Soldier killed, Jakarta probes mass shooting
Malaysia blast kills 3
WAMENA, Indonesia, Dec 4, (Agencies): An Indonesian soldier was killed while investigating reports that more than two dozen construction workers were shot dead by separatist rebels in restive Papua province, officials said Tuesday.
If confirmed, the killings would mark the deadliest bout of violence in years to hit a far-flung region wracked for decades by a low-level independence insurgency.
Citing local police, Indonesian media reported late Monday that the workers were shot dead on Sunday in Nduga, a district in the centre of the region on the western half of New Guinea island, just north of Australia. Police and military teams were sent to the area on Monday when they came under rebel gunfire with one soldier killed and another wounded in the firefight, authorities said.
The employees of stateowned contractor Istaka Karya were building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure in the impoverished region.
All construction work in the area would be temporarily suspended, the public works ministry said.
More than a dozen coffins were being readied in Wamena, the nearest major town to where the alleged killings happened.
“Some media are saying 31 workers are dead, some 24, so we really need to check ourselves,” said Papua military spokesman Muhammad Aidi.
A team of about 150 personnel would delay its operation until Wednesday morning, fearing a confrontation with rebels at night, the military said later Tuesday.
“We think they’ll be expecting us,” local military chief Jonathan Binsar Sianipar told AFP.
Four workers – including three suffering gunshot wounds – were among 12 civilians evacuated from Mbua district about 6.00pm (0900 GMT) Tuesday, the Indonesian military said.
The suspected killings could be the worst outbreak of violence in a “very, very long time”, said
director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).
Jones
Malaysia mall blast kills 3:
Three people were killed and 24 injured Tuesday when a powerful explosion rocked a shopping mall in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, but a fire official said it was not caused by a bomb.
The official Bernama news agency said the blast could have been caused by a leaking gas tank.
Wan Abdul Mubin, head of the fire rescue department in the state capital Kuching, told AFP his office received an emergency call at around 0737 GMT.
“We scrambled 39 officers to the scene. We are investigating the cause of the explosion. It is one of the worst tragedies in the state in years. But it is not a bomb,” he said.
“We recovered the bodies of three men. And we have helped in the evacuation of 24 people injured to the nearby public hospital,” he added.
Nippon warned over forced laborers:
Lawyers for Korean wartime forced laborers have demanded that a Japanese steelmaker respond to their request to discuss compensation, warning they will otherwise take steps to freeze its assets in their country.
The two lawyers on Tuesday asked Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. in Tokyo to respond by 5 pm on Dec 24. They said if there is no response by the deadline, they will seek to freeze part of the company’s assets in South Korea, including shares of PNR, its joint venture with Korean steelmaker POSCO.
South Korea’s top court ordered Nippon Steel to pay 100 million won ($87,680) each to four plaintiffs forced to work at the company during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The court has made similar rulings on another Japanese company, triggering disputes between the two countries.
“If we find that (the company) doesn’t want to have negotiations and communication by then, we’ll launch steps to seize its assets in South Korea within that week,” Lim Jae-Sung, one of the attorneys who visited the company to submit the request, told a news conference.
Lim said he and his colleagues have found out that Nippon Steel holds about 2.34 million PNR shares, which could be worth about 11 billion won ($9.9 million). More than 3,000 intellectual properties that Nippon Steel registered in South Korea could also be frozen, he said.
HK Dems furious over election ban:
A Hong Kong legislator has been barred from standing in a local election after being accused of supporting independence from China, sparking fury Monday among the city’s pro-democracy camp who warn of tightening ideological control.
The disqualification of popular lawmaker Eddie Chu is the latest blow to the democratic movement as room for opposition in semi-autonomous Hong Kong shrinks under an assertive China.
Chu is the first person to be blocked from standing in rural village elections, after poll officials decided he is pro-independence -- a red line for Beijing.
While he has supported self-determination for Hong Kong, he maintains he does not advocate its separation from China.
Voices for self-determination emerged from the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, and believe in the right of Hong Kongers to decide their own fate, including how the city should be governed.
Chu said the decision to ban him reveals a Cultural Revolution-style approach that everyone has to be “thought police”.
“Not only must a person in Hong Kong not advocate independence themselves ... But if you didn’t oppose the right of others to advocate it, then your own political rights will be taken away,” he said.