View of a street thermometer marking 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in Sao Paulo city, Brazil on November 13, 2023. Much of Brazil is plunged into a heat wave in the middle of spring, with the highest temperatures of the year in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, officials said. (Photo by Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP)
PARIS (AFP) – Nearly five times more people will likely die due to extreme heat in the coming decades, an international team of experts warned on Wednesday, adding that without action on climate change the “health of humanity is at grave risk”.
Lethal heat was just one of the many ways the world’s still-increasing use of fossil fuels threatens human health, according to The Lancet Countdown, a major annual assessment carried out by leading researchers and institutions.
More common droughts will put millions at risk of starving, mosquitoes spreading farther than ever before will take infectious diseases with them, and health systems will struggle to cope with the burden, the researchers warned.
The dire assessment comes during what is expected to be the hottest year in human history — just last week, Europe’s climate monitor declared that last month was the warmest October on record.
It also comes ahead of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai later this month, which will for the first time host a “health day” on December 3 as experts try to shine a light on global warming’s impact on health.
Despite growing calls for global action, energy-related carbon emissions hit new highs last year, the Lancet Countdown report said, singling out still massive government subsidies and private bank investments into planet-heating fossil fuels.
‘Crisis on top of a crisis’
Last year people worldwide were exposed to an average of 86 days of life-threatening temperatures, according to the Lancet Countdown study. Around 60 per cent of those days were made more than twice as likely due to climate change, it said.
The number of people over 65 who died from heat rose by 85 percent from 1991-2000 to 2013-2022, it added.
“However these impacts that we are seeing today could be just an early symptom of a very dangerous future,” Lancet Countdown’s executive director Marina Romanello told journalists.
View of a street thermometer marking 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in Sao Paulo city, Brazil on November 13, 2023. PHOTO: AFP
Under a scenario in which the world warms by two degrees Celsius by the end of the century — it is currently on track for 2.7C — annual heat-related deaths were projected to increase 370 per cent by 2050. That marks a 4.7-fold increase.
Around 520 million more people will experience moderate or severe food insecurity by mid-century, according to the projections.
And mosquito-borne infectious diseases will continue to spread into new areas. The transmission of dengue would increase by 36 percent under a 2C warming scenario, according to the study.
Meanwhile, more than a quarter of cities surveyed by the researchers said they were worried that climate change would overwhelm their capacity to cope.
“We’re facing a crisis on top of a crisis,” said Lancet Countdown’s Georgiana Gordon-Strachan, whose homeland Jamaica is currently in the middle of a dengue outbreak.
‘Staring down the barrel’
“People living in poorer countries, who are often least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, are bearing the brunt of the health impacts, but are least able to access funding and technical capacity to adapt to the deadly storms, rising seas, and crop-withering droughts worsened by global heating,” she said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to the report by saying that “humanity is staring down the barrel of an intolerable future”.
“We are already seeing a human catastrophe unfolding with the health and livelihoods of billions across the world endangered by record-breaking heat, crop-failing droughts, rising levels of hunger, growing infectious disease outbreaks, and deadly storms and floods,” he said in a statement.
Dann Mitchell, climate hazards chair at the UK’s Bristol University, lamented that “already catastrophic” health warnings about climate change had “not managed to convince the world’s governments to cut carbon emissions enough to avoid the first Paris Agreement goal of 1.5C”.
The UN warned on Tuesday that countries’ current pledges will cut global carbon emissions by just two percent by 2030 from 2019 levels — far short of the 43 percent drop needed to limit warming to 1.5C.
Romanello warned that if more progress is not made on emissions, then “the growing emphasis on health within climate change negotiations risks being just empty words”.
Patients receive treatment at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023, amid ongoing genocide by the apartheid regime. PHOTO: AFP
Patients receive treatment at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023, amid ongoing genocide by the apartheid regime. PHOTO: AFP
GAZA STRIP (AFP) – Israeli forces entered Gaza’s largest hospital Wednesday, targeting a Hamas command centre they say is located below thousands of ailing and sheltering civilians.
The apartheid regime and Palestinian officials said military operations were taking place at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, which has been the focal point of days of fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.
The Israel Occupation Forces said its troops were carrying out “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the facility.
Youssef Abul Reesh, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry who is inside the hospital, told AFP he could see tanks inside the complex and “dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings.”
After sharp warnings from the United States that Al-Shifa hospital “must be protected”, Israel said the raid was being executed based on intelligence and “an operational necessity”.
Thousands of patients, staff and displaced civilians are believed to be inside the hospital complex, according to local officials.
Witnesses have described conditions as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.
“There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues,” said hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya.
The apartheid regime has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses the hospital as cover for a command post and weapons stores, a claim Hamas denies.
That use “jeopardises” the hospital’s “protected status under international law”, the military said, a claim that many international human rights lawyers refute.
The Palestinian militant group accused US President Joe Biden of being “wholly responsible” for the Israeli assault on Al-Shifa.
The Palestinian Authority, historically the representative body for the Palestinians but which has no authority in Gaza, warned “against a massacre being carried out inside the hospital.”
Anticipating a fierce backlash against the hospital raid, the Israel Occupation Forces said it had given authorities in Hamas-run Gaza 12 hours’ notice that any military operation inside must cease.
“Unfortunately, it did not,” the apartheid regime’s military said, again calling on “all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender”.
The apartheid state’s army ground teams were said to include medics and Arabic speakers “who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment”.
The “intent” was that “no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields”, the apartheid regime military added.
Abul Reesh, from Gaza’s health ministry, called on “the international community and the United Nations to intervene immediately and urgently to stop the Israeli storming operation.”
He urged both to protect what he said were “20,000 people inside the hospital including medical staff and 650 ailing people and thousands of injured people.”
The White House on Tuesday said that US intelligence sources had corroborated the apartheid state’s claim that Hamas has buried an operational centre under the hospital.
Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, “operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City”, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“They have stored weapons there and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”
The situation in Gaza’s other hospitals is also dire, with the UN saying 22 of 36 are not functional due to lack of generator fuel, damage and combat.
“The 14 hospitals remaining open have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and life-saving surgeries and provide inpatient care, including intensive care,” said the World Health Organisation.
The health ministry in Gaza says the apartheid regime’s offensive has killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.
The humanitarian crisis in the territory also includes the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled southwards at the apartheid state’s urging to get away from the most intense fighting.
Even escaping the fighting is dangerous. Wounded Palestinians told AFP how they were hit by a strike on their way south.
“I walked around three to four kilometres (around two miles) while I was bleeding,” said Hasan Baker, whose head and left hand were bandaged. “There was no possibility for any ambulance to enter the area.”
The apartheid regime’s leaders have so far insisted there will be no ceasefire in the five-week-old war until hostages are released.
Qatar is mediating talks on a possible deal to free captives.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, said Monday that Israel asked for the release of 100 hostages while the militants want 200 Palestinian children and 75 women freed from the apartheid regime’s prisons.
“We informed the mediators we could release the hostages if we obtained five days of truce… and passage of aid to all of our people throughout the Gaza Strip, but the enemy is procrastinating,” Abu Obeida said in an audio statement.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari told a news conference in Doha that the “deteriorating” situation in Gaza was hampering efforts to find a deal.
“We believe that there is no other chance for both sides other than for this mediation to take place,” he said.
With pressure building on the apartheid regime’s government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “working relentlessly” to get the hostages out.
Relatives of the hostages set out Tuesday on a five-day protest march from Tel Aviv to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem to call for the captives’ release, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
The families group later demanded the government “approve a deal tonight to bring home all hostages from Gaza”.
The Israeli army said it had captured Gaza’s parliament, the government building, the police headquarters and other government institutions run by Hamas in Gaza City, as its forces deepened their offensive in the Palestinian territory.
The war in Gaza has also spurred violence on other fronts.
In the occupied West Bank, eight Palestinians were killed in clashes with the apartheid regime’s troops, seven during an army raid on the northern city of Tulkarem and one near the southern city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday.
At least 180 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed across the West Bank since October 7, according to officials on both sides.
This picture taken on November 14, 2023 shows Japan's highest mountain, Mt Fuji in the background between skyscrapers in Tokyo's Shinjuku area during sunset. PHOTO: AFP
This picture taken on November 14, 2023 shows Japan’s highest mountain, Mt Fuji in the background between skyscrapers in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area during sunset. PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s economy has gone into reverse, government data showed Wednesday, in a further blow to struggling Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The world’s number three economy shrank by 0.5 per cent between June and September compared to the second quarter, the preliminary data showed, worse than the consensus forecast of minus 0.1 per cent.
The drop, which followed two straight quarters of growth, was on the back of continued low consumer spending and weakness in the global economy hitting Japan’s exports.
Exports grew 0.5 per cent, down from 3.9 per cent in the previous quarter, while imports rose 1.0 per cent, further hitting overall growth.
Private demand, including private residential and corporate investment, fell 0.6 per cent.
The economy shrank 2.1 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, missing market expectations of minus 0.4 per cent, Bloomberg News reported.
Economists at Dutch bank ING however called the contraction “a fleeting aberration in an otherwise positive growth environment led by the service sector.”
Kishida’s poll ratings have hit their lowest levels since he took office two years ago, as consumers reel from rising prices.
The prime minister announced this month a stimulus package worth JPY17 trillion (USD113.2 billion) aimed at boosting the economy and easing the pain of inflation.
The government has already injected hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy over the past three years in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest plan involves income and residential tax reductions of JPY40,000 per person, and JPY70,000 cash handouts to low-income households.
Japan was for decades beset by deflation but, like other economies around the world, prices have risen since the Ukraine war began in February 2022.
A weaker yen, while welcome news to Japanese exporters, has made imports pricier and stoked inflation for households.
Unlike other major central banks, the Bank of Japan has kept interest rates below zero and bond yields ultra-low in a bid to boost economic growth.
That has come even as inflation persists, while the Bank of Japan’s stance has added to pressure on the yen, one of the worst-performing major currencies in 2023.
Germany – whose economy is also faltering – is set to leapfrog Japan as the world’s third-largest economy this year, partly because of the yen’s slide, according to projections from the International Monetary Fund.
Kishida, 66, can govern until 2025 but there has been speculation that he might call a snap election ahead of a likely tough internal leadership vote in his ruling Democratic Party (LDP) next year.
In September, Kishida reshuffled his cabinet and this week his deputy finance minister Kenji Kanda quit over a tax scandal, in the third recent resignation. Some LDP members have openly criticised the premier.
This undated photo provided by the North Korean government shows the testing of new solid-fuel engines designed for intermediate-range ballistic missiles in North Korea. Korean Central News Agency said the country’s military scientists tested the first-stage and second-stage missile engines on Saturday, Nov 11 and Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023. PHOTO: AP
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it successfully tested new solid-fuel engines designed for intermediate-range ballistic missiles as it continues to work on developing nuclear-capable weapons targeting its rivals in the region.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the country’s military scientists tested the first-stage and second-stage missile engines on Saturday and Tuesday. The report did not say when the new missile system was expected to be completed.
The North’s existing intermediate-range missiles, including the Hwasong-12 that may be able to reach the US Pacific territory of Guam, are powered by liquid-fuel engines, which need to be fuelled before launch and cannot stay fuelled for long periods of time.
Missiles with built-in solid propellants can be made ready to launch faster and are easier to move and conceal, which theoretically makes it harder for adversaries to detect and pre-empt the launch in advance.
The recent tests were an “essential process for further enhancing the strategic offensive capabilities of (North Korea’s) armed forces in the light of the grave and unstable security environment facing the country and the future military situation in the region, in which the enemies will get more vicious in their military collusion and nexus,” KCNA said.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ramped up his weapons demonstrations, including events he described as simulated nuclear attacks on the South. He also authorised his military to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes against enemies if it perceives Pyongyang’s top leadership to be under threat.
South Korea has responded by expanding its combined military exercises with the United States, which Kim has condemned as invasion rehearsals, and enhancing trilateral security cooperation with Japan. Seoul is also seeking stronger public assurances from Washington that it would swiftly and decisively use US nuclear weapons to protect the South in case of a North Korean nuclear attack.
During their annual security talks this week, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik signed an updated bilateral security agreement with the aim of more effectively countering North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.
Shin said the new document spells out that the United States would mobilise its full range of military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend the South in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack. He also said the document will be a template for the allies to strategize how South Korea could assist US nuclear operations in such events with its conventional capabilities but didn’t elaborate further.
North Korea earlier this year revealed its first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18, which has the potential ability to reach deep into the US mainland.
Analysts say the North has to clear further technological hurdles to have a viable nuclear arsenal that could threaten the United States.
All of North Korea’s ICBM tests so far were done at high angles to avoid the territory of neighbours, so it’s not yet clear whether the country has mastered the technology to ensure its warheads would survive atmospheric re-entry well enough to precisely hit their targets.
North Korea’s claims that the engine tests were successful suggest the country will flight-test the new missile in coming weeks, said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. The missile could pose a potential threat to Guam, a major US military hub, and to American military bases in Japan, which may add to Japan’s urgency to upgrade its military and further expand three-way security cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, Cheong said.
The latest steps in North Korea’s weapons development follow concerns about a potential arms alignment with Russia, in which North Korea provides munitions for Russia’s war in Ukraine in exchange for Russian technology transfers that would upgrade Kim’s military nuclear program.
South Korean intelligence and military officials have said North Korea may have shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia beginning in August, weeks before Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied US and South Korean claims about the alleged arms transfers.
Separately, KCNA reported that Russia’s natural resources minister, Alexander Kozlov, is visiting North Korea in a sign of the countries’ expanding diplomacy. The report said the two sides were engaged in talks over trade, science and technology exchanges, but it did not elaborate further.
The Associated Press had reported he arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday.
This undated photo provided by the North Korean government shows the testing of new solid-fuel engines designed for intermediate-range ballistic missiles in North Korea. Korean Central News Agency said the country’s military scientists tested the first-stage and second-stage missile engines on Saturday, Nov 11 and Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023. PHOTO: AP
SK hynix Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo (SK hynix). PHOTO: ANN/THE KOREA HERALD
ANN/THE KOREA HERALD – In a groundbreaking development, SK Hynix proudly unveiled its commencement of delivering cutting-edge 16-gigabyte packages of Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo (LPDDR5T), representing the pinnacle of mobile DRAM speed.
The announcement, made on Monday, revealed that the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker has initiated shipments of this state-of-the-art product to none other than the renowned Chinese smartphone giant, Vivo.
The dynamic memory chips are set to power Vivo’s latest smartphone models, the X100 and X100 Pro, promising an unparalleled level of performance in the realm of mobile technology.
LPDDR is a low-power DRAM for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, which aims to minimise power consumption and features low-voltage operation.
“LPDDR5T is the optimal memory to maximise the performance of smartphones, with the highest speed ever achieved,” SK hynix said.
The mobile devices will also be packed with MediaTek’s newest flagship mobile AP Dimensity 9300, for which SK hynix has completed performance verification.
The new LPDDR5T can transfer 9.6 gigabits per second, and can process 77GB of data per second, which is equivalent to transferring 15 full high-definition movies in one second, SK hynix explained.
The tech giant also emphasised that it would continue to expand the application range of the product to lead the generational shift in the mobile DRAM sector.
“Smartphones are becoming essential devices for implementing on-device AI technology as the AI era kicks into full swing,” said Park Myoung-soo, vice president and head of DRAM marketing at SK hynix. “There is a growing demand for high-performing, high-capacity mobile DRAM in the market.”
“We will continue to lead the premium DRAM market based on our technological leadership in AI memory while staying in tune with market demands,” Park added.
On-device artificial intelligence technology implements AI capabilities on the device itself, instead of going through computations in a physically separated server. This allows the devices to collect and compute information on their own.
“The DRAM capacity will become more important for on-device AI, as it will decide the smartphone’s ability and the speed of which it remembers the user’s orders and processes them,” an SK hynix official explained under condition of anonymity.
The LPDDR5T 16GB package operates in the ultralow voltage range of 1.01 to 1.12 volts set by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council. The latest specifications are for the seventh generation, succeeding the series that end with 1, 2, 3, 4, 4X, 5 and 5X, SK hynix said.
In January, SK hynix announced its development of LPDDR5T, which is an upgraded product of the seventh generation, prior to the development of the eighth-generation LPDDR6. The company began mass-producing the new product in the second half of this year.
The latest chip is expected to give a boost to the tech giant’s earnings, targeting the mass volume market of smartphones.
In the July-September period, SK hynix logged operating losses of KRW1.79 trillion (USD1.35 billion) on a consolidated basis, compared with a profit of KRW1.67 trillion a year prior.
Sales also decreased 17.5 per cent on-year to KRW9.06 trillion over the cited period.
The company, however, marked a turnaround in its DRAM business after posting two quarters of losses, thanks to strong sales of its flagship chip products including the high-capacity DDR5 and HBM3.
SK hynix Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo (SK hynix). PHOTO: ANN/THE KOREA HERALD
With American and Chinese flags flying, people watch as the motorcade carrying President Joe Biden drives past Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023, in San Francisco. PHOTO: AP
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping will meet at a historic country house and museum with lavish gardens for one-on-one talks aimed at improving relations between the two superpowers.
The two leaders will meet Wednesday at Filoli, a secluded estate along Northern California’s coastal range. It was built in 1917 as a private residence and later became a National Trust for Historic Preservation site. The estate is about 40 kilometres south of San Francisco, where leaders are gathering for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ conference this week.
The location for the meeting was disclosed by three senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter with security implications.
Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, said the location likely has met Xi’s expectations for a private meeting with Biden away from the main summit venue.
“It appears to be a quiet, secluded estate, where Biden and Xi can have an intimate conversation in a relaxed environment,” Glaser said. “Importantly, the venue is not connected to the APEC summit, so it provides the appearance that the two leaders are having a bilateral summit that is distinct from the multilateral APEC summit.”
With American and Chinese flags flying, people watch as the motorcade carrying President Joe Biden drives past Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023, in San Francisco. PHOTO: AP
Observers of China’s elite politics have said Xi wants to project himself to his domestic audience as equal with Biden and as commanding the respect of a US president.
The estate has more than 650 acres (2.6 square kilometres), including a Georgian revival-style mansion and a formal, English Renaissance-style garden. The mansion and grounds are open daily, but the site is currently closed for three days for holiday decorating, its website says.
“A place like this allows them to get away, not just from the media, but from a lot of the other things that encourage conflict,” said Jeremi Suri, a professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas at Austin. “If they like each other, they are likely to start trusting each other and to communicate better.”
Suri says this is what happened with US President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union before it was dissolved. The two met at a secluded chateau in Reykjavik in 1986, sat by a fireplace and walked outdoors wearing heavy coats, forging a relationship, Suri said.
“We need leaders who can break through the fear,” he said.
San Francisco socialite William Bowers Bourn II named Filoli by taking the first two letters of key words of his personal credo, according to the estate’s website: “Fight for a just cause. Love your Fellow Man. Live a Good Life.”
The venue is available for private events, weddings and commercial filming and photography. The gardens feature in Jennifer Lopez’s film “The Wedding Planner.”
ANN/THE KOREA HERALD – In a momentous occasion, Lisa from Blackpink delighted fans by sharing a video that captured her receiving a prestigious plaque from Spotify, commemorating her groundbreaking achievement of reaching one billion streams on the platform.
Opening the box with anticipation, the global K-pop sensation unveiled the plaque and graciously read aloud the heartfelt message from Spotify, acknowledging her as the first female K-pop artist to achieve such a remarkable feat in the platform’s history.
She achieved the feat on her own with her solo song “Money,” which entered the streaming platform’s official Billions Club playlist. “Money” is a B-side track from her first solo single “Lalisa,” which came out in September 2021.
Spotify hailed her onto the list tweeting in September: “Welcome Lisa to the Club!”
Photos show Rohingya refugees after arriving by boat at Kalee beach in Aceh province, Indonesia. PHOTO: AFP
BANDAR ACEH (AFP) – Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, including many women and children, landed in Indonesia’s western most province, a local official said, the largest contingent of the persecuted Myanmar minority to arrive in months.
Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
The group of 196 landed in a remote part of Aceh Province’s Pidie region, local navy commander Andi Susanto said in a statement.
Some of the new arrivals immediately fled inland, according to a spokesperson for the fishing community Marfian, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“Ten… immediately fled to the nearby hills. It seems that they were the middlemen that intentionally brought the refugees to the area,” he said.
Photos show Rohingya refugees after arriving by boat at Kalee beach in Aceh province, Indonesia. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFP
The government gave a lower number of seven who fled.
The refugees were being assisted by local authorities and residents.
“Local people have provided food and drink for them as it is their habit of helping stranded Rohingyas,” Marfian said.
Images shared showed tired-looking refugees, including women holding babies in their arms, waiting on the beachside for help.
More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Nearly 200 Rohingya died or went missing last year while attempting hazardous sea crossings, the agency has estimated.
In March, 184 Rohingya refugees arrived in the eastern Aceh town of Peureulak after they were dropped at sea by boat and made to swim ashore.
Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, father of Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, talks to reporters at Koh Samui provincial court in southern Thailand. PHOTO: AP
BANGKOK (AP) – The son of a Spanish film star has pleaded not guilty in Thailand to most charges related to the death of a Colombian surgeon whose dismembered body was found on a popular tourist island, officials said.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, was indicted by prosecutors last month over the death of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, whose remains were found stuffed in plastic bags at a landfill on Ko Pha Ngan, an island famous for its rave-style full moon parties. The indictment laid out the charges of premeditated murder, concealment of the body and destruction of other people’s documents.
The Ko Samui Provincial Court and the local prosecutor said Sancho pleaded not guilty to two of the charges.
The Spanish news agency EFE reported that sources close to his family said he pleaded not guilty to the murder and destruction of documents charges but pleaded guilty to the charge of hiding the victim’s body. The charge of premeditated murder carries a possible death penalty.
The court said it would hold a session later this month to examine the evidence.
The court also said Sancho requested a new court-appointed lawyer.
His current lawyer declined to comment.
The media was not allowed to film Sancho as he was brought to court. His father, Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, was present in court. Sancho, a chef, was arrested in August after the remains of Arrieta, who was 44, were found at a landfill on Ko Pha Ngan.
Police have said Sancho came in to report a missing person after the body parts were found and was detained.
He later reportedly confessed to killing and dismembering Arrieta and dumping the body parts in the landfill and the sea, though he denied that his action was premeditated, according to police.
Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, father of Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, talks to reporters at Koh Samui provincial court in southern Thailand. PHOTO: AP
BERNAMA – Three individuals, who were burnt to death in a car crash at the Bercham Industrial Area, were delivering Deepavali dishes to their grandmother, living in Taman Perpaduan.
The victims were M Krishna, 20, who drove the Proton Perdana car, his brother M Pavilesh, 16, and their cousin N K Subash Varman, 16.
M Manimaran, 50, said his sons, Krishna and Pavilesh, left their home in Taman Cempaka.
He said they picked up their cousin from Bercham as they wanted to deliver some Deepavali dishes prepared by his wife to their grandmother.
“I managed to speak to my son on the phone and was told they wanted to visit a friend first before returning home. But when I tried to contact him again later on, there was no reply. I tried to find his friend’s house but failed, so I decided to lodge a police report at the Taman Cempaka Police Station as I sensed something amiss,” he said when met at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital Forensic Department.
Manimaran said that about 15 minutes after lodging the report, police officers came to his house to inform him of the accident involving his sons and their cousin.
According to him, his 20-year-old son, the eldest of three siblings, worked at an accessories shop while his second son studied in Form Four at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Raja Chulan.
