North Korea 'may send team to Davos meeting'
SEOUL • North Korea may send a delegation to the World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland for the first time in 18 years, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported yesterday, a sign that it sees international engagement as a way to bolster its economy.
Yonhap cited unidentified sources as saying North Korea was in talks with organisers to send a delegation to the Davos event, which attracts business and political heavyweights.
REUTERS
Safety review of South Korean budget airlines
SEOUL • South Korea's Transport Ministry will carry out a safety review of all the country's low-cost airlines, after an aircraft was forced to make an emergency return after take-off from the Philippines on Sunday.
Jin Air's Boeing 737-800 was carrying 163 passengers to Busan from Cebu, when it turned back after a door was found to be leaking air.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Busted: Taiwan ring taking bets on election
TAIPEI • Taiwan police have arrested 45 people involved in a betting ring worth more than US$40 million (S$57 million) a year including wagers on the upcoming election, officials said yesterday, adding it could have influenced voting. Police launched weekend raids on 31 venues, prosecutors said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Crown prince's wife joins anti-bauxite fight
KUANTAN • Pahang people's fight to get the Malaysian government to stop bauxite mining in the state received a boost when Tuanku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandar, who is married to the Pahang crown prince, joined their efforts, Malaysiakini reported yesterday. "Fight people, fight," she wrote on Instagram while sharing newspaper clippings on the mining which is engulfing areas around Kuantan in red dust and colouring the waters red.