Bay Briefs
December 29, 2005
S. Korea’s Point Man in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said South Korea’s efforts to reconcile with North Korea have diminished the neighbors’ Cold War animosity to a level where the communist state now “trusts” the South.
Chung made the remark during a trip to the United States, saying his visit was aimed at helping Seoul’s ties with Washington keep pace with its speeding relations with the North.
“Now, the North’s government trusts that the South’s government doesn’t intend to topple and absorb them,” Chung said in a meeting of L.A. Korean residents.
Earlier, Chung visited Washington and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other high-level administration and parliamentary officials.
“After all, the key is the nuclear issue,” Chung said. “If we overcome the nuclear issue, there will be a highway [to reunification] ahead of us.”
Man to be Arraigned in Killing Montessori Descendant
SANTA ANA — Jonathan Phong Khanh Tran, 20, has been charged with murdering the great-great-granddaughter of Italian educator Maria Montessori.
The car salesman is accused of killing 15-year-old Hanna Montessori, a runaway from a youth detention center in Marietta, Ga. He is also accused of sexually assaulting three other women.
Police said Tran met Montessori when he gave her a ride in his truck. Montessori was working as a prostitute. She died of a head wound in January 2004, after being found unconscious in a street in Santa Ana. She was identified three months after her death.
The teenager’s great-great-grandmother, Maria, founded the Montessori teaching method in Italy a century ago. She believed children learn not so much from their teachers as from their surroundings, their peers and themselves.
Sentencing of
Ex-Gemstar CEO Delayed
LOS ANGELES — Henry C. Yuen, Gemstar-TV Guide’s former chief executive, has had his plea deal rejected in his $248 million fraud case, because U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said it was too lenient.
Yuen would have received three years probation and six months home detention. He would also pay a $250,000 fine, donate $1 million to charities and be restricted from serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company.
“This sentence sends the wrong message to corporate America,” Walter said. “I just think this sentence is wholly inappropriate.”
The plea deal came two years after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against Yuen and ex-financial chief Elsie Leung, claiming they overstated company revenue to boost the company’s stock.
The SEC’s civil case against Yuen and Leung is pending.
Indian Doctor’s Body Found in Car
SAN JOSE — The body of 55-year-old pediatrician Zehra Attari, missing for over a month, has been recovered from inside a car pulled out from the estuary off a boat ramp at nearby Alameda.
Attari disappeared after leaving her Oakland office to attend a medical conference.
Police went back and searched the area after receiving an anonymous phone call from someone who said media reports prompted her to remember an Indian woman in a car looking for directions.
San Jose community activist and family friend Annie Dandavati said Attari may have thought she was going on to a ramp to a bridge, because there was no sign saying the road led directly into estuary waters.
Officials are now looking into posting such signs.
ChiAm
Garment Workers Protest WTO
OAKLAND & SAN FRANCISCO — A national delegation of over 50 APAs, called WT-No!, demonstrated against the World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong.
According to Colin Rajah of the Oakland-based National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), would increase abuses of immigrant workers by creating a global guestworker program.
WT-No! is a collaboration between Bay Area-based organizations including Chinese Progressive Association, Chin Jurn Wor Ping, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Korean Community Center of the East Bay; and nationally, with the Garment Workers Center in Los Angeles, Organizing Asian Communities (CAAAV) in New York, and Community Organizing Collective (CYOC) in Philadelphia.
Bill to Protect
the Battered
REDWOOD CITY — Assembly Speaker Pro-Tem Leland Yee will introduce a bill in January that bans judges from threatening jail time to domestic violence victims who refuse to testify.
The bill comes in light of a San Mateo woman who was almost jailed for refusing to testify at her attacker’s trial.
“The recent case in San Mateo County demonstrates that we need to make a change in existing law to protect victims of domestic violence, as we currently do for sexual assault victims,” Yee said. “Without this new legislation, future victims of domestic violence are less likely to come forward if they know they will be forced to testify or else face imprisonment.”
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