An Indonesian woman  charged with the killing of the North Korean leader's half-  brother was paid by a suspected Pyongyang agent to take part  in multiple "pranks" just weeks before the murder, a court  heard today.
Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong are on  trial for the Cold War-style assassination of Kim Jong-Nam at  Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13 last year while he was  waiting for a flight to Macau.
Defence lawyers have argued that the women were recruited  to take part in what they thought were prank TV shows but were  instead tricked into becoming inadvertent assassins, in an  elaborate plot by a group of North Korean agents.
"The significance of today's evidence is we are telling  the court how this girl was tricked into doing pranks and  persuaded to go to the airport on February 13," defence lawyer  Gooi Soon Seng told reporters after presenting witnesses and  text messages at the hearing.
The pair allegedly smeared Kim's face with the banned  nerve agent .

Kim Jong-Nam murder suspect 'hired for multiple pranks':

PTI Automatic

Five members of a Buddhist sect,  including a father and two of his children, were jailed in  Vietnam today for "disrupting public disorder" after clashing  with police last year, a case of possible religious  persecution according to rights groups.
Religion is state-controlled in Buddhist-majority  Vietnam, which has been accused of curbing freedom of worship  especially among those perceived to be engaged in activism or  politics.
Three members of a family belonging to the Hoa Hao  Buddhist sect were sentenced to jail on Friday along with two  other people for between three and six years following a trial  in southern An Giang province, according to state media.
Bui Van Trung and his son Bui Van Tham were sentenced to  six years in prison.
Trung's daughter Bui Thi Bich Tuyen was jailed for three  years, An Giang's official mouthpiece reported, adding that  his wife Le Thi Hen was sentenced to two years of house  arrest.
They were all found guilty of "causing public disorder",  while 

Five Buddhists jailed in Vietnam for 'public disorder'

Iran said today that its athletes had  refused to accept special Samsung mobile telephones issued for  the Winter Olympics in South Korea until they received an  apology for initially being refused them.
Games organisers had refused on Wednesday to give  athletes from Iran and North Korea the Galaxy Note 8 devices  from sponsor Samsung, loaded with essential logistical and  competition information, due to international sanctions.
Although they backtracked the following day, the incident  caused a storm in Iran where Samsung has a major presence.
"Our athletes refused to accept the mobiles and handed in  a letter of protest to the Olympic Committee and are awaiting  the official and written response," Hassan Taherian, Iran's  ambassador to South Korea, told the official IRNA news agency.
Samsung billboards and flagship stores are seen all over  Iran, and the South Korean company has sponsored many large-  scale cultural events, including the current exhibition at the  Tehran Museum of .

Iran athletes demand apology from Samsung over Olympic snub

A pro-opposition television network in  the Maldives shut down today following threats to its staff,  as the government continued a clampdown on dissent that has  sparked international concern.
Raajje TV said threats to its employees over their  reporting on the political crisis in the picturesque Indian  Ocean archipelago had forced it to suspend broadcasts.
"The broadcaster received threats from government  legislators and others," said opposition lawmaker Eva Abdulla.
The Maldives was plunged into crisis this week when  President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency and  ordered the arrest of judges who had ordered the release of  his political opponents.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Yameen to  lift the state of emergency while UN human rights chief Zeid  Ra'ad Al Hussein has described Yameen's actions as "an all-out  assault on democracy."
Yesterday a top UN official warned the Security Council  that the situation was tense and may deteriorate even ...

Pro-opposition Maldives broadcaster shuts over threats

US Vice President Mike Pence skipped a  dinner ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony today  where he had been reportedly due to share a table with South  Korea's President Moon Jae-in and the North's ceremonial head  of state, Seoul said.
Seating plans shown on television had Pence seated  directly opposite the North's Kim Yong Nam at the reception in  Pyeongchang.
But a spokesman for the South's presidential Blue House  said he arrived late, "exchanged greetings with those seated  at the head table, and left without sitting down".
Pence had told Seoul in advance that he would be dining  with US athletes soon afterwards "so his seat was not prepared  accordingly", the spokesman said.
"He was going to leave immediately after taking the group  photo session but President Moon urged him to 'see friends' so  he dropped by the reception venue briefly."
Pence did not shake hands with Kim, he added, but  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did, exchanging a few words  with ...

US VP Pence skips Olympic dinner: Seoul

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi  Chuxing announced a deal with Japanese telecom firm SoftBank  today to develop a taxi app in Japan, where services like Uber  have struggled to make inroads.
SoftBank and Didi Chuxing announced a "partnership to  provide platform services for the taxi industry" with trial  runs expected to be launched in major Japanese cities "within  the year".
The two firms are also in discussion about creating a  joint venture, a SoftBank spokesman told AFP, without offering  more details.
Taxi-hailing apps have found it challenging to crack the  Japanese market, where risk-averse passengers prefer to stick  to their high-quality traditional taxi service.
Hailing a taxi rarely takes more than a few seconds in  major Japanese cities and there has been a relatively sluggish  uptake of services like Uber, where consumers order an  unlicensed car via smartphone.
Another barrier has been that the vast majority of taxis  are hailed or hired from a cab rank, with a ...

China's Didi Chuxing takes aim at Japan's taxi market

A former Cambodian opposition  leader has taken legal action against Facebook in an effort to  show that country's long-time ruler has used his account to  further a political crackdown.
The motion, filed in US District Court in San Francisco  yesterday, seeks to compel Facebook to produce information  about Prime Minister Hun Sen's account and whether he  purchased millions of "likes" through so-called click farms  and made death threats, among other violations of Facebook  policies.
Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia for 33 years and faces no  meaningful opposition in this year's elections after the  dissolution of the country's largest opposition party, the  Cambodia National Rescue Party, in November.
But he has made Facebook a key tool in public outreach  efforts.
A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment Thursday  on the new legal action but told AFP the company took fake  accounts and inauthentic activity on the social network very  seriously.
Exiled former opposition leader Sam ..

Cambodian PM's Facebook account at center of US legal case

The US Congress passed a crucial  federal spending bill today after hours of delay, sending the  measure to President Donald Trump to end the nation's second  government shutdown in three weeks.
The House voted 240 to 186 in support of a bipartisan  package that extends government funding until March 23 and  lifts federal spending limits by nearly $300 billion over the  next two years, after the Senate cleared the measure in the  middle of the night.
Congress had missed a midnight deadline when a  conservative senator refused to allow an early vote on the  compromise bill, but now a signature by Trump, who supports  the deal, will reopen government offices.

Congress passes spending bill, sends to Trump to end shutdown

North Korea state media today  confirmed the sacking of the country's military chief Hwang  Pyong So, after Southern reports said he had been fired for  corruption.
The North's KCNA news agency, reporting on a military  parade in Pyongyang the previous day, introduced armed forces  minister Kim Jong Gak as vice marshal and director of the  military's General Political Bureau -- a post previously held  by Hwang.
The General Political Bureau is the North's most powerful  military body, in charge of assigning officers to posts and  keeping ideological control over its estimated 1.3 million  troops.
Hwang had been dismissed following an inspection into the  bureau and sent to a party school for re-education, the  South's National Intelligence Service said earlier this week.  News reports said Hwang was caught taking bribes.
North Korea's military generals, high-ranking officials  and even members of the ruling Kim family are subject to  periodic purges under the rule of leader Kim Jong ...

NKorea confirms dismissal of top military general

After hours of painstaking search  efforts, Taiwanese rescue workers pulled two more bodies from  the flattened remains of a hotel today, bringing the death  toll from a deadly 6.4-magnitude quake to 12.
Scores of emergency responders combed the rubble of the  lower floors of the 12-storey Yun Tsui apartment block, which  housed the Beauty Stay Hotel and had pancaked during the  quake, leaving the building leaning at a 50-degree angle which  complicated the rescue effort due to fears of an imminent  collapse.
"The rescue mission was difficult as the space is narrow  but rescuers continued to work hard and finally found the  Canadian couple," a government statement said.
"A doctor evaluated that there is no sign of life and  their bodies have been sent to a funeral parlour," it added.
The couple, who were Hong Kong-Canadian, were identified  as Freda and Peter So.
The new discovery means that nine of the 12 people killed  when the quake hit the eastern tourist city of Hualien Tuesday  .

Taiwan rescue workers pull more bodies from quake rubble

German Foreign Minister Sigmar  Gabriel lashed out today at his likely successor, Martin  Schulz, saying his party colleague had broken a promise not to  serve in Chancellor Angela Merkel's new cabinet.
"What's left is regret at how little respect there is in  the Social Democratic Party in our dealings with one another,  and how little someone's word counts for," Gabriel told the  Funke newspaper group.
The rare public broadside at his comrades came after the  SPD and Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bloc announced a hard-  fought coalition deal Wednesday that could see Schulz claim  the foreign ministry.
It was Schulz's second major U-turn since September  elections that ground the storied centre-left party down to  just 20.5 per cent of the vote.
He had previously ruled out both repeating the "grand  coalition" for a third time under Merkel, and serving as a  minister in her cabinet.
It has been only a year since Gabriel gave up the SPD  leadership to make way for Schulz, who was then 

German foreign minister lashes out at likely successor

Arsene Wenger has warned his Arsenal  stars to keep their cool when they face bitter rivals  Tottenham as the heated north London derby returns to Wembley  for the first time in 25 years.
Languishing in sixth place in the Premier League,  Wenger's side are however just four points behind fifth placed  Tottenham.
With their hopes of a top four place and qualification  for the Champions Leahue hanging in the balance, the Gunners  can ill-afford a damaging defeat at the hands of their hated  neighbours on Saturday, while Tottenham are also a point  adrift of the top four and desperate to avoid defeat.
Given the high stakes amid the fight for local bragging  rights, the crowd of over 80,000 are certain to make it a  frenzied occasion.
Wenger knows players can lose their composure if they get  swept up by the derby atmosphere.
And, with new boys Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh  Mkhitaryan making their maiden north London derby appearances  and Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli in the ...

Wenger calls for cool heads as Arsenal face Spurs test

Australia's champion javelin thrower  Jarrod Bannister has died suddenly in the Netherlands,  Athletics Australia said today.
Bannister, 33, who won gold at the 2010 Delhi  Commonwealth Games and was the national javelin record holder,  had been training and living in Europe with his girlfriend.
Reports said there were no suspicious circumstances  surrounding his death.
Bannister made the final of the world championships in  Daegu, South Korea, and the Beijing Olympics.
The news shattered the Australian track and field  community, in which the charismatic Bannister was a popular  team member.
"RIP Jarrod Bannister. A talented athlete with so much  more to give. You will be missed," Australia's dual world and  Olympic hurdles champion Sally Pearson said on social media.
Jarrod's mark of 89.02m is the current Australian record  in javelin, set in Brisbane in 2008.
"On behalf of Athletics Australia, I extend our deepest  condolences to Jarrod's family and friends and urge the  athletics .

Australia champion javelin thrower Bannister dies

Olympic gold medallist Aly  Raisman said today that former USA team coach John Geddert may  have been aware of sexual abuse by Larry Nassar five years  before the doctor's arrest.
Raisman, one of several US Olympians abused by Nassar who  has been jailed, told CNN in an interview that team-mates had  discussed their abuse openly in front of Geddert in 2011, who  did not appear to respond.
"We would talk about it amongst ourselves," Raisman said.
"And one of my teammates described in graphic detail what  Nassar had done to her the night before. And John Geddert was  in the car with us and he just didn't say anything."
Raisman said she was unaware what action if any Geddert  took after the conversation.
"I don't know what he did or didn't do from there," she  said. "I know he didn't ask us any questions, but that is just  why we need the full, independent investigation to get to the  bottom of who knew about this."
Geddert coached the US women's team to the gold medal at  the 2012 ...

Coach may have known about Nassar in 2011 - Raisman

Russia said today the Court of  Arbitration for Sport was under pressure from Olympic  officials when it rejected a last-minute bid from 47 Russian  athletes to take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
"It's difficult for CAS to make decisions against the  backdrop of an earlier pressure," Russian Deputy Prime  Minister Vitaly Mutko told Interfax news agency, referring to  objections from the International Olympic Committee.
He said that if the Russian athletes implicated in doping  had been allowed to take part in the Games now "it would have  caused shock."
The deputy prime minister in charge of sports said the  IOC had in place "opaque, controversial" procedures to decide  who attends the Games and who does not.
Mutko said this created an impression that the Olympic  Games had turned into "a private party and there are a lot of  attendance criteria."
On Friday, 47 Russians implicated in doping lost a last-  minute court bid to take part in the Pyeongchang Olympics,  just hours ...

Russia says court rejected appeal from athletes under pressure

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and  the North's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam met and  shook hands today ahead of the Winter Olympics opening  ceremony, Yonhap news agency reported.
Kim, who is officially leading Pyongyang's diplomatic  delegation to the Games, met Moon at a leaders' reception  ahead of the opening ceremony, it said.

North and South Korea heads of state meet, shake hands: Yonhap

The Egyptian army announced the launch  today of a major operation in the Nile Delta and the northern  Sinai Peninsula, heart of a persistent Islamic State group  insurgency.
Police and troops have been put on "maximum alert" for  the duration of Operation Sinai 2018, the army said in a  statement.
The goal is to tighten control of border districts and  "clean up areas where there are terrorist hotbeds".
The security forces have been increasingly targeted by  jihadists since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed  Morsi in 2013.
Most of the violence has been in North Sinai province,  but there have also been attacks on the military, police and  even churches elsewhere, including Cairo.
In November, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is  seeking re-election in polls next month, ordered the armed  forces chief of staff to restore security in Sinai within  three months after militants killed more than 300 worshippers  at a mosque.
Jihadists have also attacked tourists, killing ...

Egypt army announces major operation in Sinai, Nile Delta

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan  Wawrinka clinched just his second win of 2018 on Thursday when  he defeated Slovak qualifier Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to  reach the Sofia ATP quarter-finals.
The 32-year-old Wawrinka, who missed six months of the  2017 season to undergo two knee surgeries after Wimbledon,  will face Viktor Troicki of Serbia on Friday for a place in  the semi-finals.
"I expected a tough match," world number 15 Wawrinka  told atpworldtour.com. "He's already played a few matches  here."
Wawrinka had won just one match this year before the  Bulgaria tournament, seeing off Ricardas Berankis at the  Australian Open in January before falling to Tennys Sandgren  of the United States.

Wawrinka clinches just second win of 2018

Japan said today it had carried out  raids on a number of cryptocurrency exchanges following a  massive hack that saw thieves steal USD 530 million in virtual  currency.
The hack of Coincheck was one of the largest of its kind,  and prompted authorities to search the firm's offices last  week, after slapping it with an administrative order.
Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday those raids were  now being expanded.
"We have started to raid several virtual currency  exchanges," he told reporters, adding that the raids were  intended to "examine their internal governance structure".
Aso, also the minister in charge of financial services,  has admitted that the government "needs to strengthen our  supervision" of virtual currency exchanges.
Japanese officials have suggested Coincheck lacked proper  security measures, making itself vulnerable to theft.
In the wake of the theft, the country's Financial  Services Agency instructed more than a dozen local exchanges  to submit reports on ..

New raids on Japan crypto exchanges after Coincheck hack

Syrian regime jets have  pounded Eastern Ghouta, sending the death toll from a four-day  assault on the rebel enclave on the outskirts of Damascus  soaring past 220.
Violence also flared in eastern Syria on Thursday, where  the US-led coalition said it had killed at least 100 pro-  regime fighters to fend off an attack on its Kurdish allies.
The clash marked a fresh escalation between Washington,  which has threatened the regime over its alleged use of  chemical weapons, and Damascus, which labelled the latest  incident in eastern Syria a "war crime".
Moscow also slammed the US-led strikes, with Russia's UN  ambassador Vassily Nebenzia saying he had lodged a protest  about the assault during a closed-door Security Council  meeting.
"To confront those who really fight international  terrorism on the ground in Syria is criminal," he said.
The UN Security Council yesterday failed to back a UN  appeal for a month-long humanitarian ceasefire in Syria.
In Eastern Ghouta, which lies east of .

Death toll tops 220 in four-day regime assault on Syria rebel

Forty-seven Russians  implicated in doping lost a last-minute court bid to take part  in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Friday, just hours  before the opening ceremony.
The applicants, who included Korean-born speed skater  Victor An, had asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)  to overturn an International Olympic Committee decision not to  invite them to South Korea.
"The applications filed by Russian athletes and  coaches have been dismissed," CAS secretary general Matthieu  Reeb told a packed news conference.
The IOC was swift to welcome the decision, the latest  twist in the Russian doping scandal, saying the ruling  "supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all  athletes".
The Russian situation has proved highly contentious in  the build-up to Pyeongchang, after their team was banned but a  certain number of "clean" Russian athletes were allowed to  take part as neutrals.
Fifteen of those who lost their bids on Friday were  among a group of 28 who ...

AFP

AFP

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