‘ASHAMED AND SCARED’: GROUP DETAILS ‘ENDEMIC’ SEX ABUSE IN NORTH KOREA
SEOUL : Sexual abuse by North Korean officials appears to be “endemic”, a watchdog group reported on Thursday, as activists complain the isolated country’s rights record is being ignored as an international push is made to improve relations. Investigators with Us-based Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 100 North Koreans who had left the country, including more than 50 who left since 2011, and described unwanted sexual contact and violence as “so common that it has come to be accepted as part of ordinary life”. Gathering information in North Korea is notoriously difficult, and HRW acknowledged its survey was too limited to provide a generalised sample. REUTERS
Woman survives six days in Arizona desert after crash
A 53-year-old woman survived six days in the Arizona desert on grass and water after crashing her car, before being rescued by a rancher and highway workers who were chasing a cow, police and local media said on Wednesday. The woman, whose name was not disclosed, lost control of her car on October 12 on a rainslicked road near Wickenburg, Arizona, about 105 km north of Phoenix, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The car plunged about 15 m down a ravine, “landing in a mesquite tree, where it remained suspended above the ground,” DPS reported. REUTERS
Israeli PM’S candidate for Jerusalem mayor ousted
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick for Jerusalem mayor has failed to make it past the first round of polling, local election results showed on Wednesday. Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Zeev Elkin, a member of Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party and who received the premier’s endorsement, won only 20% of the vote. None of the six candidates for mayor, all Jewish, won the 40% of votes required to be elected in the first round held on Tuesday.
US synagogue shooting suspect pleads not guilty
PITTSBURGH: Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 people in a hate-fuelled massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, entered a plea of not guilty in a federal courtroom on Thursday. Bowers, 46, walked into the courtroom on foot, showing little sign of the injuries he suffered from the shootout that ended the attack on Saturday, besides a heavily bandaged left elbow. He wore red, short-sleeved jailhouse scrubs and his handcuffs were unlocked at the defense table. He sat down with little effort. The arraignment, which took less than 15 minutes, began with prosecutors reading him a summary of 44 counts in his indictment.
S Korea court upholds conscientious objection
SEOUL : South Korea’s top court ruled Thursday that men can legally reject their mandatory military service on conscientious or religious grounds without punishment. The ruling is expected to affect the cases of more than 930 conscientious objectors on trial. Hundreds of young South Korean men, mostly Jehovah’s Witnesses, are imprisoned every year for refusing to serve in the military. All able-bodied men must serve about two years.
AP