Seoul – A snowballing political scandal moved closer to embattled South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Thursday, with her newly nominated prime minister warning she could face a probe, hours after prosecutors detained a former presidential aide.

Ahn Jong-Beom was detained late Wednesday over suspicions that he helped Park’s friend Choi Soon-Sil coerce companies into donating large sums to dubious non-profit foundations that she then used for personal gains, Yonhap said.

Ahn, who was dismissed on Sunday, is the second person to be taken into emergency detention after Choi was held Monday for questioning in the influence-peddling scandal.

Park is scrambling to deflect rising public anger over suggestions that Choi – the daughter of a shadowy religious figure – vetted presidential speeches, had access to classified documents, and used her influence for personal enrichment.

“Everyone including the president is equal before the law,” new prime minister nominee Kim Byong-Joon declared at a press conference.

“My position is that it is (legally) possible to interrogate and investigate” a sitting president, he said.

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Choi accused of interfering in state affairs using relationship with President

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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Under South Korea’s constitution, the incumbent president may not be charged with a criminal offense except for insurrection or treason.

But many argue the sitting president can be probed by prosecutors and then charged after leaving office.

Justice Minister Kim Hyun-Woong also told parliament Thursday that prosecutors could question Park, if the ongoing investigation required it.

The scandal has shaken the presidency, exposing Park to public outrage and ridicule and, with just over a year left in office, seen her approval ratings plunge into the single digits.

In an effort to deflect rising public criticism, Park had been urged to create a neutral cabinet by bringing in members from outside her ruling conservative Saenuri Party.

She has reached across the traditional political divide with a host of new appointments, including tapping the liberal Kim Byong-Joon as her new prime minister, a largely symbolic post.

She announced Thursday her pick for chief of staff, Han Gwang-Ok, a former aide to late President Kim Dae-Jung in an appointment the presidential Blue House said would help get the rattled administration back on track.

But the opposition has dismissed the reshuffle as a smokescreen.

They have called for a full investigation of Park’s relationship with Choi, vowing to block the new prime minister’s nomination by wielding their combined parliamentary majority.

The media has portrayed the 60-year-old Choi as a Rasputin-like figure, who wielded an unhealthy influence over Park that continued after her presidential election victory in December 2012.

Choi is the daughter of late religious leader Choi Tae-Min, who was married six times, had multiple pseudonyms and set up his own cult-like group known as the Church of Eternal Life.

He befriended a traumatised Park after the 1974 assassination of her mother – who he said had appeared to him in a dream. Park treated him as a mentor and subsequently formed a close bond with his daughter.

Choi flew back to Seoul from Germany on Sunday to submit to herself for questioning, saying after she fought her way through a scrum of press and protesters that she had “committed a deadly sin”, Yonhap reported.

Prosecutors are seeking a warrant to formally arrest Choi – who they have deemed a flight risk and “unstable” – before the emergency detention period expires.

The scandal comes as South Korea, Asia’s fourth largest economy, faces slumping exports and high unemployment amid rising nuclear and missile threats from North Korea

NEW DELHI – An impassioned plea by an Indian bride-to-be urging authorities to issue a visa to her Pakistani bridesmaid has gone viral on social media amid worsening ties between the neighbouring countries.

Journalist Purvi Thacker, who is set to get married in Mumbai in December, poured her heart out on Tuesday (Nov 1) on Facebook after her best friend Sarah Munir’s visa application was rejected by the Indian consulate.

“Never did wars, religion, shared history, nationality or even cricket matches come between us,” Ms Thacker, a New York-based freelance journalist, wrote in a blog.

It was not until Ms Munir’s visa application was denied “that we were reminded that politics of hate and fear will create differences even where there are none among ordinary people like us.

“Being friends and being there for each other should not be this hard just because we were born on different sides of the borders,” Ms Thacker wrote.

India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads since their independence from Britain in 1947 and have fought three wars, including two of the divided territory of Kashmir which both countries claim as their own in full.

Military and diplomatic tensions have soared since a recent raid on an Indian army base near the de facto border dividing Kashmir killed 19 soldiers, the worst such attack in more than a decade.

Ms Thacker’s #GetSarahtoIndia campaign has garnered thousands of shares, likes and reactions, making it to news publications on either side of the border.

She even tagged India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Twitter, seeking her urgent help in the matter.

The friends, who first met in New York in 2011 while attending a graduate programme, have travelled to each other’s countries before.

Indian opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor tweeted his support to the friends, saying he was counting on the minister to untangle the red tape.

“Some1 who has visited India twice already can’t be a risk. All the best for your wedding!” he said in a tweet to Ms Thacker.

The bride-to-be is hopeful that love would eventually triumph over hate.

“For us, it is very simple, we are best friends and we hope our governments can see that too,” she said.

7 tips for avoiding a wedding toast disaster

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Straits Times

Drivers in Shenzhen who misuse their headlights can expect to be subject to more than just verbal abuse or shown the finger from annoyed road-users.

Traffic police in the southern Chinese city are taking action against such errant motorists by making them stare into full-beam headlights for a minute as a form of punishment, various media outlets reported.

News of the campaign was publicised through a post on the Shenzhen Traffic Police’s official Weibo account on Tuesday (Nov 1) calling it an “appropriate experience” that would make offenders “sense the harm” of flashing their lights.

It has amassed over 90,000 likes and shared over 96,000 times since then.

Photos accompanying the post showed what appeared to be drivers sitting on specially-marked green chairs directly facing vehicles with its headlights on.

It is unclear if the optical exposure is optional, but some reports said that violators are also lectured on the proper use of their headlights and fined 300 yuan (S$61), reported Sky News.

A similar campaign made the news in 2014 and it’s said that the traffic police decided to restart it again.

This time round, the reaction has been largely positive, reported the BBC, adding that other local police forces also supported the initiative on their social media accounts.

A poll on the Chinese mainstream Sina news portal also found that 90 per cent of people approved.

However some netizens were against the idea.

One Weibo user posted: “Traffic police should follow the law. Please tell me what law or regulation this punishment is based on?”

A blogger called Darkcity2 said: “I live in Shanghai. Of all the absolutely mind-bogglingly inconsiderate *** drivers do on the road here, driving with your high beams on is low on the list.”

CCTV reported that 932 drivers in the city were caught at 100 checkpoints set up by traffic police in the two hours from 8pm to 10pm on Tuesday.

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Motorists who misuse headlights in Shenzhen made to stare into full beam as punishment

Source:

Weibo

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sujint@sph.com.sg