SEOUL: A South Korean government commission will probe a $20bn effort to dredge, dam and beautify four major rivers that has been tainted by charges of environmental damage, cost-overruns and corruption.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday said 20 officials and experts would be drafted onto the commission which will begin its work next month.
Revitalising the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers was the centrepiece of former president Lee Myung-Bak’s “Green New Deal” -- aimed at creating jobs after the 2008 global downturn.
Explosion kills five rangers in Bangkok
BANGKOK: Five paramilitary rangers were killed and one other wounded in an ambush when suspected rebels detonated a bomb buried in a road in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, local police said yesterday.
The mid-morning attack was a grizzly reminder that rebels in the Muslim-majority deep south have yet to curb violence against Thai security forces -- or civilians -- despite ongoing peace talks in neighbouring Malaysia.
Sri Lanka monk tries to self-immolate
COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan monk set himself on fire yesterday to protest the slaughter of cattle, in the country’s first attempt at self-immolation by a monk, police said.
The monk doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself ablaze near a temple in the central town of Kandy during an important Buddhist festival, police said.
Agencies
