World
Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor
C4
FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017
Samsung heir denies charges at hearing SEOUL―The heir to the Samsung business empire denies all charges in connection with a wideranging corruption scandal, his lawyers told a preliminary hearing Thursday. Lee Jae-Yong, 48, was not present at Seoul Central District court for the hearing, which comes as his giant company -- the world’s biggest smartphone maker -struggles to recover from a recall scandal. Lee, the vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, is being held in custody on accusations of bribery, corruption, perjury and other offenses stemming from a scandal that has seen President Park GeunHye impeached. Four other Samsung executives have also been charged. “Everyone denies all the charges,” a defense lawyer told the court at the hearing, which lasted little more than an hour. The prosecutors’ formal indictment was sketchy, with some of the accusations lacking clear evidence and only circumstantial, the defense said. The accused allegedly paid nearly $40 million in bribes to Park’s close friend Choi Soon-Sil to secure policy favors. The courtroom was about 80 percent full, with dozens of reporters, students and a handful of middle-aged and elderly citizens. When one of Lee’s attorneys finished reading his statement, an elderly lady abruptly stood up from her seat and shouted: “Can a member of the public ask a question?” Her request was rejected by the judge, and she was removed by security when she persisted. Lee has effectively been at the helm of Samsung since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014. One of the favors which Lee allegedly sought from Park was state approval for a controversial merger in 2015 of two Samsung units seen as a key step to ensure a smooth transfer of power to him. The deal was opposed by many shareholders who said it had willfully undervalued the shares of one of the two firms. But it eventually went through after the national pension fund -- a major Samsung shareholder -- approved it. The corruption scandal centers on Choi, who is accused of using her close ties with the president to force local firms to “donate” nearly $70 million to non-profit foundations, which Choi allegedly used for personal gain. AFP
AGAINST TRUMP. Women wearing Statue of Liberty costumes protest US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in Sydney’s Martin Place on March 9, 2017. AFP
Fleeing migrants stuck between Trump, gangs M EXICO CITY―When a gang threatened to kill Rocio, her husband and their two small children, they fled their native Honduras, hoping for asylum in the United States.
Now they are stuck in Mexico, too scared to risk being deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on migrants. The family fled to Mexico last June and was anxious to move on, fearing the Honduran gang would track them down. “We changed our minds because of that president, the way he is deporting people,” she said of Trump, who has vowed stepped up deportation procedures against undocumented immigrants. Now the 25-year-old woman and her family live in a charity shelter in Mexico. She asked to be identified just as Rocio, without her last name, for fear of reprisals.
She has applied three times for refugee status, which would protect her from deportation and allow her access to health care and education. But the courts have so far denied it to her family for lack of evidence. Deadly gang violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala is driving hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants to flee north. Officials say nearly 9,000 people applied for refugee status in Mexico last year and the figure may double this year. “The radicalization of certain measures by the new US government makes us expect the number of applications will increase,”
Mexico’s deputy migration minister Humberto Roque Villanueva told AFP. Carlos, a 43-year-old farmer from El Salvador, also risks deportation after failing to get refugee status. He lives in an overcrowded shelter in Mexico City where airplanes flying nearby make a deafening noise. “We would all prefer to go to the United States, but now everyone is staying here” in Mexico, says Carlos, 43. “Trump says he is not going to deport everyone, just the bad people, but that’s not certain. If they grab one person in a place, they’ll grab everyone there.” Carlos would much rather be back home on his peaceful farm growing sesame and corn, but it is too dangerous. After members of one gang ordered him to feed them, he became a reluctant enemy of their rivals, the notoriously violent Salvatrucha gang.
“I was greatly afraid all the time,” he said. “Mexico may be dangerous, but at least here you can go out for a walk and make friends.” Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto last year promised to speed up the refugee applications process. But immigration authorities still only have about 50 staffers assigned to handling all the cases. Of those, 29 are paid by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Mexican officials “don’t give residency papers to people who really need them; but they do give them to people who chose to leave home and come here,” Rocio complained, clenching her fists. Authorities say more than 400,000 people cross into Mexico via its southern border each year. “Applications keep increasing,” says senior UNHCR official Jose Francisco Sieber. “Innovative solutions are needed to allow applications to be processed fairly.” AFP
Hawaii first US state to contest Trump ban
PROTEST IN PARIS. Members of the feminist activist group Femen pose on March 5, 2017 in Paris.
Lower row from left are Fleur Kovacevic, Lola Vernot, Sophia Antoine, Nora Benomar and Sarah Constantin. Upper row from left are Mathilde Froon, Julia Naccache, Constance LefËvre, Inna Shevchenko, Tara Lacroix, Arielle LÈva and Anne-Lise Leonio-Niclou. AFP
WASHINGTON―Hawaii has become the first US state to file a suit against President Donald Trump’s amended travel order banning the entry of people from six mainly Muslim countries and suspending refugee resettlement. The state’s attorney general argued late Wednesday that while the new order features changes to address the complaints raised by the courts that blocked the first travel ban, the new order is pretty much the same as the first one. The far-flung Pacific state is seeking a nationwide restraining order blocking the implementation of the order Trump signed on Monday. The new order suspends refugee admissions for 120 days and halts the granting of new visas for travelers from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan. It explicitly exempts Iraqis, who were on the first list, and legal permanent residents and valid visa holders. “Nothing of substance has changed: There is the same blanket ban on entry from Muslimmajority countries (minus one),” state attorney general Doug Chin said in a statement. “The courts did not tolerate the Administration’s last attempt to
hoodwink the judiciary, and they should not countenance this one,” Chin wrote. Trump’s first order sparked a legal, political and logistical furor. There was chaos at major airports and mass protests while several district courts moved to block its implementation and lawmakers expressed opposition. The troubled rollout also dominated the first weeks of the new administration, leaving many with the impression that it was badly planned and badly implemented. Polls show American public opinion is deeply divided on the issue. Most indicate a slight majority of voters opposed, with strong support among Trump’s political base. The Republican president criticized a court order suspending the ban as “a very bad decision, very bad for the safety and security of our country. The rollout was perfect.” But he has now stepped away from a promise to challenge the matter in the courts. The second order repeals the first, spelling the end of any pending legal proceedings. AFP
New film revives the iconic King Kong LOS ANGELES―Eight decades since furry wrecking machine King Kong first stomped into theaters, the giant ape with a predilection for bottle-blonde damsels in distress makes his cinematic comeback this weekend. “Kong: Skull Island” is expected to be a huge worldwide hit, leveraging a global fan base built up through a series of sequels, reboots and spin-offs that has turned the character into a cinematic icon. “Going back to the classic 1933 ‘King Kong’ starring Fay Wray, this beauty and the beast tale has held a particular fascination for audiences and has continued to inspire filmmakers over the decades,” Paul Dergarabedian, of media analytics firm comScore, told AFP. “Though superheroes seem to rule the earth, monster movies will always have a place in the hearts of audiences, and this latest version should benefit from that interest.” Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, a newcomer to big studio properties, the latest Kong monster mash features a stratospherically famous cast led by Samuel L Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and a svelte John Goodman. Set in 1973, with US involvement in the Vietnam War ending, explorer Bill Randa (Goodman) persuades a senator to let him gather a team to explore the seismology of a mysterious Pacific island isolated by storms. “Jurassic World” meets “Apocalypse Now” as Randa’s military escort -- a motley band of brothers led by the brooding Lt Colonel Preston Packard (Jackson) -- give the big guy and an array of other scary monsters plenty to chew on. Along for the ride is Captain James Conrad, an SAS tracker turned mercenary (Hiddleston), and plucky anti-war photojournalist Mason Weaver -- Brie Larson in her first role since her Oscarwinning performance in “Room.” The comic relief is provided by John C. Reilly’s deliciously impish portrayal of half-crazed World War II pilot Hank Marlow, who has been marooned on the island for 29 years. Kong, meanwhile, shares his home with vicious lizard-like creatures that have been skulking in a primordial hollow beneath the island, occasionally surfacing to wreak murderous havoc among a small community of human natives. AFP