Hong Kong teacher admits to abusing pupil over two years
Hong Kong - A teacher at a Hong Kong primary school pleaded guilty to a string of sexual offences after forcing a 13-year-old girl into a sexual relationship that lasted two years, a news report said Friday.
In one instance, Chan Wing-kwok, 33, forced the girl to call him "saviour" as he filmed them having sex as a punishment for dating boys behind his back, the South China Morning Post reported. In a video used as evidence in his court case, Chan tells the weeping girl: "You belong to me for the rest of your life. Had you died, your soul also belongs to me." Chan, a physical education teacher at the girl's school, abused the girl at her home beginning in November 2007 when she was 13 to September 2009 after being invited by her mother to provide private tutoring.
Police found more than 600 naked photographs of the girl on Chan's computer and two videos of them having sex when they arrested him, the Post said. The girl described the relationship as one of "master and servant" in her testimony to Hong Kong's High Court.
Chan pleaded guilty Thursday to 13 charges, including unlawful sexual intercourse, indecent conduct, indecent assault, and making and possessing child pornography.
Judge Peter Line remanded Chan in custody to allow for a psychological report on him to be prepared before he is sentenced October 4.
North and South Korea discuss family reunions
Seoul - The Red Cross organizations of North and South Korea met Friday to discuss reunions between family members separated by the country's split 60 years ago, a news report said. The two Koreas have allowed temporary reunions of selected families divided after the 1950-53 Korean War on a handful of occasions since a 2000 summit.
The two countries' officials were to discuss holding family reunions to coincide with the Chuseok autumn harvest holiday on Tuesday, the South Korean Yonhap News agency said. Previous such events were held in October 2007 and September 2009. Last year, around 200 families were selected from around 10,000 people who applied, and allowed to meet for a few days.
The move comes after several months of heightened tensions following the fatal sinking of a corvette of the South Korean navy in March, which Seoul blames on the North's military.
Recent weeks have seen a slight thaw, however, with the release of a detained South Korean fishing crew by Pyongyang, and Seoul's offer of rice and building materials in aid to the flood-stricken North. North Korea proposed Thursday to hold working-level military talks with the South to discuss the disputed maritime border, which has not been formalized since the Korean War ended without a peace treaty.
South Korean officials said they were considering the offer cautiously, as Pyongyang has refused to accept responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan corvette, in which 46 sailors died.
Chinese dissident Liao Yiwu to give reading tour in Germany
Berlin - Chinese regime-critic and author Liao Yiwu, who made his first public appearance outside China on Thursday after 14 unsuccessful attempts to leave the country, is to go on a reading tour across Germany. The organiser of the Berlin International Literature Festival, which Liao is attending, said that the author would likely give readings of his controversial works in Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt and two other, as yet unconfirmed, cities. "I'm looking forward to making a lot of contacts, and if I can't understand the language then as an author I can rely on my senses to enter into dialogue with others," the 52-year-old writer, journalist and musician said at a press conference in the German capital.
Liao is most known in the West for his work The Corpse Walker, in which he presents interviews with people from "the bottom rung" of Chinese society.
His epic poem, Massacre, which details the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings, led to his arrest. The German government has had repeated high-level contacts with China in a bid to gain permission for Liao to travel abroad. He was nevertheless hauled off a plane in Chengdu last March, as he prepared to fly to Germany for a literature festival in Cologne. He had also earlier been prevented from attending the large Frankfurt Book Fair.
Liao was given a surprise permit to travel abroad for the festival on Tuesday. dpa wei jbl mis Author: Nada Weigelt, Jeff Black
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