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S Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon detained, again, over martial law

S Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon detained, again, over martial law
South Korea's former president Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea. (AFP)
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Updated 30 min 38 sec ago

S Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon detained, again, over martial law

S Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon detained, again, over martial law
  • The latest arrest warrant was issued over concerns that Yoon would “destroy evidence”

SEOUL: South Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol was detained for a second time Thursday over his declaration of martial law and held in a solitary cell as investigators widened their insurrection probe.
Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3 last year, sending armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law.
He became South Korea’s first sitting president to be taken into custody when he was detained in a dawn raid in January, after he spent weeks resisting arrest, using his presidential security detail to head off investigators.
But he was released on procedural grounds in March, even as his trial on insurrection charges continued.
After Yoon’s impeachment was confirmed by the court in April, he again refused multiple summons from investigators, prompting them to seek his detention once more to ensure cooperation.
The latest arrest warrant was issued over concerns that Yoon would “destroy evidence” in the case, Nam Se-jin, a senior judge at Seoul’s Central District Court said.
Yoon is being held in a solitary cell which has only a fan and no air-conditioning, as a heat wave grips South Korea. According to the official schedule, he was offered a regulation breakfast including steamed potatoes and milk.
Investigators said Thursday that Yoon’s status as former president will be “duly considered” but otherwise he will be “treated like any other suspect.”
“Investigations during the detention period will focus on the warrant’s stated charges,” prosecutor Park Ji-young told reporters.
Yoon’s criminal trial also continued with a hearing Thursday, although he did not attend for the first time.

The former president, 64, attended a hearing over the new warrant on Wednesday that lasted about seven hours, during which he rejected all charges, before being taken to a holding center near Seoul where he awaited the court’s decision on whether to detain him again.
During his warrant hearing, the former president said he is now “fighting alone,” local media reported.
“The special counsel is now going after even my defense lawyers,” said Yoon during his hearing.
“One by one my lawyers are stepping away, and I may soon have to fight this alone.”
Once the warrant was issued early Thursday, Yoon was placed in a solitary cell at the facility, where he can be held for up to 20 days as prosecutors prepare to formally indict him including on additional charges.
“Once Yoon is indicted, he could remain detained for up to six months following indictment,” Yun Bok-nam, president of Lawyers for a Democratic Society, told AFP.
“Theoretically, immediate release is possible, but in this case, the special counsel has argued that the risk of evidence destruction remains high, and that the charges are already substantially supported.”

During the hearing, Yoon’s legal team criticized the detention request as unreasonable, stressing that Yoon has been ousted and “no longer holds any authority.”
Earlier this month, the special counsel questioned Yoon about his resistance during a failed arrest attempt in January, as well as accusations that he authorized drone flights to Pyongyang to help justify declaring martial law.
The former president also faces charges of falsifying official documents related to the martial law bid.
Yoon has defended his martial law decision as necessary to “root out” pro-North Korean and “anti-state” forces.
But the Constitutional Court, when ousting Yoon from office on April 4 in a unanimous decision, said his acts were a “betrayal of people’s trust” and “denial of the principles of democracy.”
South Korea’s current president, Lee Jae Myung, who won the June snap election, approved legislation launching sweeping special investigations into Yoon’s push for martial law and various criminal accusations tied to his administration and wife.


Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity

Updated 16 sec ago

Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity

Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s former police chief pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity committed during a crackdown on protests last year, while ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina was formally indicted, prosecutors said after the trial resumed Thursday.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations, when Hasina’s government attempted to crush a student-led uprising.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.
Former inspector general of police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Mamun “pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity,” Muhammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at the ICT, told reporters.
Islam said Mamun has agreed to assist the court by acting as a witness, giving “all the knowledge he has regarding the crimes committed during the July-August uprising.”
The court has approved separate accommodation to ensure Mamun’s safety.
The tribunal on Thursday also rejected defense lawyers’ request to have the charges against Hasina and her interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal dismissed.
Both Hasina and Kamal were formally indicted in the same case.
Amir Hossain, the state-appointed counsel for Hasina and Kamal, however remained hopeful.
“The trial is at an initial stage, and there are several other phases,” he said.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India as the protests ended her 15-year rule. She has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka, where her trial in absentia opened on June 1.
Hasina faces at least five charges at the ICT, including “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising.”
Prosecutors say that Hasina held overall command responsibility for the violence.
She was already convicted of contempt of court in a separate case on July 2, receiving a six-month sentence.
Fugitive former minister Kamal is also believed to be in India.

UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029

UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029
Updated 7 min 8 sec ago

UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029

UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029
  • The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January when US President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the US AID agency

LONDON: Years of American-led investment into AIDS programs has reduced the number of people killed by the disease to the lowest levels seen in more than three decades, and provided life-saving medicines for some of the world’s most vulnerable.
But in the last six months, the sudden withdrawal of US money has caused a “systemic shock,” UN officials warned, adding that if the funding isn’t replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.
“The current wave of funding losses has already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities,” UNAIDS said in a report released Thursday.
UNAIDS also said that it feared other major donors might also scale back their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS worldwide — and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change.
The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January when US President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the US AID agency.
Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool who is not connected to the United Nations, said that while Trump is entitled to spend US money as he sees fit, “any responsible government would have given advance warning so countries could plan,” instead of stranding patients in Africa when clinics were closed overnight.
The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by US President George W. Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease.
UNAIDS called the program a “lifeline” for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9 percent of the country’s budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV.
In 2024, there were about 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide, per a UNAIDS estimate — the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after peaking at about 2 million deaths in 2004.
Even before the US funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa and that more than 50 percent of all people who need treatment but aren’t getting it are in Africa and Asia.
Tom Ellman, of the charity Doctors Without Borders, said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the US
“There’s nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the US,” said Ellman, director of Doctors Without Borders’ South Africa Medical Unit. “Within months of losing treatment, people will start to get very sick and we risk seeing a massive rise in infection and death.”
Experts also fear another loss: data. The US paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.
“Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,” he said.
The uncertainty comes as a twice-yearly injectable could end HIV, as studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100 percent effective in preventing the virus.
Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Sunleca — a move that should have been a “threshold moment” for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead’s pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing.
“We could be ending AIDS,” Maybarduk said. “Instead, the US is abandoning the fight.”


Rubio to meet Russia's Lavrov as strikes pound Kyiv

Rubio to meet Russia's Lavrov as strikes pound Kyiv
Updated 10 July 2025

Rubio to meet Russia's Lavrov as strikes pound Kyiv

Rubio to meet Russia's Lavrov as strikes pound Kyiv
  • The top US diplomat is to meet Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, a senior State Department official said

KUALA LUMPUR: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with his Russian counterpart in Malaysia on Thursday, after Moscow unleashed its second major attack on Ukraine in as many days.
Rubio’s first visit to Asia as secretary of state also comes as US President Donald Trump ramps up his trade war, threatening more than 20 countries with punitive tariffs.
The top US diplomat is to meet Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, a senior State Department official said.
Russian strikes on Kyiv killed at least two people, the city’s military administration said Thursday, after earlier warning of incoming missiles and reporting around a dozen wounded.
AFP journalists in Kyiv heard loud blasts echoing over the city throughout the night and saw flashes from air defense system lighting up the sky.
Dozens of residents of the capital took shelter in a central metro station, an AFP reporter said, sleeping on mats, calming pets and waiting out the attack on camping furniture.
That came a day after Russia’s biggest missile and drone attack on Ukraine in more than three years of war — and after Trump launched an expletive-filled attack on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Trump accused Putin of talking “bullshit” about Ukraine, saying that the United States would send Kyiv more weapons to defend itself.
Rubio and Lavrov last met in February in Ƶ, following a rapprochement between Trump and Putin. The two diplomats have also spoken multiple times by phone.
After Malaysia, Lavrov will visit North Korea this weekend, the latest in a series of high-profile visits by top Moscow officials as the two countries deepen military ties.
Pyongyang has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s main allies during its Ukraine invasion, sending thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to oust Kyiv’s forces and providing the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles.


US officials said ahead of Rubio’s trip that Washington was “prioritising” its commitment to East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Speaking in Malaysia, Rubio said the United States has “no intention of abandoning” the region.
But his visit comes after Trump threatened more than 20 countries, many in Asia, with tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 percent, and announced a 50 percent toll on copper imports and a possible 200 percent duty on pharmaceuticals.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned Asia’s top diplomats on Wednesday of a new era when tariffs are among the “sharpened instruments of geopolitical rivalry.”
Trump said Monday that duties he had suspended in April would snap back — even more steeply — on August 1.
Among those targeted were top trade partners Japan and South Korea, which each face 25 percent tariffs.
Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Myanmar — all members of ASEAN — face duties ranging from 20 percent to 40 percent if they do not strike deals with Washington by Trump’s new deadline.
The levels were not too far from those originally threatened in April, although some rates were notably lower this time.
Vietnam, which is also an ASEAN member, is one of only two countries — Britain being the other — to have reached a tentative agreement with Trump.
In Malaysia, Rubio will attend a post-ministerial conference and a meeting by East Asian foreign ministers — which will also see Japan, South Korea and China participating.
He will also meet with Anwar and hold trilateral talks with the Philippines and Japan.
Rubio’s Chinese counterpart Wang Yi is also at ASEAN, but details of any meeting between the pair have not been announced.
The superpowers remain locked in a range of disputes on issues from trade and fentanyl, to Taiwan and cutting-edge technology.
Without mentioning the United States, Wang on Thursday called for a “fairer and more reasonable” international order.


Pakistan police arrest 149, including 48 Chinese, in scam center raid

Pakistan police arrest 149, including 48 Chinese, in scam center raid
Updated 10 July 2025

Pakistan police arrest 149, including 48 Chinese, in scam center raid

Pakistan police arrest 149, including 48 Chinese, in scam center raid
  • The agency said they were acting on a tip-off about the network

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan police arrested 149 people — including 71 foreigners, mostly Chinese — in a raid on a scam call center, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency said Thursday.
“During the raid, a large call center was uncovered, which was involved in Ponzi schemes and investment fraud,” the agency said in a statement.
“Through this fraudulent network, the public was being deceived and vast sums of money were being illegally collected.”
The agency said they were acting on a tip-off about the network, operating in the city of Faisalabad, a manufacturing center in the east of the country.
It said the raid was at the residence of Tasheen Awan, the son of the former chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority, a government agency.
All those arrested were in custody, including 78 Pakistanis and 48 Chinese, as well as citizens from Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.
Some 18 of the 149 were women, it added.


China says ‘verifying’ case of citizens held for alleged spying in Ukraine

China says ‘verifying’ case of citizens held for alleged spying in Ukraine
Updated 10 July 2025

China says ‘verifying’ case of citizens held for alleged spying in Ukraine

China says ‘verifying’ case of citizens held for alleged spying in Ukraine
  • Ukraine’s SBU security service said the son was a 24 year old former student of a technical university in Kyiv, and that the father, who lives in China, had traveled to Ukraine to coordinate his son’s “espionage activities”

BEIJING: Beijing said Thursday it was still “verifying” the case of a Chinese father and son detained by Ukraine for allegedly trying to smuggle navy missile technology out of the war-torn country.
“If Chinese citizens are involved, we will... safeguard Chinese citizens’ legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Relations between Kyiv and Beijing, a key Russian ally, are strained.
Ukraine and the West accuse China of enabling the Russian invasion through trade and of supplying technology, including for deadly drone attacks.
Ukraine also says dozens of Chinese citizens have been recruited by Russia’s army and sent to fight.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said Wednesday the son was a 24-year-old former student of a technical university in Kyiv, and that the father, who lives in China, had traveled to Ukraine to coordinate his son’s “espionage activities.”
The two were “attempting to illegally export secret documentation on the Ukrainian RK-360MC Neptune missile system to China,” the agency said.
Moscow and Beijing struck a “no limits” partnership on the eve of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, and have since deepened political, military and economic cooperation.