12/03/2026

THURSDAY | MAR 12, 2026

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Safety audit finds faulty approvals

o S. Korea Transport Ministry cut costs

aspects of air safety management, and notified the ministry of 30 cases of wrongdoing or procedural failure. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it “humbly accepted” the findings and would take strict follow-up measures, including localiser improvement and stronger bird-strike prevention. A KAC spokesperson said the airport operator is implementing recommended improvements. Jeju Air did not answer phone calls seeking comment. A separate report found the crash might not have been deadly if there had not been a concrete embankment at the end of the runway, an opposition lawmaker said in January. A full investigative report is pending public disclosure. It has missed a one-year deadline for the release of a progress report. The Muan airport has been closed since the crash. – Reuters

that the ministry built a 2.4m high concrete embankment upon which to place the localiser – a landing guidance system – at Muan airport to reduce earthwork costs, without adequately reviewing relevant rules. Under international standards, localiser structures should be designed to break apart easily upon aircraft impact. The ministry is responsible for airport construction. It hands operations to Korea Airports Corp (KAC) but remains responsible for safety certification. The auditor said the ministry wrongly approved 14 non-compliant localiser installations at eight airports including Muan, Gimhae and Jeju. It also said that, for up to 22 years, the ministry certified operating permits and approved regular inspections that erroneously found frangibility standards had been met. It identified broader shortcoming in bird-strike prevention and other

SEOUL: South Korea’s Transport Ministry cut construction costs and approved improper airport safety structures for more than two decades, the state auditor said in a report on aviation safety management after a Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people. The December 2024 crash involved a Boeing 737-800 which was struck by birds, belly-landed and overran the runway at Muan International Airport, killing almost everyone on board after it struck a concrete support for a localiser antenna. The only survivors were two flight attendants at the rear of the plane. The Board of Audit and Inspection said in a report published on Tuesday

Rescuers working near the wreckage of the Jeju Air aircraft at Muan International Airport on Dec 30, 2024. – REUTERSFILEPIC

Britain ends upper house

Six killed in Swiss bus blaze KERZERS: At least six people died and three others were injured in a bus fire on Tuesday in a small town in western Switzerland.

injured, Papaux said, adding that no other vehicle was involved. Swiss media outlet 20 Minutes said it had seen a video in which an injured person said: “A man set himself on fire. He poured petrol over himself and then lit himself.” Video after the flames were extinguished showed the charred remains of the vehicle, a yellow Postauto. President Guy Parmelin said: “It shocks and saddens me that once again people have lost their lives in a fire in Switzerland.” – Reuters

Christa Bielmann, another local police spokesperson. “We have no indication that suggests we might be dealing with a terrorist attack,” Swiss politician Romain Collaud, a state councillor, told the Swiss-French broadcaster RTS. Three injured people were taken to hospital, police said. Two other people caught up in the blaze also received attention but did not need to be hospitalised. On Tuesday evening passengers were seen escaping from the burning bus, panicked and

hereditary seats LONDON: Britain’s parliament has approved legislation to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords, ending a centuries-old system of aristocratic seats in the upper chamber that the government says should not be secured by birth. The House of Lords passed the Hereditary Peers Bill on Tuesday evening, fulfilling a reform launched more than 25 years ago and a key manifesto pledge from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government to modernise the upper chamber. Angela Smith, the leader of the upper chamber, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Lords played a “vital role within our bicameral parliament, but nobody should sit in the House by virtue of an inherited title”. “Getting this Bill through is a major first step towards reform of the Lords, with further changes to follow, including on members’ retirement and participation requirements,” she said. Before the reform, 92 hereditary peers could still sit and vote in the upper chamber, a number retained as an interim compromise after more than 600 were removed in 1999 under Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, who had labelled the hereditary system an “anachronism”. Under the system, around 15 Conservative hereditary peers would secure life peerages, and it will be up to the party to decide whom to nominate. The ornate red and gold chamber in the Palace of Westminster has about 800 members in total, mostly appointed for life by the prime minister on the advice of political parties or an independent commission, alongside Church of England bishops and, until now, some by birthright. Critics have long called for an overhaul of the appointments system, saying it had led to cronyism and created the largest upper chamber in the world, larger than the 650 elected members of parliament who sit in the lower house. The Lords can amend but not block legislation, and changes it makes to Bills can be overruled by the elected lower chamber. – Reuters

Police said the bus became engulfed in flames on a road in Kerzers, a town in the canton of Fribourg, about 20km from the Swiss capital Bern. “We have elements suggesting a deliberate act by a person who was inside the bus,” said Fribourg police spokesperson Frederic Papaux. Investigators were looking into reports that a person had poured fuel on himself, said

FREE TIBET ... A detained Tibetan protester shouts slogans from inside an Indian police vehicle during a demonstration near the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Tuesday. The protest was held to mark the Tibetan uprising anniversary. – AFPPIC

Designer wins trademark suit against singer Katy Perry SYDNEY: Australian designer Katie Perry has won the right to sell clothes under her name, claiming victory yesterday in a years-long trademark spat with US pop megastar Katy Perry. But songstress Katy Perry said her music had already gone “viral” as the designer started selling clothes around 2008, and sought to have the Australian trademark scrubbed out.

was unlikely to be any risk of “confusion” between the two. “As far as I was concerned she was a singer and not a fashion designer,” the Australian Perry wrote in a 2024 blog post. “The singer’s real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson.” A representative for the singer told AFP that despite the legal action she “has never sought to close down” the Australian business.

An Australian court agreed with the singer, ruling in 2024 the clothing trademark should be cancelled. But Australia’s High Court has now ruled in favour of the designer on appeal, finding there

Designer Katie Perry accused her far more famous namesake of trademark infringement, arguing she had claimed the “Katie Perry” brand before the singer became a global sensation.