02/10/2024

WEDNESDAY | OCT 2, 2024

8

Textile baron duped by fake court hearing

South Korean president warns North of ‘regime end’ SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would face the end of his regime if he ever used his nuclear weapons against the South, Seoul’s president said yesterday. President Yoon Suk Yeol was speaking at an event to mark the anniversary of the founding of South Korea’s armed forces. “If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the overwhelming response of our military,” Yoon said, addressing 5,300 service members gathered at Seoul Air Base. “That day will mark the end of the North Korean regime,” he said, pointing to the strength of the country’s security alliance with the United States, which stations tens of thousands of troops in the South. South Korea showcased its largest ballistic missile – the Hyunmoo-5 , which is capable of destroying underground bunkers – for the first time as part of the event. An American B-1B heavy bomber also staged a flyover flanked by F-15K jets to demonstrate the security alliance between Seoul and Washington. North Korea slammed the flight in a statement by National Defence Vice-Minister Kim Kang Il published by the official Korean Central News Agency. The North Korean military would be “keenly watching the frequent deployment” of such strategic assets, he said, adding that Pyongyang’s military was “fully prepared to thoroughly defend” the nuclear-armed state. Yoon’s warning comes weeks after the North disclosed images of a uranium enrichment facility for the first time, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring the site as he called for more centrifuges to boost the country’s nuclear arsenal. South Korea’s spy agency later stated that the unprecedented disclosure was “directed at the US” and that North Korea was believed to be capable of producing a double-digit number of nuclear weapons from its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. – AFP BEIJING: Three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai on Monday on the eve of China’s week-long National Day holiday. The assailant, a 37-year-old man surnamed Lin, has been detained, Songjiang district police said in a statement yesterday. Police said Lin had travelled to Shanghai to vent his anger following a personal financial dispute. Public stabbing incidents have risen over the years in China, with authorities often putting the blame on mental illness. Children at schools are a common target. A 10-year-old Japanese student was fatally stabbed by an attacker near his school in the southern Chinese city NEW DELHI: An Indian environmental activist was detained by police outside New Delhi at the end of a month-long protest march from the Himalayas, his colleague said yesterday. Sonam Wangchuk, 58, and around 100 of his supporters were taken into custody on Monday night when they were intercepted by police on a major highway leading into the city. The group had walked nearly 1,000km to demand more attention to weather-related issues in their mountainous home region of Ladakh and more political autonomy for the territory. Ladakh sits on a highly militarised frontier between India, Pakistan and China, which all claim parts of the remote territory. – AFP THREE DEAD, 15 HURT IN SHANGHAI KNIFE ATTACK of Shenzhen last month. – Reuters INDIA POLICE DETAIN TOP ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST

o Fraudsters posed as federal investigators

Oswal’s case documents said he was threatened with a so-called digital arrest, a rising trend in India where scammers interrogate people on video calls and blackmail them into making payments for violations of the law that they never committed. India’s government in May warned the public that a rising number of cases of “digital arrests” were being reported where cyber criminals sometimes wear police uniforms and pose as law enforcement officers from studios modelled on police stations or government offices. More than 1,000 Skype IDs involved in such activities had been blocked. Oswal is one of the most high-profile figures to have been embroiled in such a scam. He leads a five-decade-old textile company which has a turnover of US$1.1 billion and a presence in more than 75 countries. – Reuters

chairman of India’s Vardhman Group. Oswal said fraudsters posing as federal investigators approached him as a suspect in a money laundering case. They also organised an online court hearing where someone impersonated India’s Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and then he was ordered to deposit his funds in an account as part of the investigation. “They made a Skype call regarding the court hearing ... as per a Supreme Court order I was directed to release all my funds to a secret supervision account,” Oswal told police authorities, according to a case document Reuters reviewed on Monday. The Supreme Court’s registrar and Chandrachud’s office did not respond to Reuters queries. Oswal also did not respond. Police on Monday said they had recovered US$600,000 from the accused, saying it was considered to be India’s largest recovery so far in such cases.

NEW DELHI: Indian police are investigating an elaborate scam that swindled a prominent businessman out of US$830,000 (RM3.4 million) by summoning him to a fake online hearing before India’s Supreme Court and making a threat of jail which caused him to transfer the funds. While digital and online frauds are increasingly common in India, a police official in northern state of Punjab told Reuters on Monday that duping someone by holding a purported Supreme Court session was unheard of. Details of the case emerged after police said on Sunday they arrested two people on the complaint of S.P. Oswal, the 82-year-old

BR I E F S

A resident prepares for Typhoon Krathon in Kaohsiung yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Taiwan warns of storm surge, mobilises troops KAOHSIUNG: Taiwan mobilised nearly 40,000 troops yesterday to bolster rescue efforts as the powerful Typhoon Krathon approaching its populous southwest coast is expected to bring a storm surge and the coast guard raced to find 19 sailors who abandoned ship. CWA forecaster Li Meng-hsiang said the storm has reached its maximum intensity and could weaken slightly as it moves closer to Taiwan, warning of gusts of more than 150 kph for the southwest.

maker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia and which has a large factory in neighbouring Tainan, said it had activated routine typhoon preparations and did not expect a significant impact to its operations. Off the southeast coast, Taiwan’s coast guard dispatched a boat to rescue 19 sailors from the cargo vessel Blue Lagoon who were forced to abandon ship as it took on water in its engine room, with a rescue helicopter having to turn back due to the wind and rain. The coast guard said the crew consisted of seven Ukrainians, nine Egyptians and three Russians, which had set off from China’s Caofeidian port for Singapore. The Transport Ministry said 85 domestic flights and nine international ones had been cancelled. The rail line connecting southern to eastern Taiwan was closed, though the north-south high speed line was operating. – Reuters

“The storm surge might bring tides inland. If it’s raining heavily it will make it difficult to discharge waters and as a result coastal areas will be subject to flooding,” Li said. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai told a disaster management meeting that the storm was “no less powerful” than 1977’s Typhoon Thelma which killed 37 people and devastated the city. He said residents must not go to the coast, mountains or near rivers and avoid going outside unless necessary. The Defence Ministry said it had put more than 38,000 troops on standby, as Kaohsiung residents made their own preparations. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip

Taiwan regularly gets hit by typhoons but they generally land along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific, but this one will make landfall on the island’s flat western plain. Krathon is forecast to hit the major port city of Kaohsiung today, then work its way across the centre of Taiwan heading northeast and cross out into the East China Sea, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Kaohsiung, home to some 2.7 million people, declared a holiday and told people to stay at home as Krathon – labelled a super typhoon by the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre – approached.