Malaysia tries to mend fences
With N. Korea
MALAYSIA’S foreign minister said Saturday the government hopes to begin formal talks with North Korea in the “next few days” on solving a diplomatic dispute that has seen the two countries bar each other’s citizens from leaving.
The dispute stems from the mysterious poisoning death of the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur’s airport. Malaysia says Kim Jong Nam died after two women smeared his face with the banned VX nerve agent, but North Korea — which is widely suspected to be behind the attack — rejects the findings.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said Saturday that communication was ongoing with the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and that both sides were ready for formal talks. A DAY AFTER a court removed her from power over a corruption scandal, ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye maintained her silence Saturday as her opponents and supporters divided the capital’s streets with massive rallies that showed a nation deeply split over its future.
Park has been unseen and unheard from since the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Friday, which ended a power struggle that had consumed the nation for months. Park, whose fate was left in the court’s hands after her parliamentary impeachment in December, has yet to vacate the presidential Blue House, with her aides saying they need more time to prepare for her return to her private home in Seoul. FORMER MIXED martial arts fighter War Machine is on trial in Las Vegas facing charges including sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted murder for an August 2014 attack on his former girlfriend, an ex-porn star.
An explainer of the whole horrifying case:
Christine Mackinday, known by her stage name Christy Mack, is a 25-year-old ex-porn actress who got her start in tattoo modeling. The 35-year-old War Machine — who legally changed his name from Jonathan Koppenhaver — is an ex-MMA fighter who also dabbled in the adult film industry. He is using his birth name in court.
Mack and Koppenhaver met on a Hustler magazine photoshoot in 2013, according to reports, and dated until about May 2014.
Koppenhaver is accused of brutally beating Mack one night in August 2014, allegedly the culmination of physical and sexual assaults that spanned months. He’s also said to have attacked her friend Corey Thomas, who was at her Las Vegas home that night, before allowing him to leave.
The former fighter showed up at Mack’s house about 2 a.m.