SEOUL, South Korea — They began a pilgrimage that thousands before them have done. They boarded long flights to their motherland, South Korea, to undertake an emotional, often frustrating, sometimes devastating search for their birth families.

These adoptees are among the 200,000 sent from South Korea to Western nations as children. Many have grown up, searched for their origin story and discovered that their adoption paperwork was inaccurate or fabricated. They have only breadcrumbs to go on: grainy baby photos, names of orphanages and adoption agencies, the towns where they were said to have been abandoned. They don’t speak the language. They’re unfamiliar with the culture. Some never learn their truth.

“I want my mother to know I’m OK and that her sacrifice was not in vain,” says Kenneth Barthel, adopted in 1979 at 6 years old to Hawaii.

He hung flyers all over Busan, where his mother abandoned him at a restaurant. She ordered him soup, went to the bathroom and never returned. Police found him wandering the streets and took him to an orphanage. He didn’t think much about finding his birth family until he had his own son, imagined himself as a boy and yearned to understand where he came from.

He has visited South Korea four times, without any luck. He says he’ll keep coming back, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

Some who make this trip learn things about themselves they’d thought were lost forever.

In a small office at the Stars of the Sea orphanage in Incheon, South Korea, Maja Andersen sat holding Sister Christina Ahn’s hands. Her eyes grew moist as the sister translated the few details available about her early life at the orphanage.

She had loved being hugged, the orphanage documents said, and had sparkling eyes.

“Thank you so much, thank you so much,” Andersen repeated in a trembling voice. There was comfort in that — she had been hugged, she had smiled.

She’d come here searching for her family.

“I just want to tell them I had a good life and I’m doing well,” Andersen said to Sister Ahn.

Andersen had been admitted to the facility as a malnourished baby and was adopted at 7 months old to a family in Denmark, according to the documents. She says she’s grateful for the love her adoptive family gave her, but has developed an unshakable need to know where she came from. She visited this orphanage, city hall and a police station, but found no new clues about her birth family.

Still she remains hopeful, and plans to return to South Korea to keep trying. She posted a flyer on the wall of a police station not far from the orphanage, just above another left by an adoptee also searching for his roots.

Korean adoptees have organized, and now they help those coming along behind them. Nonprofit groups conduct DNA testing. Sympathetic residents, police officers and city workers of the towns where they once lived often try to assist them. Sometimes adoption agencies are able to track down birth families.

Nearly four decades after her adoption to the U.S., Nicole Motta in May sat across the table from a 70-year-old man her adoption agency had identified as her birth father. She typed “thanks for meeting me today” into a translation program on her phone to show him. A social worker placed hair samples into plastic bags for DNA testing.

But the moment they hugged, Motta, adopted to the United States in 1985, didn’t need the results — she knew she’d come from this man.

“I am a sinner for not finding you,” he said.

Motta’s adoption documents say her father was away for work for long stretches and his wife struggled to raise three children alone. He told her she was gone when he came back from one trip, and claimed his brother gave her away. He hasn’t spoken to the brother since, he said, and never knew she was adopted abroad.

Motta’s adoption file leaves it unclear whether the brother had a role in her adoption. It says she was under the care of unspecified neighbors before being sent to an orphanage that referred her to an adoption agency, which sent her abroad in 1985.

She studied his face. She wondered if she looks like her siblings or her mother, who has since died.

“I think I have your nose,” Motta said softly.

They both sobbed.
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Washington — As a nuclear standoff between the United States and North Korea continues with no diplomatic off-ramp in sight, some experts in Washington say an information campaign aimed at pressing North Korea should be considered as an alternative strategy, while others caution against such an approach.

The discussion comes as the North escalates tensions while the U.N. Security Council remains split over how to respond to Pyongyang’s increasing threats.

Kim Song, North Korea’s U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday his country will resolutely hold onto its nuclear weapons, saying “we will never bargain,” regardless of who gets elected as the next U.S. president in November.

Last month, North Korea’s state media outlets released photos showing leader Kim Jong Un visiting what they claimed to be a uranium enrichment facility, another move against international calls to resume talks on denuclearization. It was the first time it had disclosed a uranium enrichment facility publicly.

Nuclear standoff

Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have been stalled since October 2019.

Moreover, Russia, one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with veto power, has blocked U.N. action against the North since February 2022, when it invaded Ukraine. Moscow has deepened military ties with Pyongyang since it started the war.

Russia has imported dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 18,000 containers of munitions and munitions-related materiel from North Korea since its invasion of Ukraine, Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said at a U.N. Security Council meeting in September.

Some experts suggest Washington consider launching an information campaign against Pyongyang, separate from the work of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, U.S. government-funded broadcasters. The two networks reach people inside North Korea through their Korean language broadcasts.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said Washington policymakers have long neglected an information campaign aimed at North Korea as a viable strategy for pressing Pyongyang to change its provocative behavior.

“We really haven’t had an overall information strategy that cuts across everything that is happening,” Maxwell told VOA Korean on Tuesday in an interview.

Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the Combined Forces Command of the U.S and South Korea, said information is a threat to Pyongyang and could possibly drive the North Korean leader to the negotiating table.

The U.S. should respond to every North Korean provocation by actively informing North Korean people of their dire human rights situations, Maxwell argued.

“If North Korea conducts a missile test, the response should not just stop at condemning the act,” he said. “Kim’s deliberate decision to prioritize nuclear weapons and missiles is what is causing the suffering of the Korean people in the North. That should be a routine message that we should be sending in response to every action by North Korea.”

Targeted information campaign

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, said information could be part of the targeted efforts to put pressure on the Kim regime.

“We could tell Kim Jong Un, look, we know you’re preparing to do a seventh nuclear weapon test. If you do that, we will send a million USB drives into the Pyongyang area with K-Pop, K-dramas and messages to your senior leaders,” he told VOA Korean by phone on Tuesday.

Bennett stressed it is time that the U.S. government renews its understanding that information can be a powerful tool.

“You go back to World War II, we viewed information as being very powerful,” he said. “But we’ve lost sight of that.”

Bennett added that the U.S. government should mobilize its experts in psychological operations to put together an effective campaign plan.

Some are cautious about using information tactics against North Korea.

Robert Rapson, who served as chargé d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, told VOA Korean on Wednesday via email that an information campaign may complement sanctions and effective diplomacy, but risks could follow.

“Turning the volume and intensity of the information campaign way up, as some are now advocating, runs the clear risk of escalating tensions across the demilitarized zone in ways that threaten peace and stability, to include the distinct possibility of war,” Rapson said. “The regime would undoubtedly see a high intensity information campaign as a major provocation of existential dimensions and would respond accordingly.”

Rapson also said significant qualitative improvements are needed in dissemination technology as well as message focus and content, for an enhanced information campaign to have any chance of success, however long-term that might be.

Potential risks

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, said implementing such an approach would prove challenging but is “doable.”

“The North Korean regime fears exposing its people to the reality of the outside world — the real situation in South Korea and other countries as compared to the dire economic and health care situation in North Korea,” DeTrani told VOA Korean on Wednesday via email. “Mindful of this, inserting truthful information into North Korea must be done with care, given the harsh treatment by the regime to those who dare to listen or read foreign broadcasts, videos, newspapers, etc.”

Meanwhile, Maxwell said the end goal of the information strategy should be to empower the North Korean people with information.

“Only through information can the people be empowered to create conditions where new emerging leadership can come to power,” he said. “So that, they change the direction of North Korea and ultimately, their leaders.”

The U.S. State Department has stressed the need for an effort to facilitate the flow of independent information into North Korea when asked whether the U.S. should consider using information as a pressure tool against the North.

“An informed citizenry, with unfettered access to information, is critical for responsive governance and contributes to regional peace, security, and prosperity,” a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed response on Thursday to a VOA Korean inquiry. “The United States will continue to coordinate with like-minded governments to cooperate on areas such as access to information and advancing accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in the DPRK.”

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name. 
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KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan — Work, classes and flights resumed across Taiwan on Friday after Typhoon Krathon brought torrential rainfall to the island but finally dissipated over a mountain range.

A heavy rain advisory remained in place for the northern coast and mountainous areas, where two landslides occurred early Friday.

Krathon had brought much of the island to a standstill for three days but weakened to a tropical depression early Friday. Its center moved back over the sea after making a “U-turn” across the island’s southwestern tip overnight.

Schools and businesses reopened with the exception of the city of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, and some parts of Hualien County and New Taipei. Domestic flights, which had been grounded for two days, resumed.

Krathon lashed Kaohsiung with winds up to 126 kph and higher gusts. It felled trees and flooded roads. Heavy rains and flooding also occurred along Taiwan’s southern and eastern coasts. Mountainous Taitung County saw 171 centimeters of rain over six days.

Two people died earlier in the week and one person remained missing, according to Taiwan’s fire department. The missing person was swept off a bridge.

Authorities had expected Krathon to bring devastation comparable to a major typhoon that swept Kaohsiung in 1977, causing 37 deaths.

But it lost steam shortly after making landfall in Kaohsiung and reaching the mountains northeast of the city, according to the Central Weather Administration.

Krathon was one of only two typhoons in recent history to “die” over Taiwan, beside Typhoon Trami, in 2001, the weather agency said.
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Taipei, Taiwan — As the United States and other like-minded countries hold joint military exercises in the South China Sea, Chinese vessels have been aggressively asserting Beijing’s territorial claims in the hotly contested waterway, testing the resolve of the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Last week on September 26, China used two missile boats and a high-intensity laser to disrupt an attempt by the Philippines to deliver supplies to local fishermen posted near the Half Moon Shoal, an atoll that lies within Manila’s Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ.

On Sunday, Chinese law enforcement reportedly attacked Vietnamese fishermen with iron pipes, confiscating fishing equipment near the Paracel Islands. 

And a new report by the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative released Tuesday highlighted how the Chinese coast guard vessels have been operating “like clockwork” this year in waters claimed by Malaysia as the resource-rich country tries to expand oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea.

On Thursday, The Washington Post also reported that Chinese vessels have been disrupting the repair and construction of subsea cables running under the South China Sea. 

China emboldened

Analysts say these actions suggest Beijing is attempting to test regional countries’ resolves to safeguard their territorial claims at a time when the United States is fixated on the conflict in the Middle East.

“The serious crisis in the Middle East has emboldened China and allowed them to test the Americans further in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

He added that Beijing is using physical actions and lawfare to try to change the situation in the South China Sea “altogether.”

The Philippines has characterized Beijing’s harassment of its vessels as “irresponsible, dangerous, and provocative,” while Hanoi said the attack on the Vietnamese fishermen violated its sovereignty and international law. 

China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request from VOA regarding the harassment of Philippine vessels.

Commenting on the attack on the fishermen, Beijing claims Chinese law enforcement forces were stopping Vietnamese fishermen from illegally fishing near the Paracel Islands, which China calls Xisha. The islands are an equal distance from China and Vietnam, but Beijing has maintained de facto control of the islands since it seized them in 1974 after a clash with Vietnamese forces.

In recent years, Beijing has reclaimed land and established military installations in the Paracel Islands, including an airstrip and artificial harbor.

New front

Koh told VOA that the incident near Half Moon Shoal, which comes after Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided twice near the disputed Sabina Shoal since August, shows Beijing may be “opening a new front” against Manila.

“The Philippines wants to apply the provisional agreement that they have reached with China over Second Thomas Shoal in July to the other contested reefs in the South China Sea, but I don’t think the Chinese are keen to expand the agreement throughout the region,” he said in a phone interview.

While the United States and other countries, including Australia, Japan and New Zealand, have been conducting more joint patrols in the South China Sea to counter China’s aggression, experts say that appears to have done little to thwart Beijing’s ability to challenge its neighbors in the region.

“There needs to be more concrete minilateral cooperation between regional countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, including joint military exercises, expansion of maritime domain awareness activities or search and rescue drills,” Stephen Nagy, a regional security expert at the International Christian University in Japan, told VOA by phone.

In January, Vietnam and the Philippines signed an agreement aimed at boosting cooperation between their coast guard forces to prevent incidents in the South China Sea. Then in August, Manila and Hanoi held their first joint coast guard drill, focusing on firefighting, rescue and medical response in Manila Bay.

In addition to bilateral cooperation between the Philippines and Vietnam, some regional observers say all Southeast Asian countries that have competing territorial claims with China in the South China Sea should explore the possibility of establishing a regional alliance.

Such a mechanism “could potentially evolve into a coast guard alliance specifically designed to address China’s actions in the region, and such a coalition would present a more formidable deterrent and could more effectively safeguard the interests of these nations in the South China Sea,” Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, told VOA in a written response.

However, he said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “appears too weak and divided” on issues related to the South China Sea to present a united front.

As the U.S. and Japan both gear up for major elections in the coming weeks, Nagy thinks China is also trying to use this “window of opportunity” to try to “lock in some strategic gains” in the South China Sea.
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SINGAPORE — A Singapore court on Thursday sentenced a former minister to 12 months in prison for obstructing justice and receiving more than $300,000 worth of gifts, in the first jailing of an ex-cabinet member in a city-state famous for its clean governance.

S. Iswaran, who was a cabinet member for 13 years and has held the trade, communications and transport portfolios, pleaded guilty last week to four counts of improperly receiving gifts and one of obstructing justice.

The sentence handed down was more severe than the six to seven months sought by the prosecution, which presiding judge Vincent Hoong said was “manifestly inadequate” given the gravity of Iswaran’s offenses and their impact on public trust.

“Trust and confidence in public institutions were the bedrock of effective governance, which could all too easily be undermined by the appearance that an individual public servant had fallen below the standards of integrity and accountability,” he said in sentencing Iswaran.

The case has shocked Singapore, which prides itself on having a well-paid and efficient bureaucracy as well as strong and squeaky clean governance. It was among the world’s top five least corrupt countries last year, according to Transparency International’s corruption perception index.

The last corruption case involving a Singaporean minister was in 1986, when its national development minister was investigated for alleged bribery but died before any charges were filed in court.

The investigation caused a stir in the Asian financial hub and centered on allegations Iswaran while transport minister accepted expensive gifts from businessmen that included tickets to English Premier League soccer matches, the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix, London musicals and a ride on a private jet.

Iswaran, 62, faced a huge media scrum as he arrived in court and declined to answer questions. He showed no emotion during the court session.

The judge allowed him to remain on bail for the next few days and begin his jail term on Monday.

Iswaran had initially said he was innocent and would fight to clear his name but pleaded guilty last week to the five charges put before the court.

The former minister faced a total of 35 charges, two of which were corruption-related but were later amended to charges of receiving gifts while a public servant.

The attorney-general’s chambers last week said they made amendments because of litigation risks involved in proving the corruption charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Iswaran was arrested in July last year and was accused of taking kickbacks from businessmen including property tycoon Ong Beng Seng. Iswaran was an adviser to the Singapore Grand Prix’s steering committee, while Ong owns the rights to the race.

Ong has not been charged with any offense and has issued no public comment on the allegations. The attorney-general’s chambers last week said it would decide whether to take action against Ong soon.

Judge Hoong in his ruling said there was a higher level of culpability when a public servant holds high office that wield greater influence over business transactions.
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WASHINGTON — A recent report by the U.S. Institute of Peace highlights the resurgence of scam hubs, particularly in Myanmar’s Karen State, due to China’s softened stance toward the country’s military regime.

China’s posture has shifted, said Jason Tower, co-author of the report and the country director for Burma at the institute. 

“They’re now much more focused on regime survival, looking at how they can prevent the [Myanmar] regime from toppling,” Tower told VOA Burmese. “As a result, China has shown much less interest in taking forceful action to pressure the Myanmar military to address these problems.”

According to the report, these criminal networks benefit from the complex dynamics between Myanmar’s military and Chinese interests. China’s focus has shifted from cracking down on scams to supporting the Myanmar military. This change in strategy has allowed the criminal organizations to flourish, using Myanmar as a base of operations.

After contacting the Chinese Embassy in Washington about the issue, VOA received a statement that did not directly address cyber scam operations. Instead, it emphasized China’s focus on peace and stability in Myanmar.

“China and Myanmar are close neighbors with a deep bond of friendship,” wrote embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu. “As a friendly neighbor, China has always paid close attention to the development and evolution of the situation in Myanmar and northern Myanmar. We do not hope to see conflict or chaos in Myanmar and sincerely hope for an early restoration of stability.” 

China’s Ministry of Public Security portrayed the situation differently, according to a report published Monday by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. In a recent statement on its crackdown on cyber scams, the report said, the ministry highlighted joint efforts with Myanmar authorities, noting that “a total of 870 suspects, including 313 Chinese and 557 Myanmar nationals, were arrested during a crackdown on telecom and online fraud in northern Myanmar.” 

Myanmar’s state-controlled media Global New Light of Myanmar also focused on crackdowns, noting that Myanmar’s police had worked closely with China in extraditing 20 Chinese nationals in September.

Shift in China’s priorities

China’s view on the conflict constantly evolves based on events inside Myanmar, said Thomas Kean, a senior consultant at the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental think tank.

“Since 2021, we’ve seen different phases, but ultimately, China wants stability in Myanmar to pursue its strategic objectives, keep its borders safe, and ensure that Chinese nationals and the economy aren’t affected,” Kean said.

Tower described how China’s priorities have shifted from addressing scams to focusing on maintaining its strategic interests in Myanmar.

“The Chinese government began prioritizing the advancement of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, which includes infrastructure and trade routes, giving China access to the Indian Ocean,” he said.

Tower said some Chinese strategists had suggested that China had perhaps gone too far in its crackdown on the scam syndicates, losing sight of its broader strategic goals. 

As a result, Chinese authorities pushed hard to broker cease-fire agreements between Myanmar’s military and ethnic armed groups to stabilize the region.

‘Pig butchering’ scams

The Chinese scams emanating from Myanmar have grown in sophistication, the U.S. Institute of Peace report noted. The United States has become one of the primary targets, losing billions of dollars annually to “pig butchering” scams.

“Pig butchering” is a type of investment fraud where scammers lure victims on social media only to defraud them for significant amounts of money, often in cryptocurrency.

Many Americans have fallen victim to scams originating from Myanmar, said Erin West, a deputy district attorney with California’s REACT Task Force to combat high-tech crime.

“They’ve liquidated retirement accounts, children’s college funds, only to find out that the entire thing is fictitious, and they’ve lost everything,” West told VOA. Victims are lured into fraudulent online relationships, believing they are investing in cryptocurrency, she said.

While some criminals are deported back to China, Tower said, broader networks remain primarily untouched and continue to operate with the protection of local warlords and military elites. He is concerned that these scams will increasingly become a threat to U.S. national security.

“These scams are currently causing estimated losses in the range of $5.5 billion per year for the U.S., but other estimates place the numbers as high as $15 billion,” Tower said.

These actors are often under the protection of the Myanmar military or other corrupt regional elites, he added, making it difficult for law enforcement to intervene.

“This is a serious crisis,” Tower said. “We’re seeing a massive transfer of wealth from the United States to bad actors in Southeast Asia — actors that are undermining democracy, highly corrupt and often under the protection of the Myanmar military or other corrupt elites. This is bad news for the U.S. on many fronts.”
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KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan — Taiwan shut down on Wednesday, grounding hundreds of flights and closing schools, offices and financial markets ahead of the arrival of a weakening Typhoon Krathon with one person reported dead and torrential rain lashing the island’s south.  

Officials in the key port city of Kaohsiung, set to be in the eye of the storm, told people to stay home and avoid the sea, rivers and mountains, warning of a repeat of 1977’s Typhoon Thelma that killed 37 and devastated the city of 2.7 million.  

Although the typhoon has weakened, the threats from a storm surge, strong winds and rain remain as it slowly makes its way towards Taiwan’s coast, weather forecasters said.  

The typhoon would lose power once it hits land, said Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai, but would still bring intense winds and rain.  

“But if it moves north, the winds will strengthen again, so the threat to Kaohsiung will continue to exist, and people cannot take this lightly,” he told reporters.  

Once it hits land, the typhoon could be downgraded into a tropical depression and dissipate, which has happened only once before in Taiwan, in 2001, forecasters said. That storm, called Trami, dumped vast amounts of rain leading to massive flooding.  

The fire department reported one person dead, an elderly man in the eastern county of Hualien who fell from a tree, with two others missing and 70 injuries.  

On Wednesday, all the island’s cities and counties declared a day off, shutting financial markets .TWII and cancelling domestic flights, along with 246 international ones, while more than 10,000 people were evacuated, mostly in the south and east.  

Typhoons often hit Taiwan’s mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific, but Krathon is set to make landfall on its flat western plain.

It is forecast to hit  between Kaohsiung and its neighboring city of Tainan in the early hours of Thursday, before heading northeast up towards Taipei, the capital, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.  

“Because of Typhoon Gaemi being quite severe earlier this year, everyone is more cautious and prepared this time around,” said sales representative Yu Ren-yu, 35, picking up sandbags at a government office, referring to July’s storm that killed 11.  

“First be prepared, then we can face this typhoon.”  

The typhoon has revived the older generation’s bad memories of Thelma, prompting extra precautions, said Chou Yi-tang, a government official working in the Siaogang district home to the airport.  

“We were hit directly by the eyewall,” he added, describing events almost five decades ago. “Power was out for two weeks and no water for almost a month. It was disastrous.”  

More than 700 sandbags have been distributed in his district, a record for a typhoon, while authorities are making more to meet demand, Chou said.  

Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had put more than 38,000 troops on standby.  

The north-south high speed rail line stayed open, but scaled back services.  

TSMC2330.TW, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple AAPL.O and Nvidia NVDA.O supplier, said on Tuesday it did not expect the typhoon would have a significant impact on operations.  

TSMC’s factories are along the west coast, some in the city of Tainan. 
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Bangkok — Thai police have arrested the driver of a bus carrying young students and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 in suburban Bangkok, as families arrived in the capital Wednesday to help identify their loved ones.

The bus carrying six teachers and 39 students in elementary and junior high school was traveling from Uthai Thani province, about 300 kilometers north of Bangkok, for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces Tuesday. The fire started while the bus was on a highway north of the capital and spread so quickly many were unable to escape.

Trairong Phiwpan, head of the police forensic department, said 23 bodies were recovered from the bus. The recovery work and confirmation of the total dead had been delayed earlier because the burned vehicle, which was fueled with natural gas, remained too hot to enter for hours.

The families were driven from Uthai Thani in vans to the the forensic department at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Wednesday to provide their DNA samples for the identification process. Kornchai Klaiklung, assistant to the Royal Thai Police chief, told reporters the forensics team was working as fast as it could to identify the victims.

The driver, identified by the police as Saman Chanput, surrendered Tuesday evening several hours after the fire. Police said they have charged him with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others and failing to report the accident.

The driver told investigators he was driving normally until the bus lost balance at its front right tire, hit another car and scraped a concrete highway barrier, causing the sparks that ignited the blaze, Chayanont Meesati, deputy regional police chief, told reporters.

The driver said he ran to grab a fire extinguisher from another bus that was traveling for the same trip but he could not put out the fire, and ran away because he panicked, Chayanont said.

Police said they are also investigating whether the bus company followed all safety standards.

In an interview with public broadcaster Thai PBS, bus company owner Songwit Chinnaboot said the bus was inspected for safety twice a year as required and that the gas cylinders had passed the safety standards. He also said he would compensate the victims’ families as best as he could.

Three students are hospitalized, and the hospital said two of them were in serious condition. A 7-year-old girl suffered burns on her face, and a surgeon said doctors were doing their best to try to save her eyesight.
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MELBOURNE, Australia — A code of conduct will be enforced on the online dating industry to better protect Australian users after research found that three-in-four people suffer some form of sexual violence through the platforms, Australia’s government said on Tuesday.

Bumble, Grindr and Match Group Inc., a Texas-based company that owns platforms including Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish, have agreed to the code that took effect on Tuesday, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

The platforms, which account for 75% of the industry in Australia, have until April 1 to implement the changes before they are strictly enforced, Rowland said.

The code requires the platforms’ systems to detect potential incidents of online-enabled harm and demands that the accounts of some offenders are terminated.

Complaint and reporting mechanisms are to be made prominent and transparent. A new rating system will show users how well platforms are meeting their obligations under the code.

The government called for a code of conduct last year after the Australian Institute of Criminology research found that three-in-four users of dating apps or websites had experienced some form of sexual violence through these platforms in the five years through 2021.

“There needs to be a complaint-handling process. This is a pretty basic feature that Australians would have expected in the first place,” Rowland said on Tuesday.

“If there are grounds to ban a particular individual from utilizing one of those platforms, if they’re banned on one platform, they’re blocked on all platforms,” she added.

Match Group said it had already introduced new safety features on Tinder, including photo and identification verification to prevent bad actors from accessing the platform while giving users more confidence in the authenticity of their connections.

The platform used artificial intelligence to issue real-time warnings about potentially offensive language in an opening line and advising users to pause before sending.

“This is a pervasive issue, and we take our responsibility to help keep users safe on our platform very seriously,” Match Group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Match Group said it would continue to collaborate with the government and the industry to “help make dating safer for all Australians.”

Bumble said it shared the government’s hope of eliminating gender-based violence and was grateful for the opportunity to work with the government and industry on what the platform described as a “world-first dating code of practice.”

“We know that domestic and sexual violence is an enormous problem in Australia, and that women, members of LGBTQ+ communities, and First Nations are the most at risk,” a Bumble statement said.

“Bumble puts women’s experiences at the center of our mission to create a world where all relationships are healthy and equitable, and safety has been central to our mission from day one,” Bumble added.

Grindr said in a statement it was “honored to participate in the development of the code and shares the Australian government’s commitment to online safety.”

All the platforms helped design the code.

Platforms that have not signed up include Happn, Coffee Meets Bagel and Feeld.

The government expects the code will enable Australians to make better informed choices about which dating apps are best equipped to provide a safe dating experience.

The government has also warned the online dating industry that it will legislate if the operators fail to keep Australians safe on their platforms.
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SEOUL — A North Korean defector living in South Korea was detained on Tuesday after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarized border, in an apparent attempt to get back to the North, Yonhap news agency reported. 

The incident took place at around 1:30 a.m. (16:30 GMT on Monday) at the Tongil Bridge in Paju, northwest of the capital Seoul, after the man ignored warnings from soldiers guarding the bridge and attempted to drive through, Yonhap said, citing city police.  

Paju police referred queries on the incident to provincial police authorities. The northern Gyeonggi police agency could not be reached for comment.  

The man aged in his 30s who had defected more than a decade ago told police that he was trying to return to North Korea after struggling to settle in the South, the report said. 

It is highly unusual for North Koreans who have fled their isolated country to try to return, though many struggle to adapt to life in their democratic, capitalist neighbor.  

As of June, around 34,200 North Koreans had resettled in South Korea, mostly after arduous, sometimes life-threatening journeys, usually via China, to escape poverty and oppression at home, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.  

The ministry, which handles cross-border affairs and provides resettlement support for defectors, said in 2022 that about 30 defectors were confirmed to have returned to the North since 2012, but defectors and activists say there could be many more unreported cases.  

In early 2022, a defector in his 30s made a rare, risky return to North Korea across the heavily fortified border after struggling to cope in the South, igniting fresh debate over how such escapees are treated in their new home country.  
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BEIJING — Three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai on Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, extending a series of stabbing incidents across China this year.

The victims were immediately rushed to hospital for treatment, according to Xinhua on Tuesday, but three died.

The assailant, a 37-year-old man surnamed Lin, was detained by the police who received a report of the incident at 9:47 p.m. local time (1447 GMT), Xinhua said.

An investigation is underway.

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.

In September, a 10-year-old Japanese student was fatally stabbed by an attacker meters from his school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

That incident along with a June knife attack on two Japanese nationals in Suzhou, a major city in eastern China, have stoked security concerns among members of the Japanese community in China.

Stabbing incidents are rare in Shanghai but not unprecedented.

In 2022, a man went on a stabbing spree at a major hospital in the Chinese financial hub, injuring 15 people.

The man, whom authorities said was “resentful of society” after an investment fell through, was sentenced to death a year later.
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