INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2016 Americans traveling to N Korea risk ‘unduly harsh sentences’ WASHINGTON: Americans who travel to North Korea crime. Its strong advice came after two Americans were 15 years of hard labor in March for trying to steal an done knowingly or unknowingly - ‘have been treated despite ongoing warnings risk “unduly harsh sentences” sentenced in recent weeks in North Korea and when item with a propaganda slogan, North Korean media as crimes” in an attempt to further caution travelers. for actions that would not be considered a crime in the international tensions are increasingly high with the reported. Washington has condemned the punish- Showing disrespect toward North Korean leader United States, the US State Department said in its latest reclusive country over its nuclear weapons program. ments, saying North Korea is using U.S. citizens to push Kim Jong Un or former leaders, criticizing the govern- travel warning yesterday. Last month, North Korea’s Supreme Court sentenced its own political agenda. In the past, North Korea has ment, having an unauthorized interaction with resi- The department, in a detailed warning against such Korean-American Kim Dong Chul, 62, to 10 years hard used detained Americans to push for high-profile visits dents, taking unapproved photographs and shopping travel, cautioned that at least 14 US citizens have been labor after he admitted to committing “unpardonable from the United States, with which it has no formal at certain stores have all been considered crimes, the detained in North Korea in the past 10 years and that espionage” including stealing military secrets, accord- diplomatic relations. US officials have long warned department said. Americans traveling there should not American travelers should be aware that possessing ing to North Korean media. Americans against traveling to North Korea, and yester- expect protection from tour groups or guides or have any media criticizing the country could considered a American student Otto Warmbier was sentenced to day it outlined a dozen specific actions that “whether expectation of privacy, it added. — Reuters

Quake hits Tokyo area

TOKYO: A strong earthquake with a pre- The focus of the tremor was 40 km liminary magnitude of 5.6 on the Richter underground in southern part of Ibaraki scale struck eastern Japan yesterday, Prefecture, about 40 km northeast of including Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Tokyo, according to the agency. The Agency said. However, there were no quake registered lower 5 on the Japanese immediate reports of major damage. No seismic scale of 7 in Omitama City. The tsunami warning was issued for the 9:23 agency defines an intensity of lower 5 as p.m. (1223 GMT) quake. Operators of strong enough to make hanging objects nuclear power plants in the affected areas swing violently and most unstable orna- said there were no signs of abnormalities ments fall. at the facilities from the quake. In wide areas of Tokyo, the quake reg- Shinkansen bullet train service on istered 3 on the Japanese seismic scale. some routes were briefly suspended, but The Japanese scale measures how much resumed afterwards. The government set places were shaken on the surface while up a taskforce at the prime minister’s the Richter scale measures the energy of office to collect information. the quake itself. — KUNA Ex-cop charged in grisly Thai killing linked to mass grave BANGKOK: A former policeman in Thailand involved. One was Pramote, a former has been charged with murdering a woman policeman and one was a suspect we have whose fate led to the discovery of a sus- here today (called) Boonna,” said Police pected mass grave, police said yesterday. Major General Yanyong Vetkosol. Reports about a large burial site in the Boonna admitted being involved in the northeast, where criminal gangs may have woman’s killing, saying she had a dispute dumped bodies for years, have swirled in the with the former police officer about money. local media in recent weeks. The investigation It is common practice in Thailand for sus- began when the daughter of a woman who pects who admit their guilt to be presented BEIJING: China Premier Li Keqiang,rear right, and Afghanistan Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, rear left, applaud while Afghanistan’s was strangled in June 2014 took reporters to to the media. Investigators added that Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, left, and China Foreign Minister Wang Yi exchange documents during signing ceremony at the Great Hall a remote jungle area where her mother’s Pramote is already serving jail time for of the People yesterday. — AP burned corpse was first discovered. another murder. Police have been at pains She said she wanted to highlight what she to distance themselves from any sugges- described as a lack of police interest in inves- tion their officers may be linked to killings Afghanistan backs Beijing tigating the killing. During the visit reporters or to a mass grave site. found bones that looked human. Subsequent The country’s police have long had a police investigations have uncovered at least reputation for corruption, with many Thais nine possible sites containing bones, some of likening them to a mafia in uniform. stance on South China Sea them certified as human, while 41 people Thailand’s junta chief, a former head of the with missing relatives have come forward to army, has vowed to clean up the police and offer DNA samples. has transferred or sacked a number of high- BEIJING: Yesterday China said landlocked ing the construction of low-cost housing and struck a $3 billion deal in 2008 to develop a min- At a press conference in the northeast- profile officers. Afghanistan has expressed support for Beijing’s boost imports of Afghan agricultural projects. ing town at Mes Aynak with power generators, ern city of Khon Kaen, officers yesterday Police in Khon Kaen said more time was stance on the South China Sea dispute, the latest China has been seeking support from friendly road and rail links, and smelting facilities. announced two people including a former needed to investigate the potential mass country from outside the region to line up nations for its bilateral approach to settling Workers built a residential compound, but were policeman had been charged with the June grave and discover whether the remains behind China’s calls for bilateral talks on the South China Sea territorial disputes, largely to pulled out because of security concerns. 2014 murder. “We know two people were are from missing people. —AFP issue. The Foreign Ministry said Afghanistan counter efforts by the US, and others President Ashraf Ghani’s government says it is Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah made the to challenge China’s claim to virtually the entire determined to finish that project. statement in a meeting with Chinese Premier Li sea and creation of new islands out of coral The sector is badly hampered by a lack of Keqiang in Beijing that also touched on security reefs. Russia has so far been the most prominent expertise in exploration, extraction and process- cooperation along their border in China’s volatile nation to publicly endorse China’s position. ing, along with inadequate infrastructure and the western region of Xinjiang. China has refused to participate in interna- country’s chronic insecurity. A bitter feud between “Our Afghan counterparts expressed their tional arbitration on the matter brought by the Abdullah and Ghani has also hobbled the Kabul gratitude for China’s long-term support over the Philippines and undermined efforts to approach government, leaving interim ministers in critical years, and also said they support China’s posi- the issue multilaterally through the 10-member positions while the US ally struggles to confront tion on the South China Sea issue and support Association of Southeast Asian Nations. lawlessness, corruption and the Taleban’s resilient China’s efforts to resolve the South China Sea Hou said Abdullah pledged Afghanistan’s and perhaps expanding insurgency. China has issue through bilateral channels and through support for China in its fight against extremist also hosted talks between the Kabul government peaceful means such as negotiation and consul- groups blamed for attacks in Xinjiang and else- and its opponents, although Abdullah was tation,” the deputy director general of the min- where in the country. Beijing has long provided quoted as telling China’s official Xinhua News istry’s department of Asian Affairs, Hou Yanqi, Kabul with financial support and Chinese com- Agency last week that such contacts have failed told reporters following the talks. panies have invested in Afghan mining projects to bear fruit because of Taleban intransigence. Hou said Li also expressed China’s willingness that hope to exploit the country’s estimated $3 Before returning to Kabul, Abdullah is to visit to help with Afghanistan’s national reconciliation trillion in mineral and petrochemical deposits. Xinjiang’s regional capital of Urumqi, a major process, provide assistance for projects includ- Beijing’s state-run China Metallurgical Group Central Asian business hub. — AP Malaysia accused of rights abuse for barring activist’s trip

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s government faced fresh allegations of trampling rights yesterday after the leader of a massive demonstration last year calling for the premier’s ouster over a graft scandal said she was prevented going abroad to accept an award. Maria Chin Abdullah, who heads the Coalition SEOUL: A mock Scud-B missile of North Korea, center, and other South Korean mock for Clean and Fair Elections Malaysia’s leading missiles are displayed at the Korea War Memorial Museum yesterday. — AP political pressure group-said she was stopped Sunday night from travelling to South Korea to accept the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights on S Korea, US, Japan plan joint behalf of her group. “It’s outrageous and shows a desperate government clutching on to power drills on N Korean threat when it should be accountable,” she told AFP. Chin said she was given no explanation and SEOUL: South Korea, the United States and and missile threats. It was the first such that the refusal violated her constitutional rights. Japan will hold their first joint military agreement among the three countries. An Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government is training next month focused on cooperat- international standoff over North Korea has accused of cracking down on civil liberties fol- ing to detect signs of missile launches from recently deepened after Pyongyang carried lowing a 2013 election setback and amid allega- North Korea and trace missile trajectories, a out its fourth nuclear test in January and a tions that billions of dollars were stolen from a Seoul defense official said yesterday. long-range rocket launch in February. state development fund he founded called The drills, set for around June 28, will be Washington regularly holds military 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). held on the sidelines of biennial multina- drills with South Korea and Japan - which Najib and 1MDB both deny wrongdoing. Chin’s organization-known in Malaysia as tional naval exercises scheduled for waters together host about 80,000 American KUALA LUMPUR: Maria Chin Abdullah (C), chairperson of Bersih — the coalition of Malaysian off Hawaii from June to August, which the troops - and shares intelligence with them “Bersih”, the Malay word for “clean”-is an alliance of NGOs that has staged large demonstrations in NGOs and activist groups — smiling as she speaks to journalists after giving statements on the three countries regularly attend, the official on a bilateral level. But Seoul and Tokyo groups that staged the huge August 29 rally at police. — AFP said. The official spoke on condition of don’t, largely a result of lingering public recent years to demand reform of an electoral anonymity, citing department rules. resentments in South Korea against Japan system it says is rigged in favor of the ruling could not immediately be reached for comment. bling questions about Malaysia’s judiciary and The trilateral drills will involve Aegis- over its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the coalition. Last August it orchestrated protests by In the past three years dozens of activists and rule of law. An appeals court was to rule yesterday equipped ships from the three countries, Korean Peninsula. tens of thousands to press for Najib’s ouster over government critics including Chin have been on the sedition conviction last year of prominent but they will not involve missile-intercep- The Korean Peninsula was divided into a the graft allegations and demand anti-corrup- investigated on a range of charges, typically anti-government activist Hishamuddin Rais, who tion training, the official said. The three US-backed South Korea and a Soviet-sup- tion reforms. Chin’s travel refusal drew criticism sedition, and authorities banned Bersih’s yellow said in 2013 that Najib’s government should be countries have held joint search-and-res- ported, socialist North Korea at the end of of the government on Malaysia’s hyperactive shirts as a “national security threat” following last overthrown. Human Rights Watch on Monday cue drills in the past. The training follows a the Japanese occupation. The two Koreas social media Monday, and opposition leader August’s anti-Najib protests. called his conviction “a shameful, politically moti- 2014 intelligence-gathering pact among fought a devastating three-year war in the Wan Azizah Wan Ismail vowed to call for a Last year, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim vated attack” displaying a “yawning and rapidly the three countries, designed to better early 1950s that ended with an armistice, protest against “this shameful, desperate act”. was jailed for five years on a sodomy conviction expanding gap” between the government’s con- cope with North Korea’s increasing nuclear not a peace treaty. — AP Immigration authorities and Najib’s office that the United States and others said raised trou- duct and international law. — AFP Australians in court charged with plot to take boat to

BRISBANE: An Australian firebrand preacher urging local Muslims to support militants in Thorne, Kadir Kaya, Antonio Grenata and Paul their passports canceled to prevent them leav- and lectured Filipino Muslims to support the deported from the Philippines and four other the Middle East. Dacre have not entered pleas. Police allege ing the country to fight for extremist groups Islamic State group. Australian police said at suspected jihadists appeared in a northern Yesterday, the Cairns Magistrates Court that the defendants, aged 21 to 33, towed a such as the Islamic State. the time that Cerantonioís social media post- Australian court yesterday charged with plan- ordered the extradition of Cerantonio and his half-cabin fiberglass power boat with a car Philippine authorities said Cerantonio was ings were ìoffensive and disturbing,î but did ning to head for Syria in a 7-meter (23 -foot) four co-accused from Queensland state to their 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) from deported in 2014 for being an ìundocumented not violate Australiaís law. boat to fight for the Islamic State group. hometown of Melbourne to face a federal to Laura in Australiaís tropical north before foreign nationalî after the Australian govern- Authorities allege Cerantonio bought the Philippine authorities said Robert charge outlawing Australian foreign fighters. they were arrested last Tuesday. ment canceled his passport. He was arrested boat in the first suspected attempt by would- Cerantonio, also known as Musa Cerantonio, Entering or preparing to enter a foreign coun- Police say they planned to travel by boat two weeks earlier in the Philippinesí central be foreign fighters to leave by sea. was deported in 2014 because of his suspected try to engage in hostile activity is a crime in through Indonesia to the Philippines. Police Cebu provinceís Lapu-Lapu city but faced no Security officials estimate 110 Australians are links to terrorists based on YouTube videos Australia punishable by life imprisonment. have not specified how they allegedly planned formal charges. Philippine police alleged fighting for the Islamic State group in the allegedly showing him advocating jihad and Cerantonio and co-accused Shayden to get from the Philippines to Syria. All had Cerantonio had called for jihad on YouTube Middle East. — AP