BEIJING: Police in China have seized a huge cache of weapons including 15,000 guns and 120,000 knives from an illegal arms ring and detained 15 suspects, state media reported yesterday.
The weapons were confiscated after a four-month investigation, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper, which called the operation the largest-ever such seizure in China.
Police were tipped off to the arms ring’s existence after investigating a robbery in Guiyang, the capital of southwest China’s Guizhou province, the newspaper said.
They traced the source of a gun used in the robbery to a family-run “gang” in neighbouring Hunan province that advertised itself as a factory but controlled several warehouses where guns and knives were sold.
N Korea denies link to drones
SEOUL: North Korea yesterday flatly denied any connection to three crashed drones recovered in the South, and accused Seoul of “fabricating” a link in order to smear Pyongyang.
South Korea’s defence ministry said last week it was convinced that three rudimentary unmanned aerial vehicles recovered in recent weeks were of North Korean origin.
Wreckage of the drones was found in three different places, including Baengnyeong island near the rivals’ disputed sea border.
The ministry said analysis of the debris had secured various pieces of “circumstantial evidence” that clearly pointed to North Korea.
Tobacco firms sued in S Korea
SEOUL: South Korea’s state health insurer is seeking an initial $51.9m from three tobacco companies, including the local units of Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, to offset treatment costs for diseases linked to smoking.
The National Health Insurance Service said yesterday it was suing the two global cigarette makers, as well as local market leader KT&G Corp in a South Korean court.
The lawsuit is the first by a state body against tobacco firms among 37 countries and territories in the Western Pacific.
Indonesian lawmaker jailed
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s main anti-corruption court sentenced a lawmaker to three years’ jail yesterday for accepting bribes from French company Alstom and Japan’s Marubeni. Izedrik Emir Moeis was found guilty of accepting $357,000 from the companies to help them secure a $118m joint contract in 2004 to supply and install boilers at a power plant on the island of Sumatra.
Marubeni Corporation agreed last month to pay an $88m fine after pleading guilty in a US court to paying the bribes, with Alstom employees.
Agencies
