South Korea vows revenge for North's military strike



General Yoo Nak-Joon, the commander of the Marine Corps, grimly pledged to "repay North Korea a hundred- and thousand-fold" for the deaths of the young servicemen, whose tearful funeral ceremony was televised nationwide.

"We'll engrave this outrage deep into our bones," he said.

The prime minister, soldiers and crying relatives paid their last respects to Sergeant Suh Jung-Woo, 22, and Private Moon Kwang-Wook, 20, who died on Tuesday along with two civilians on the frontline island of Yeonpyeong.

Mourners filed past their portraits to lay flowers and light incense at an altar decorated with white chrysanthemums, before three rifle shots echoed for their final salute and their bodies were buried at a national cemetery.

Tuesday's attack -- the first shelling of civilians since the 1950-53 Korean war -- has deeply shaken South Korea, strained nerves across the region and highlighted divisions between the United States and China.

Pyongyang ramped up the tension with threats of more strikes if it feels provoked by a major US-South Korean naval exercise from Sunday, which it has said will bring the peninsula closer to "the brink of war".

President Lee Myung-bak on Saturday held a security meeting on how to counter another possible North Korean attack.

Lee warned that "there is a possibility that North Korea might commit wayward acts during the exercise," according to Hong Sang-Pyo, senior secretary for public affairs at the presidential Blue House.

The newly named defence minister, Kim Kwan-Jin, earlier pledged a tougher response in case of another North Korean attack, vowing that "we need to hit back multiple times as hard", a news report said.

Kim, 61, a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replaced Kim Tae-Young, who resigned over criticism that South Korea was too soft in its response to the attack, firing artillery but not launching air strikes.

In Seoul, 1,000 South Korean marine veterans held a rally, burning the North Korean flag and portraits of its leader Kim Jong-Il and his son, the 27-year-old heir-apparent Kim Jong-Un.

One of demonstrators, Lee Kwang-Sun, said the elderly men in camouflage uniforms were prepared to return to active duty, telling AFP: "We are ready to rush to the frontline if we are asked to do so."

Many newspaper editorials demanded an urgent military overhaul.

The Korea JoongAng Daily charged that "the military's credibility and potency has become highly questionable as it scurries and scrambles in the face of bolder provocation from the North".

The Korea Herald said that "the South should secure overwhelming firepower and allow fighter jets to launch counter-attacks against the North's attacks".

The USS George Washington, a nuclear powered carrier, and its battle group were heading for waters west of the peninsula for four days of drills in a show of naval firepower meant as a deterrent to the North.

Washington has stressed that the manoeuvre is "defensive in nature", was planned before North Korea's attack, and is not aimed against China.

China -- which has resisted taking sides in the worst flare-up in decades between the Koreas -- was more outspoken in its opposition to the US-South Korean drills.

"We hold a consistent and clear-cut stance on the issue," China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement Friday.

"We oppose any party to take any military actions in our exclusive economic zone without permission," it said, referring to the sea area that stretches 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from a country's shores.

North Korea, in the latest of a series of threats, also decried the exercise, with a state body warning on its website that "this is another intolerable military provocation against us".

"It is our military and people's revolutionary mettle and mode of response to counter intruders with merciless strikes," said the official website of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

"Our military still keeps the barrels of artillery open and if invaders dare intrude into our territorial land, air and waters, we would take advantage of this opportunity to turn the heartland of enemies into a sea of fire."

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo

The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
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Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Getting there

The flights

Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.

The stay

Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.

Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com

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four stars

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Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
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Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

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Omar Yabroudi's factfile

Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah

Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University

2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship

2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy

2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment

2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment

2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager

 

 

 

 

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Director: S Sashikanth

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
ARSENAL IN 1977

Feb 05 Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland

Feb 12 Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal

Feb 15 Middlesbrough 3-0 Arsenal

Feb 19 Arsenal 2-3 West Ham

Feb 26 Middlesbrough 4-1 Arsenal (FA Cup)

Mar 01 Everton 2-1 Arsenal

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Mar 23 Stoke 1-1 Arsenal

Apr 02  Arsenal 3-0 Leicester

ESSENTIALS

The flights 
Fly Etihad or Emirates from the UAE to Moscow from 2,763 return per person return including taxes. 
Where to stay 
Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.

Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

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The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

THE SIXTH SENSE

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Famous left-handers

- Marie Curie

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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Specs

Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request

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