Seoul to consider outlawing trade in dog meat
Seoul: South Korea is launching a taskforce to consider outlawing dog meat consumption after the country’s president offered to look into ending the centuries-old practice.
Restaurants that serve dog meat are dwindling in South Korea as younger people find it a less appetising dining option and pets are growing in popularity.
Recent surveys indicate more people oppose banning dog meat, even if many do not eat it.
Seven government offices including the Agriculture Ministry said they decided to launch the group comprising officials, civilian experts and people from related organisations to deliver recommendations on possibly outlawing dog meat consumption.
It said authorities will gather information on dog farms, restaurants and other facilities while examining public opinion.
Dog meat is neither legal nor explicitly banned in South Korea.
Chicago: A woman has been fatally shot just steps away from a memorial to her 14-year-old son who suffered the same fate at the weekend.
Delisa Tucker, 31, was shot in the chest on the same street where Kevin Tinker was killed on Sunday.
Chicago Police have not said if they believe the two shootings are connected and nobody has been arrested in either shooting.
The deaths come towards the end of what has been one of the city’s deadliest recent years.
According to police statistics, there have been 729 homicides in the city as of November 21 compared to 702 for the same period last year.
Gulf of Guinea: A Danish navy frigate sailing off west Africa on an international anti-piracy mission has killed four suspected pirates and injured another in an exchange of gunfire, officials said.
The HDMS Esbern Snare reacted to information that a vessel was approaching several commercial ships in the Gulf of Guinea off oil-rich Nigeria.
The frigate dispatched a helicopter whose crew reported seeing eight men on the vessel with “equipment connected to piracy, including ladders”.
The frigate got close enough to the suspected pirate boat to send troops towards it in dinghies.
When the suspected pirates did not react to radio calls, the Danes fired warning shots.
The suspected pirates returned fire and the Danes reacted in selfdefence and a brief gun exchange ensued, during which four people died, the Danish military said in a statement.
Shanghai: A renowned Chinese fashion photographer has apologised for her past work after critics called it insulting to the Chinese people and fashion house Dior removed one of her photos from a show in Shanghai.
Chen Man acknowledged the criticism of her earlier work, including Young Pioneers, a series of images of a young model with backdrops of major landmarks such as China’s massive Three Gorges Dam or with an image of the country’s first lunar orbiter flying out from under her dress.
The criticism was reported by the stateowned Global Times newspaper, which said that comments on social media had called her work “implicit child pornography”.