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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 INTERNATIONAL No such thing as a free lunch: S Korea new graft law bites SEOUL: The owner of Poom Seoul, an up-market introduce graft-busting menus. “Instead of expen- that he had regularly handed 57 former or incum- and this may serve as a strong restraint when you restaurant in South Korea’s capital is seriously con- sive Korean beef, we are now using imported US bent state prosecutors cash gifts or treated them are tempted by corruption,” she added. sidering closing her business, as customers dwin- beef for our new dinner set priced at 29,800 won,” to lavish meals and sex services. dle ahead of new anti-graft laws designed to curb Restaurant Condu manager Han Yoon-Joo said. A year later, a state prosecutor was investigated Skepticism paid-for favors. The law, which comes into effect The ban also forbids teachers, officials and jour- over charges that she received cash gifts, designer However, the law has been greeted with wari- Wednesday will make it illegal for government nalists accepting gifts worth 50,000 won or higher, bags and a luxury sedan from a lawyer. Both cas- ness in some quarters. “We will closely monitor employees, private school teachers and journalists and cash gifts above 100,000 won for weddings or es, however, were dropped as there was no evi- whether the authorities will attempt to take to accept meals worth 30,000 won ($26) or more. funerals. Offenders who accept gifts worth more dence that the transactions were made in return advantage of the law by applying the law arbitrar- “The number of reservations have recently fall- than a million won will face a jail sentence of up to for favors or in connection with the recipients’ ily in a bid to tame the media and limit their nor- en sharply as customers are apparently worried three years, or fines of up to 30 million won. jobs. Ensuing public uproar inspired the new law, mal reporting practice,” the Journalists’ they might be caught in breach of the law,” Roh Department stores have started to prepare cheap- the “Improper Solicitation and Graft Act”, an Association of Korea said in a statement. Young-Hee told AFP. “There are meals of different er gift sets and rates to play on golf courses have attempt to tighten loopholes in the country’s Some critics say the law’s targeting of private price ranges in the world, but with 30,000 won plunged. existing anti-graft legislation. NGOs have wel- sector workers-journalists and school teachers-is you cannot produce decent Korean dishes,” she comed the law, expressing hope it will help potentially unconstitutional and that the govern- added. The legislation, the latest effort to curb Slap on the wrist enhance transparency. ment rushed the law through as a sop to public low level corruption endemic in South Korea, tar- In the past, people charged with receiving “Many will think twice whenever they have the opinion. “Punishment can serve as a short-term gets teachers bribed by parents to give better bribes got away with a slap on the wrist or were chance to wine and dine or accept gifts”, said Lee measure, but for a long-term effect, all that mat- grades, journalists paid to give favorable publicity acquitted as it was hard to prove that money or Eun-Mi, head of the Centre for Administrative ters is education” aimed at raising public aware- and officials bought off by businessmen to speed gifts changed hands in return for a favor instead Watch at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory ness against corruption, said Kim Young-chul, up bureaucratic processes. of as a token of hospitality. In 2010, a business- Democracy. “Under this law, whistle blowers will president of the Korean Association for Anti- The law has prompted some restaurateurs to man revealed on a local investigative TV program be rewarded with cash of up to 200 million won, Corruption Policy Studies. —AFP S Lanka police exhume body of prominent slain editor New administration reopens investigation COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police yesterday before his death in which he forecast that the happy with the progress of the case,” he added. exhumed the body of a prominent anti-estab- Rajapakse government would murder him. President Maithripala Sirisena last year lishment newspaper editor as part of an investi- “When finally I am killed, it will be the govern- slammed police for dragging their feet on inves- gation into his murder, widely blamed on the ment that kills me,” wrote Wickrematunga, who tigations into the 52-year-old’s death and into regime of former strongman president Mahinda endured years of harassment and intimidation other high-profile murders during Rajapakse’s Rajapakse. Lasantha Wickrematunga, a fierce for his work, in the article published in the rule. Sirisena swept Rajapakse from office in a critic of Rajapakse’s government, was killed by Guardian and the New Yorker. 2015 general election, pledging action against unidentified gunmen as he drove to work in Yesterday police swarmed onto criminals and corrupt individuals during the for- Colombo seven years ago. Wickrematunga’s grave site at Colombo’s main mer strongman’s decade in power. The new administration has reopened the cemetery and erected two white tents after a investigation into his killing, which sparked an magistrate ordered a fresh autopsy. “The magis- Military role international outcry and shone a spotlight on trate is present with a team of doctors,” said The case was reopened last year after a for- allegations of deadly violence directed against Athula S Ranagala, a lawyer for the mer minister in Rajapakse’s government accused TAIPEI CITY: A man walks during a storm in Xindian district, New Taipei City, as the media. Wickrematunga, chief editor of the Wickrematunga family, outside the cemetery the deposed president’s brother, Gotabhaya Typhoon Megi hit eastern Taiwan. — AFP Sunday Leader newspaper, wrote an article where journalists were gathered. “The family is Rajapakse, of running a death squad and order- ing the hit against the editor. Gotabhaya, then secretary to the defense ministry, has denied any Typhoon Megi leaves trail involvement. But rights groups say there is strong evidence the military played a role. An of destruction in Taiwan army intelligence officer was arrested in July in connection with the killing. Wickrematunga and TAIPEI: The third typhoon to hit Taiwan in tic flights were cancelled as of yesterday his newspaper had accused Gotabhaya of cor- two weeks killed four people and injured afternoon, and over 400 delayed. Most ruption over the purchase of second-hand air- scores yesterday, bringing violent winds trains and ferries were halted. In the capital craft and arms for the military. and heavy rain as schools and offices Taipei, which was also lashed by down- Another autopsy was ordered this month closed. Typhoon Megi forced thousands to pours and winds, bus services and over- after scrutiny of medical examinations showing evacuate their homes and played havoc ground metro trains were suspended as different results, including one that suggested with rail and road networks as it made some roads were flooded. More than 1,000 he was stabbed. Journalists gathered outside landfall in the eastern county of Hualien in millimeters of rain had fallen in mountain- the cemetery yesterday but were blocked by the early afternoon. ous areas of Yilan as of yesterday after- police from entering, while the gravesite was One man aged 40 died in a car accident noon, according to the weather bureau. covered with black plastic and the magistrate in high winds while a 65-year-old man was It said accumulated rainfall in some involved spoke with cemetery workers. Ranagala killed when he was hit by falling scaffold- mountainous areas could reach 1,300 mil- said doctors were expected to examine the body ing, and a 17-year-old boy drowned when limeters before the storm moves on, at the facilities of the island’s judicial medical his boat overturned, authorities said, with increasing the risk of landslides. “Typhoon officer in Colombo. Wickrematunga started the the deaths all in the south. Also in the Megi has weakened slightly in the past Sunday Leader with his brother Lal south, a 48-year-old man fell to his death as three hours but it will continue to bring Wickrematunga 22 years ago, building it into he was repairing the roof of a house. At winds and rains to Taiwan till tomorrow,” one of the most vocal anti-establishment news- least 167 people were injured, including said weather bureau forecaster Hung Jen- papers in the country. seven Japanese tourists and a local guide sheng. At 1000 GMT Megi was 40 kilome- The newspaper was highly critical of rights when their bus was bowled over by winds ters south of the central city of Taichung, abuses by troops against ethnic minority Tamils on a highway in central Taiwan, according packing gusts of up to 191 kilometers per during the island’s long-running separatist con- to the national fire agency. hour. It is moving at 15 kilometers per hour. flict that ended in 2009. Some 17 journalists and Billboards and scaffolding were torn More than 35,000 soldiers are on stand- down while trees were uprooted and roofs by to help with disaster relief. Ahead of the COLOMBO: Sri Lankan crime investigating police officers prepare to exhume the remains of media employees were killed in Sri Lanka under Rajapakse’s regime. —AFP ripped off. Television footage showed storm, 3,700 tourists had been evacuated murdered newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge at a cemetery. — AP waves surging past breakwaters in the at the weekend from Orchid Island and northeastern county of Yilan and outlying Green Island.