A mother didn’t realise her son was drowning even though they were only 2m away from each other in a swimming pool in China.

Why? She was too transfixed on her mobile phone while her helpless four-year-old boy was struggling in the water.

The tragic incident on Tuesday (Jan 3) at a pool inside the Ocean Spring Resort in Xianyang city was captured by a CCTV camera.

When the mother was done with her phone, she realised her son had disappeared and sought the help of pool staff to look for him.

After more than an hour of searching, her son’s body was finally found at the bottom of the deeper (1.1m) end of the pool, reported thepaper.cn, citing an article in the local Hua Shang Daily.

Posted on Twitter by People’s Daily, the CCTV video reveals the boy’s final agonising moments when he struggled for about three minutes before drowning.

Read also: Child killed by car while mother was distracted by phone

The mother, whose surname is Xiao, told Hua Shang Daily that she was only 2m away from her son when she was checking her phone.

“If I had known this would happen, I would never bring him here,” said a distraught Madam Xiao.

Although local police have yet to issue a statement, state-owned travel agency HKCTS which manages the pool, shut it down to probe the matter.

Madam Xiao and her husband reportedly work in the nearby city of Xi’an.

chenj@sph.com.sg

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President Park Geun-hye’s lawyers denied all the charges against her during the second hearing of her impeachment trial Thursday, taking issue with the political neutrality of the ongoing investigation into the scandal involving Park and questioning the validity of evidence.

Read also: South Koreans battling ‘Soon-sil Syndrome’

At a separate trial also held Thursday, key figures accused of being involved in Park’s alleged corruption — including the president’s longtime friend Choi Soon-sil — also denied the core allegations against them.

An administrative staff of the presidential office Yoon Jeon-choo testified as a witness for Park’s trial at the Constitutional Court and offered some clues on what Park did at the time of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014. Her seven-hour absence is a key controversy, which contributed to Park’s impeachment.

The top court’s nine justices, headed by chief Park Han-chul, proceeded despite her absence, according to the Constitutional Court Act. She will likely remain absent for the hearings, her lawyers said.

“Park has never let her aides meddle in state affairs and appointed government officials through legitimate procedures,” said Park’s lawyer Lee Joong-hwan during the hearing. “She also took necessary measures to cope with the Sewol ferry accident. There is no evidence for her alleged bribery, abuse of authority and coercion based on objective facts.”

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2016-10-31 15:13:34

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Choi accused of interfering in state affairs using relationship with President

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AFP

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He asked the court to look into the evidence presented by the parliament “sternly,” as he claims it is only based on what he called politically biased investigation by an independent counsel and false media reports. The denial of the validity of the evidence is seen as an attempt to prolong court proceedings.

The parliamentary impeachment committee, which serves as a prosecutor in the trial, said that the president seriously violated the Constitution and law in performing her presidential duty by using state affairs as a tool for her personal gains.

The charges centre on allegations that President Park colluded with her longtime friend Choi to extort money from local conglomerates, failed to protect people’s lives at the time of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 and allowed Choi, who has no official government post, to manipulate power behind the scenes for her personal gains.

Read also: Choi Soon-sil suspected of hiding $962 million in Germany

“Through the decision to impeach the president, we will reconfirm the principle that the people are the owners of this country and the president’s use of authority against public trust,” Rep. Kwon Seong-dong, chairman of the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee.

“Ousting the president is aimed not only at recovering the national loss and vacuum in the running of state affairs but at restoring the constitutional order.”

In the hearing, three of the four key witnesses — Park’s closest secretaries Lee Jae-man and Ahn Bong-geun, and an administrative employee Lee Young-sun — refused to appear at the court. Only Yoon Jeon-choo attended the session.

Yoon, who was in charge of helping Park’s personal and private affairs, said that she was called in at 8:30 a.m. in the morning and attended to “unofficial” business with Park at the president’s residence.

“I don’t remember what business exactly it was about, but I remember it was about her personal stuff,” she said without elaborating further.

She also offered new testimonies that the president met ex-presidential aide Ahn Bong-geun in the morning on the day of the Sewol accident and two hair stylists visited Park in the afternoon. She also denied rumours that Park held a religious cult ritual or received a plastic surgery at the presidential office while the ferry was sinking.

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2016-10-29 18:47:34

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The ‘female Rasputin’ at centre of S Korean President Park Geun-Hye political scandal

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The ex-presidential aides did not respond to the court summoning, remaining in hiding, while the administrative employee Lee is set to be brought back in to testify Thursday.

Park’s other lawyer Seo Seok-gu appeared to taint the meaning of the candlelight vigils that have taken place for the past two months against the president, which had prompted her impeachment.

“The sentiment shown during the candlelight vigils does not reflect the public sentiment, given it was led by a labour union group,” he said. Seo added that the majority rule can be dangerous when it is based on inaccurate media reports, citing the Greek philosopher Socrates who was sentenced to death and Jesus carrying the cross.

Kwon immediately shot back, asking the court to stop him from talking about matters unrelated to clarifying the charges listed in the impeachment motion. “Who led the candlelight vigils has completely nothing to do with the impeachment trial,” he said.

The Constitutional Court explained the key points in the impeachment trial and confirmed the list of evidence and witnesses during the hearing. It also asked for co-operation from both sides not to distract from its main focus while reminding them that the trial is not a criminal trial.

The National Assembly voted to oust Park on Dec. 9, stripping her of substantial executive powers, over the corruption scandal. The top court has until early June to decide whether to uphold or overturn Park’s impeachment.

For the hearing scheduled for Tuesday, other key suspects — Choi, former presidential aides An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong — are expected to testify before the justices.

In this screen shot of an anti-corruption documentary, Wu Tianjun, former security chief of Henan province, is interrogated by officials of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country’s top discipline watchdog, in November 2016. The three-part TV series is produced by the CCDI and China Central Television. Its second part was aired on Thursday on CCTV-1.

According to the documentary, the process includes the subjects reviewing the oath they took when they joined the Communist Party of China.

Wu is asked to read the oath he took when he joined the CPC. The subjects are also requested to reflect on their wrongdoings as they relearn the Party’s constitution and regulations.

Wu confesses in the documentary that he feels guilty for letting down the Party. “I made pleasure my main goal and changed the direction of my life,” Wu said. He said the changes in values made him self-centred instead of making the Party’s career the top priority.

Yuan Yifeng (right), former director of the CCDI’s No 8 disciplinary inspection office, is interrogated.

 Yuan Yifeng, former director of the CCDI’s No 8 disciplinary inspection office, sheds tears of regret during the interrogation.

SEOUL – Apple Inc said it was planning to open a retail store in South Korea, its first in the country that is home to its smartphone archrival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The iPhone maker listed hiring notices for 15 positions dated Thursday on its website, including a store leader and business manager.

The listings did not specify the exact location or when those who are hired will begin working.

“We’re excited about opening our first Apple Store in Korea, one of the world’s economic centers and a leader in telecommunication and technology, with a vibrant K-culture,”Apple told Reuters in a statement Friday.

“We’re now hiring the team that will offer our customers in Seoul the service, education and entertainment that is loved by Apple customers around the world.”

Apple declined to comment on where in Seoul its retail store would be or when it would open.

But South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said in a report on Friday that construction was underway for the store at a location in a southern district of Seoul and that the work will likely be completed by end-November.

HONG KONG –

A third case of human avian influenza was confirmed in Hong Kong last Friday. A 62-year-old man was seriously ill and the second patient was confirmed to be infected with the same H7N9 virus.

The first patient died 5 days before H7N9.

The latest case, confirmed Thursday, is the fear of the spread of avian flu in South Korea, Japan and mainland China.

In the winter of 2009, a total of 19 people infected with avian flu, all infected with H7N9 virus, killing at least three people.

The Center for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health said a 62-year-old man was hospitalized in a nearby hospital in Dongguan on Monday and Tuesday and traveled south China in mid-December.

He said he was admitted to hospital in Hong Kong on Wednesday after he was discharged from hospital.

The world’s largest annual human migration, the Spring Festival travel rush, will be even larger this year.

People will make a total of 2.98 billion trips nationwide during the annual travel peak, from Jan 13 to Feb 21, up 2.2 per cent year-on-year, according to an official forecast released on Wednesday.

Twelve per cent of trips will be made by railway, 84.6 per cent by road, 1.4 per cent by water and 2 per cent by air, according to a report by the National Intelligent Transport Systems Center of Engineering and Technology in China, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport.

The total volume of passengers taking trains and airplanes will increase by about 10 per cent year-on-year, the report said.

The expected peaks are on Jan 25, three days before Lunar New Year’s Day, and on Feb 2, the final day of the national holiday period.

Before the festival, the most popular routes are departing from big cities and arriving in suburban areas, mostly carrying migrant workers returning home.

After the festival, the migration pattern will reverse, from medium and small cities to big cities.

Bullet trains have become a popular choice, the report said, with the most popular rail lines including Shanghai-Hangzhou, Shenzhen-Guangzhou, Chongqing-Chengdu and Beijing-Shijiazhuang.

Shen Peilan, who lives in Shanghai, will be taking part in the migration.

She has booked a high-speed train ticket from Beijing to Shanghai for Jan 26.

“I usually fly between Shanghai and Beijing, but I’m worried about the weather conditions this winter, and flights are hard to predict and likely to be cancelled or delayed,” the 30-year-old said. “That is why I booked a bullet train ticket this time.

“It was not as hard to book a train ticket as many said it would be, but I guess that is because Beijing to Shanghai is not a popular Spring Festival travel rush route.”

Pang Jun, 30, from Hunan province, is not as lucky.

He said: “I have to make three trips this Spring Festival: from Beijing to Jiangsu, to visit my girlfriend’s parents; from Jiangsu to Hunan, to visit my parents; and from Hunan to Beijing. I will be more exhausted than when I’m working.”

It is the first time Pang will visit his girlfriend’s home during Spring Festival. “It will be a double challenge in the future.”

He and his girlfriend plan to take trains and airplanes.

“By air is expensive, but fast. Train is our top choice, but all tickets from Beijing to Jiangsu province are sold out,” he said, adding that they are holding on to the hope they can snap up some return tickets.

Taipei – Fifty pole dancers clad in black bikinis gave one Taiwan politician a raucous final send-off in an eyebrow-raising funeral parade that jammed traffic and drew crowds of onlookers.

It was not a quiet, dignified exit for local councillor Tung Hsiang, whose funeral cortege saw the women dancing and singing on top of multi-coloured jeeps as a band played and performers dressed as deities joined in.

Footage of the funeral in the southern Taiwanese city of Chiayi on Tuesday showed the vibrant procession of 200 vehicles stretching for several kilometres.

Onlookers snapped photos and some motorcyclists even chased after the cortege to watch the pole dancers, said local CTS news channel.

Tung, who died of an illness in December at 76 years old, was a well-known figure in Chiayi where he was active in the local political scene for decades in various posts.

Tung’s family said he liked fun and socialising so they wanted to see him off in a flamboyant, memorable way.

“He told us he wanted this through a dream two days before the funeral,” his brother Tung Mao-hsiung told CTS.

While it may contrast with some traditional notions of funeral etiquette, it is not uncommon for Taiwanese send-offs to be risque affairs.

Showgirls are not only hired to perform pole dancing but even go as far as striptease at religious festivals and funerals on the island, where folk religion is a unique mixture of the spiritual and the earthly.

Also read: Taiwan throws lively funerals, complete with miniskirt-clad marching bands