THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2015 INTERNATIONAL jails Canadian pastor for life

SEOUL: A North Korean court has sentenced Church ‘confession’ tion by high-profile US political figures. a Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with In August the North released a video Although religious freedom is enshrined in hard labor, while rejecting a prosecution call showing Lim attending a Sunday service at the North’s constitution, it does not exist in for the death penalty after his conviction on ’s Pongsu Church and confess- practice and religious activities are restrict- sedition charges. South Korean-born Hyeon ing to various charges in an address to a ed to officially recognized groups linked to Soo Lim, pastor at the Light Korean small congregation that included a number the government. Presbyterian Church in , is the latest of foreigners. “I committed the gravest in a series of foreign missionaries to be crime of insulting and defaming the top Suspect foreign missionaries arrested, deported or jailed for allegedly dignity and the leadership of the republic,” Foreign missionaries arrested in North meddling in state affairs. “The defendant Lim Lim said in the video. Korea can find themselves facing punishing admitted all the charges against him includ- Detained foreigners are habitually jail sentences, or used by Pyongyang as ing viciously defaming our system and our required to make public and officially script- leverage to extract concessions or high- supreme dignity as well as plotting to over- ed pronouncements of their guilt in order to profile visits to ensure their release. In throw our state,” the North’s official KCNA help secure their eventual release. “The trial November last year -a US citi- news agency said. demonstrated again what kind of miserable zen who, like Lim, was born in - According to KCNA, the prosecutor had fate awaits people like Lim-the followers of was released two years after being sen- asked the Supreme Court to hand down a the US and South Korean regimes that tenced to 15 years’ hard labour. death sentence, arguing that the pastor’s ceaselessly try to annihilate our socialist sys- Bae, who had been convicted of plotting crimes merited “the sternest punishment.” Lim tem and defame the supreme dignity of our to overthrow the North Korean regime, was was detained by North Korean authorities in sacred republic,” KCNA said. released along with another American PYONGYANG: who pastors the Light Korean Presbyterian January after arriving from . The specific Pyongyang views foreign missionaries detainee as the result of a secret mission to Church in Toronto, is escorted to his sentencing. — AP actions that resulted in the sedition allega- with deep suspicion, though it allows some Pyongyang by US intelligence chief James tions have never been detailed. According to to undertake humanitarian work. A number Clapper. In March last year an elderly gious material in the North’s capital. A ground church. Lim’s sentence was his church in Toronto, he was on a purely of Christian missionaries-mostly ethnic Australian missionary, John Short, was South Korean missionary arrested in the announced just days after high-level talks humanitarian mission and had visited the Koreans who are US citizens-have been deported after being held for 13 days. North in October 2013, Kim Jeong-Wook, is between the two Koreas aimed at improv- North on numerous occasions to support arrested in the past, with some of them Short signed a detailed “confession” and currently serving hard labor for life for ing cross-border ties broke up in mutual work with orphanages and nursing homes. only allowed to return home after interven- apology after his arrest for distributing reli- allegedly spying and operating an under- recrimination. — AFP Freedom of speech reaches new low in junta Thailand

BANGKOK: Thailand’s military seized power defended the royal insult law. “We haven’t used last year with a promise to eventually restore this law in a harsher manner but in this period democracy. But a crackdown against critics of there may have been more people who violat- the monarchy and junta suggest the country is ed this law so authorities have to deal with locked on a darker trajectory, say UN officials them accordingly,” Winthai told . “We and human rights activists. need this law in Thailand in order to protect On Sunday, a student was taken from hos- the monarchy which is the love of all Thais,” he pital by plainclothes agents and charged with said. defaming Thailand’s widely revered royalty. On All this comes amid worries over the health Monday, it emerged that a factory worker was of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turned 88 charged with sedition and mocking King this month, and concerns over an eventual suc- Bhumibol Adulyadej’s dog. If found guilty, he cession - a subject that cannot be openly dis- faces decades in prison. And on Tuesday, a mili- cussed because of the lese-majeste law that tary court sentenced a single mother to seven makes it a crime to defame, insult or threaten years in jail for posting material on the Internet the king, queen or heir apparent, but one that insulting to the monarchy. continues to dominate political developments Human Rights Watch said the cases under- in Thailand. score how freedom of speech has reached a The king’s son and heir, Crown Prince Maha new low in the Southeast Asian country. Since Vajiralongkorn, does not command the same taking power in 2014, the military has made level of devotion as his father. Diplomats and full use of Article 44 of the interim constitution foreign journalists have also been caught up in which gives junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha the military crackdown on anyone perceived as absolute power to give any order deemed nec- critical of the junta or royal establishment. essary to prevent acts seen as undermining On Tuesday, the Thai printer blocked publi- national security. It also allows soldiers to cation of a report in the International New York detain people for up to seven days without a Times on the king’s dog defamation charges, court warrant. the third time in a month that it has left a Rights groups and critics of the junta say a Thailand article blank, and the US Ambassador MANILA: A woman walks through floodwaters in suburban Manila yesterday. — AFP draconian law designed to protect Thailand’s to the country is being investigated over accu- royal family has been broadened considerably sations he violated the strict lese-majeste law. and is being applied with greater fervor. “The “The UN High Commissioner has stated he Philippine typhoon death toll travesty of law enforcement under the junta’s is appalled by the shockingly disproportionate rule reached a new low when Thanakorn was prison terms handed down this year in lese- charged with lese-majeste for ... comments majeste cases in Thailand,” the Office of the climbs as rescuers struggle that Thai authorities considered as mocking United Nations High Commissioner for Human the king’s dog,” Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Rights told Reuters in an e-mail. The office said Watch told Reuters, referring to factory worker prison terms handed down for lese-majeste Widespread flooding cuts power for millions Thanakorn Siripaiboon, 27. this year were the heaviest recorded since 2006, when it began documenting cases of MANILA: Rescuers on speedboats hauled rain- in the day when floods subsided to knee-deep. islands known for its marble reserves, reported Major worries individuals prosecuted for lese-majeste soaked residents off rooftops in the Philippine six deaths. Junta spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree offences. — Reuters countryside yesterday after Typhoon Melor killed Disaster repeat The national disaster council also reported at least 11 people and cut power for millions. The However in the northern provinces of Nueva one more death due to drowning on Samar, an typhoon tore in off the Pacific Ocean on Monday Ecija and Bulacan, floodwaters rose swiftly yes- impoverished island of 1.5 million people in the afternoon and caused widespread flooding terday as water from mountain regions inundat- eastern Philippines where Melor first made land- Sydney hit by severe storm across the northern and central regions of the ed by Melor overnight cascaded down, causing fall. Five people have now been confirmed killed island nation and dumped heavy rain on the rivers and streams to swell. The same areas were on Samar. Millions of people were also without SYDNEY: Australia’s biggest city Sydney was house which have landed in my front yard. It’s sprawling capital of Manila. flooded in October by Typhoon Koppu, which power in the eastern Philippines and the central smashed by a tornado-like storm yesterday, just a mess.” The weather bureau said warn- Head-high floods in the central islands began left 54 people killed and destroyed vast swathes islands, with no guarantees electricity would be with hail as big as golf balls and winds gusting ings for destructive winds, large hail stones to subside yesterday, but parts of the rice-grow- of rice farms. restored before Christmas. And 226,000 people at 200 kilometers an hour causing havoc. Two and heavy rain were in place for central ing north were inundated with one-meter (three- Office supplies salesman Sem Sangoyo remained in storm shelters, the national disaster people required treatment-one for shock and Sydney, its airport and the Sydney Harbor feet) deep waters as torrents from mountain watched helplessly as pens and papers in his council said. one for a head wound-in the hardest-hit sub- Bridge. “Very destructive winds associated provinces cascaded downstream. Residents office supplies store in Cabanatuan, the capital of Melor’s gusts weakened to 130 kilometers per urb of Kurnell, an ambulance official said. with a possible tornado affected the Sydney chased by fast-rising floodwaters to their Nueva Ecija, floated in one-meter-deep floods. hour as it moved further away to the South China One resident of the suburb, where wind coast around Kurnell at 10:30 this morning,” rooftops swamped police lines overnight on “We did not expect this at all. We have barely Sea yesterday. However a new, albeit weaker, gusts of 213 kilometers per hour were record- the bureau said of the earlier lashing. “We Tuesday with frantic calls for rescue, said Senior recovered from the last typhoon,” Sangoyo told storm was forecast to hit the poor farming region ed, said the storm sounded “like a freight train don’t get situations like that without it being a Inspector Jemorie Vergara, police chief of the AFP by phone from the second floor of his store, of Canada in the main southern island of going through”. “Total destruction,” he told Sky tornado,” the bureau’s Michael Logan added. fishing town of Baco. where he ran for safety. Sangoyo said he was Mindanao late Friday, the weather bureau said. News of the aftermath of the tempest, which “It is what’s called a super cell thunderstorm Baco is located on Mindoro, a farming and trapped in the same building for three days The storm would likely have winds of around 100 downed trees and power lines and damaged and they’re one of the most dangerous thun- fishing island of 1.2 million people, 120 kilome- when Koppu hit. kilometers an hour when it make landfall, accord- buildings, including a desalination plant, and derstorms we get.” ters south of Manila, which was pummeled by “I think I’ll be trapped here again,” he said. “I’m ing to the state weather agency. flooded roads. Another man who called in to The bureau said surrounding areas to the Melor Tuesday night. “The water rose so fast, not even thinking about Christmas, I’m too wor- The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 Sydney talk radio described a scene of north and west of Sydney were in line to be people had no choice but to run to their roofs. ried about my lost inventory.” Intense rain in typhoons a year, many of them deadly, with the extreme damage in Kurnell, images of which affected as the storm, which comes at the They were crying for help,” Vergara said. Manila on Tuesday night submerged some roads strongest often happening towards the end of showed a truck overturned and building parts start of the southern hemisphere summer, Police on wooden-hulled boats braved strong and caused traffic chaos, although flooding in the year. In November 2013 one of the strongest flung around. “My neighbor’s roof is gone, the moves north. The airport remained open, but flood currents on Tuesday night to rescue chil- the megacity of 12 million had subsided by yes- storms on record, Super Typhoon Haiyan, flat- trees are all down in the front yard,” he told the delays were expected as ground crews strug- dren and infants from rooftops, according to terday morning. The death toll climbed to 11 yes- tened entire communities in the central region Australian Broadcasting Corporation. gled to cope with the weather, a spokes- Vergara. Others were forced to stay on their roofs terday after local authorities in Mindoro and with tsunami-like waves, leaving 7,350 people “There’s trees down out the front of his woman said. — AFP throughout yesterday and only came down late neighboring Romblon, a chain of three small dead or missing. — AFP

Protesters rally ahead of Japan court: Requiring same controversial HK debate surname in marriage is legal

HONG KONG: Activists rallied yesterday in Kwong, 19, of protest organizers Keyboard TOKYO: Japan’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Hong Kong as lawmakers prepared to start Frontline which campaigns for Internet requiring married couples to have the same surname a highly anticipated debate over a copy- freedom, said. “The government... will make is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort right bill, which has been criticized by use of the updated law to politically prose- for gender equality in choosing names. The law does opponents as curbing freedom of speech. cute those who disobey,” she added. not say which partner must give up his or her name in Around 300 people, including students Political satire using a pastiche of song marriage. In practice it has almost always been the and protesters from the creative industries, lyrics and movie scenes has long been woman who took the husband’s name. Some women gathered outside the Legislative Council common on the city’s Internet forums and say that is unfair and feel as though their identity is complex carrying banners that read “Fight social networking websites. lost. for the freedom of the next generation”. Opponents fear the bill will set the In traditional marriage, one person, usually the The debate was due to start yesterday stage for harsher government censorship woman, enters the household of the partner and is evening or today and could last for days online, although exemptions for parody, registered as a member of that household. Men are before a vote. Fears are growing over the satire and commentary have been intro- seen as more powerful in Japanese traditional culture. erosion of freedoms in the semi- duced since the original bill was shelved. But as women increasingly have careers, some argue autonomous Chinese city, with concerns Protester Tinki Lo, a middle school student that changing surnames is confusing. that Beijing’s influence is increasing. in uniform, said: “The thing about this bill is Some Japanese women continue to use their The city remains deeply divided after that you don’t know when you’ve broken maiden name professionally, even after their sur- mass pro-democracy rallies last year failed the law and when you’re within your names are legally changed following marriage. Some to force Beijing to scrap its restrictions on rights.” couples simply don’t register their marriages. Kaori political reforms. The government says the Hong Kong was handed back to China Okuni, one of the plaintiffs, said she was deeply disap- bill-already shelved in 2012 after opposi- by Britain in 1997 under a “one country, pointed. tion-is necessary to help fight online piracy. two systems” deal that guaranteed the “This has consequences for the future, meaning But critics slam it as “Internet Article 23” retention of its civil liberties and capitalist suffering for those who plan to marry and those who TOKYO: Tomoshi Sakka (second right) a lawyer for a plaintiff woman who is not present, referring to an anti-subversion bill dramati- lifestyle for 50 years. But attacks on journal- are set to be born,” she told a news conference. In a and her supporters hold a banner reading: “unconstitutional judgment” after their victory cally dropped in 2003 after half a million ists, court cases against democracy separate case, the Supreme Court ruled that prohibit- in a court case in front of the Supreme Court. — AP protesters took to the streets. activists and government interventions in ing women from remarrying for six months is uncon- “It hinders Hong Kong people’s freedom education have heightened concerns that stitutional. The thinking behind that requirement was The court said that was outdated because of for that case, told reporters outside the courtroom. of speech,” university student Glacier cherished freedoms are being lost. — AFP to prevent a woman who was possibly pregnant by advances in science, such as DNA testing, that provide “The policy degraded women, and this is a step one man from marrying a different person. proof of the biological parent, Tomoshi Sakka, a lawyer toward gender equality,” he said. — AP