NEWS OF THE DAY
Ex-president sentenced: Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s impeached and ousted president, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison, as an appeals court convicted her of collecting more bribes than previously believed from Samsung, the country’s largest business conglomerate. In a lower-court ruling in April, Park, 66, was sentenced to 24 years in prison on bribery, extortion, abuse of power and other criminal charges and ordered to pay $16 million in fines. But on Friday, the appeals court in Seoul added another year to her prison term and increased her fine to $18 billion, saying that the collusive ties between Park and Samsung were more expansive than the lower court had ruled. Park, who has been in jail since last year, did not appear in court Friday to hear the verdict. Her trial does not end until the Supreme Court rules on the case.
Huge wildfire: A wildfire the size of more than 500 soccer fields spread southwest of the German capital on Friday, leading to the evacuation of three villages. Efforts to extinguish the flames were complicated by old ammunition from World War II that is still buried in the forests around Berlin and could explode in the fire. More than 500 people had to leave their homes Thursday night as a result of the fire in the Treuenbrietzen region, some 30 miles outside of Berlin. Local lawmaker Christian Stein said there had already been several detonations due to the ammunition, and that some 600 firefighters and soldiers were not allowed to enter suspicious areas. Germany has seen a long, hot summer with almost no rain. Tourist deaths: Prompted by the unexplained death of a British couple at an Egyptian Red Sea resort this week, their tour company was evacuating 300 foreign guests from their hotel Friday after it received reports that other guests had also fallen ill. The couple, John and Susan Cooper, of Lancashire, England, died within hours of each other at the resort in Hurghada on Tuesday. John Cooper, 69, was found dead in his hotel room midmorning, while Susan Cooper, 64, died six hours later. The evacuation of the other guests at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel on Friday was the latest blow to Egypt’s tourism industry, which is still struggling to recover from years of political turmoil, plane crashes and Islamist attacks. The Coopers’ travel company, Thomas Cook, said in a statement: “We are aware of the speculation in some of today’s media that their deaths may have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.”
North Korea trip off: President Trump said Friday he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to skip a planned trip next week to North Korea, an abrupt cancellation of the next round of negotiations on the country’s nuclear program. “I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Trump said in a series of Twitter posts Friday. “In the meantime I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim.”
Measles outbreak: Brazil’s health officials say more than 4 million children still need to be vaccinated against measles. More than 1,380 people have been infected in an outbreak linked to cases imported from Venezuela. To stop the disease’s spread, Brazil’s Health Ministry launched a campaign this month to vaccinate all children between 1 and 5 — regardless of their vaccination history. It said Friday that 4.1 million children still had not been vaccinated as the campaign enters its final week.