Travis to one year of confinement, reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonourable discharge,” a statement from King’s attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said.
“With time already served and credit for good behaviour, Travis is now free and will return home,” the statement said.
A man walks past a television showing a news broadcast featuring a photo of United States soldier Travis King. PHOTO: AFP
“Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments, and struggles with mental health,” Rosenblatt said.
“All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military.”
In a statement, the US Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel confirmed King’s guilty plea as part of a deal and said that “pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed”.
“The outcome of today’s court martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Private King,” prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement.
At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea, and after a fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings.
Instead of doing so, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ sightseeing trip and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North’s authorities.
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi during a session of the Lower Chamber in Rome, Italy. PHOTO: AP
ROME (AFP) – Italian NGO Mediterranea has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi for allegedly violating the Geneva Conventions on refugees, the charity told AFP on Friday.
Piantedosi, who has led far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to prevent migrant boat arrivals, made a post on X on Thursday which the rescue charity said proved he was breaking international law.
“A total of 16,220 migrants bound for European shores have been intercepted at sea and returned safely to Libya since January,” Piantedosi wrote. The figure “testifies to the effectiveness of Italy’s collaboration with migrants’ countries of origin and transit in combating human traffickers and deaths at sea”, he said.
But Mediterranea said returning people against their will to Libya was a crime, calling for “an independent investigation” by prosecutors at the ICC in the Hague.
“Libya is an ‘unsafe place’, as certified by the most authoritative international bodies and the United Nations,” Mediterranea said in a statement.
Therefore, “collaborating in activities of deportation of refugees and displaced persons to that country violates the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the Hamburg Convention on sea rescue,” it added.
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi during a session of the Lower Chamber in Rome, Italy. PHOTO: AP
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech in the garden of 10 Downing Street, London. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AFP) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will no longer accept gifts of clothing, his office said on Friday, responding to growing pressure from political opponents accusing him of hypocrisy.
While the gifts have been declared and do not breach parliamentary rules, the row broke as his government was pushing Britons to accept short-term financial “pain for long-term good”.
Most controversially, Labour is planning to cut winter fuel payments, leaving millions of pensioners worse off by some GBP300.
The measure has met with widespread opposition from within his own centre-left party.
Starmer had faced questions after an investigation by broadcaster Sky News and the Tortoise Media news website revealed he had received more than GBP100,000 in gifts and hospitality since December 2019.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech in the garden of 10 Downing Street, London. PHOTO: AP
They included invitations to football matches worth more than GBP40,000, tickets to concerts, lodging and clothing.
Labour donor Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur who also sits in the House of Lords, gifted him GBP16,200 worth of clothes for work use, as well as several pairs of spectacles.
Starmer has also confirmed that his wife Victoria, who recently attended a London Fashion Week show, accepted clothes worth GBP5,000 from Alli.
This did not appear on Starmer’s register of gifts.
After days of mounting criticism, Downing Street said on Friday evening that Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner and Finance Minister Rachel Reeves would no longer accept clothes gifted to them.
According to the Financial Times, both Rayner and Reeves had received such presents.
Lawmaker Kemi Badenoch, a contender for the leadership of the opposition Conservatives, had accused Starmer of “hypocrisy” over the issue.
The row blew up ahead of the Labour Party’s annual conference.
Rescuers sift through the rubble at the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs. PHOTO: AFP
BEIRUT (AP) – The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb has risen to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said yesterday.
Abiad told reporters 68 people were also wounded of whom 15 remain in hospital, adding that search and rescue operations were still ongoing, with the number of casualties likely to rise.
The rare strike – the deadliest targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war – hit a densely populated southern neighbourhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home.
Israel said it killed 11 Hezbollah operatives, including Ibrahim Akil who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Force.
The group members were in a meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed.
Rescuers sift through the rubble at the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs. PHOTO: AFP
Hezbollah announced overnight on Friday that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces, but did not elaborate on the location of these deaths.
Lebanese troops cordoned off the area preventing people from reaching the building that was knocked down as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered body from under the rubble.
Yesterday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.
Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie told reporters at the scene that 23 people are still missing.
The airstrike on the crowded Qaim street knocked out an eight-storey building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it.
The missiles destroyed the first building and cut through the basement of the second where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.
File photo shows Hoang Thi Minh Hong at a 2017 protest in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. PHOTO: AFP/JIJI
BANGKOK (AFP) – Prominent climate activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong has been released early from jail, her husband told AFP yesterday, hours ahead of a visit by Vietnam’s top leader to the United States (US).
A second high-profile detainee, dissident Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, was also released, his friend and former human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh said.
The release of Hong and Thuc comes as General Secretary To Lam, Vietnam’s top leader, departed yesterday for the US for a working visit and to attend the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Last September Hong was sentenced to three years in prison for dodging USD275,000 in taxes related to her environmental campaign group CHANGE. She was one of five environmentalists jailed for tax evasion, in what activists have called a campaign to silence them.
“She has been fully pardoned,” her husband Hoang Vinh Nam told AFP.
“It was very sudden.”
Nam said they had speculated whether there could be some positive news about Hong ahead of Lam’s US visit, but they had no clear information until yesterday about her release from jail in Gia Lai, a mountainous province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
File photo shows Hoang Thi Minh Hong at a 2017 protest in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. PHOTO: AFP/JIJI
VIENNA (AFP) – Style is ageless, say a group of retirees who have just debuted their self-made collection at the Vienna Fashion Week.
“It’s time to really ditch (the idea) that grannies and grandpas sit around doing nothing,” 63-year-old Brigitte Hrdlicka told AFP.
Hunched over her Singer sewing machine to make some last-minute adjustments, the retired hospital administrator said she was excited about seeing pieces that she had carefully crafted from second-hand materials showcased.
More than a year ago, she joined a sewing club for the city’s pensioners run by Irina Reichel, who was determined to break into the notoriously closed world of fashion this year.
“Having these 10 ladies take to the catwalk means taking a stand against age discrimination, but in favour of social inclusion,” said Reichel, pointing to her “sparkling” proteges donning an elegant evening gown and even a wedding dress.
The fashion show was a big success, with the audience cheering on the senior models’ catwalk show, which could hold a candle to the other fashion brands present.
Fashion Week Manager Zigi Mueller-Matyas, who advocates fashion that includes everyone, said that many young models at this week’s show were intrigued by the initiative, asking to sneak a peek at what their seniors were doing.
“I believe that the fashion industry is coming on board and getting involved,” she added.
In the audience, Verena Heger said she saw herself in these models strutting down the catwalk, saying they were just “as beautiful” as the others because they were “radiating from within”. “Modernity is ageless,” said Heger.
PHOTO: AFPABOVE & BELOW: Models walk across the catwalk during the Vienna Fashion week at the Museum Quartier in Vienna, Austria. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPA model walks across the catwalk during the Vienna Fashion week. PHOTO: AFPMembers of a group of retired people cheer after presenting their own line of upcycled clothes. PHOTO: AFP
Arsenal's Gabriel and teammate William Saliba. PHOTO: AP
MANCHESTER (AFP) – Arsenal’s Premier League title ambitions face the ultimate test today when a relentless Erling Haaland aims to fire Manchester City five points clear of the Gunners at the top of the table.
Mikel Arteta’s men managed to stop City scoring twice last season, but still could not deny the English champions a record fourth consecutive Premier League title.
For the past two seasons Arsenal have finished second to Pep Guardiola’s winning machine.
Many believe this is their season to end a 21-year wait to win the title since Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles” romped to glory without losing a game.
City remain their biggest obstacle, although the path could be cleared should the holders be hit by a points deduction for 115 alleged breaches of Premier League rules by the end of the campaign.
Haaland has struck a record nine times in the first four matches of the new Premier League campaign.
Arsenal’s Gabriel and teammate William Saliba. PHOTO: AP
The Norwegian’s stunning form has ensured City are the only side in the English top-flight yet to drop points.
But Arsenal are on their tails again – just two points behind – after proving their title credentials in battling away wins at Aston Villa and Tottenham. Arsenal’s challenge is built on rock solid defensive foundations.
Centre-back pairing William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are earning comparisons to legendary partnerships of the past, while goalkeeper David Raya has an extraordinary showreel of saves from the past month alone.
In five matches in all competitions, Arsenal have conceded just once – a goal that arrived when down to 10 men against Brighton.
“We all want to achieve something. Winning this Premier League is not easy, but when you finish twice second, you want to win,” said Saliba.
“We will give everything, even more than last season, because we don’t want to finish second, third or fourth. We want to win this league and we’ll give everything.”
When Arsenal shut out City in a 0-0 draw on the final day of March, there were muted celebrations from the visitors as they left the Etihad still on top of the table.
But City did not drop another point in the final nine games of the season to snatch the title by two points.
“In Premier League history (City) has been the most consistent ever, not only in terms of results but in terms of dominance and consistent top performances,” said Arteta on Friday.
“This is the challenge, we have to go there and prove that again we’ve made another step and we can compete.”
If Arsenal are to emerge victorious on a ground where they have not won since 2015, their centre-back combination will be to the fore.
Haaland did not even manage a single shot on target in the two league meetings when up against Saliba and Gabriel last season.
“I’m good, he’s good. We both speak French and we play now in our third season together,” added Saliba on how the pair have formed such a potent partnership.
“We know each other so well and it’s a pleasure to play every game with him. We grow together because he’s young as well, so it’s really good to have him by my side.”
In 65 Premier League games with that duo together at the back, Arsenal have kept 30 clean sheets and conceded just 51 goals.
“William Saliba and Gabriel are on the threshold of joining elite company,” wrote former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher in The Telegraph.
“Provided they stay together, we will eventually reference Saliba and Gabriel in the same breath as the two stand-out partnerships of my generation; Chelsea’s John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho, and Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.”
Yet, to gain that level of recognition, Arsenal need to add silverware to their impressive stats.
For all of the impressive progress over the past three seasons, they do not have a single trophy to show for it.
Ending City’s near two-year unbeaten run on home soil would strike a telling early blow that this time the title race could end differently.
Players warm up in front of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand prior to a match at Old Trafford, Manchester, England. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AFP) – Manchester United have appointed globally renowned architects Foster and Partners to develop a masterplan for the area around Old Trafford as part of an ambitious regeneration project.
The Premier League club are looking at two options – either redeveloping the nation’s largest club stadium or building a new one on adjacent club-owned land.
United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe favours a new ground and the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force is understood to have centred its discussions on building a new 100,000-capacity stadium rather than redeveloping the existing ground.
The club have now appointed London-based Foster and Partners to develop a “masterplan”.
The architectural practice is already overseeing a GBP50 million modernisation of United’s Carrington Training Complex. Norman Foster, a star name in global architecture, has designed some of the world’s most iconic buildings, including the HSBC Building in Hong Kong, London’s “Gherkin” skyscraper and the reconstructed Reichstag in Berlin.
Firm founder and executive chairman Foster said, “As a proud Mancunian, I am passionate about the chance to rebuild on Manchester’s great industrial heritage, creating a vibrant new mixed-use community, served by highly sustainable and improved transport links, providing homes and jobs for the local community, all catalysed by a world-class stadium for the world’s most famous football team – Manchester United.”
A new stadium is expected to cost about GBP2 billion, with the task force expected to deliver its final recommendations by the end of the year.
Fans are being asked for their views on the redevelopment, with former United captain Gary Neville, part of the task force, urging supporters to take part.
Players warm up in front of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand prior to a match at Old Trafford, Manchester, England. PHOTO: AP
Tottenham Hotspurs head coach Ange Postecoglou. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AFP) – Ange Postecoglou believes it will take time to leave a successful mark on Tottenham but is confident he can turn around a difficult start to the season.
Spurs have won only one of their opening four Premier League games and were minutes away from a shock League Cup exit to Coventry in midweek before two late goals secured a 2-1 victory.
The former Australia manager’s insistence he can win silverware in his second season, as he has done previously at multiple clubs, has been questioned.
But Postecoglou said his success at Celtic, Yokohama Marinos and in his homeland often came after tough periods.
“You need to embrace the struggle. You don’t get success just by everything rolling out perfectly. There’s times when you’ve just got to roll your sleeves up and keep going,” Postecoglou said on Friday.
“What’s the best process for me is to stay steely-eyed focused on what I think I need to do to get us to where we want to.
“I don’t think I’m in a unique space. I keep saying to people, show me a success story and I’ll show you a struggle. People forget the struggle and look at the end bit.
“You need to go through that. That’s the time that tests your resolve, tests your belief, tests everything you want to do.”
Tottenham Hotspurs head coach Ange Postecoglou. PHOTO: AP
