SEOUL: South Korea yesterday fired the head of the state-run company that oversees the country’s 23 nuclear reactors over a forged documentation scandal that has shut a host of those reactors down. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power President Kim Kyun-Seop was dismissed over the scandal involving parts provided with fake safety certificates, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. It said that An Seung-Kyoo, CEO of KEPCO Engineering and Construction, responsible for nuclear power plant design and technology, would also be sacked today.
Train bomb duo charged
TAIPEI: Two Taiwanese were charged yesterday with attempted murder for planting explosive devices on a high-speed train and at a politician’s office in April, prosecutors said. The suspects, identified by their family names Hu and Chu, were also charged with attempted arson and endangering public safety for planting four suitcases containing petrol and cyanide at the locations. Attempted murder is punishable by a minimum 10-year jail term.
Landslide kills seven of family
KATHMANDU: Seven members of a family, including three children, were killed yesterday when a landslide triggered by heavy monsoon rains buried their house in a remote village in northeastern Nepal, police said. Rescuers were sent to the area after part of a hillside above Thumkina village broke away and smashed into two houses below. “Four more are missing while two have been seriously injured,” police said.
Sri Lanka to cut councils powers
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka plans to reduce powers of local councils before the first provincial elections in its former war zone to deny minority Tamils greater autonomy, sources said yesterday. The ruling coalition promised to share limited power with Tamils, pointing to elections to local councils, after the military crushed separatist Tamil rebels in May 2009 and ended 37 years of ethnic bloodshed. Under pressure from India and Western governments, Colombo has set elections for September. The 13th amendment to the constitution granted limited autonomy to provincial councils.
Hong Kong bans poultry imports
Hong Kong: Hong Kong’s Center for Food Safety said that it had suspended import of poultry, poultry products and eggs from parts of Denmark and the Netherlands. The centre received notification from the World Organization for Animal Health about outbreaks of low-pathogenic H7 avian influenza on a bird farm in Viborg municipality, Denmark, and a poultry farm in Utrecht province, the Netherlands.
Torturer moved to public prison
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s war crimes court yesterday transferred the Khmer Rouge’s torturer-in-chief to a public prison to serve out his life sentence for the slaughter of some 15,000 people, officials said. Kaing Guek Eav was convicted last year of overseeing the extermination of thousands at a torture jail in Phnom Penh. AGENCIES
