14 
news without borders
Russia says will
restore gas when
monitors in place
MOSCOW: Russia’s state-controlled
gas monopoly said yesterday it would
restore supplies to Europe through
Ukraine, cut off after a dispute be-
tween Moscow and Kiev, as soon as
international monitors are in place.
Gazprom chief executive Alexei
Miller, speaking after talks with
European Union officials in Brussels,
also said he would hold further face-
to-face talks with Ukraine’s Naftogaz
on a flight back to Moscow to try to
restore supplies to Europe.
The gas cut-offs have left hundreds
of thousands of people in the Balkans
without gas, forced factories to shut
down and disrupted deliveries as far
west as France and Germany.
“We need to resume the gas flows
in Europe. We can’t be blackmailed,”
Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alex-
andr Vondra, whose country holds
the EU presidency, said earlier.
The European Union hopes that
an EU mission to monitor the flow of
Russian gas through Ukraine could
help protect its supplies from the
disagreements between Moscow
and Kiev over gas prices, transit fees,
S. Korea detains financial
‘prophet of doom’
SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors
have detained a self-styled finan-
cial market prophet who had a
large following on the Internet but
whose gloomy predictions upset
the government battling an eco-
nomic slump, they said yesterday.
As South Korean markets
tumbled late last year amid the
global downturn, the main financial
regulator warned it would crack
down on what it considered ma-
lign rumours and some economic
analysts say they have come under
pressure from officials not to voice
negative views on the economy.
“Minerva, a 30-year-old sus-
pect, was detained on suspicion
of spreading false information,”
a senior prosecutor at the Seoul
district central prosecutors’ office
said, identifying the man only by
his Internet name but giving no
details of the allegations. He said
they would not reveal his identity
briefs
Serial paedophile
jailed three years
HONGKONG: A serial paedophile
who admitted abusing more than
100 boys over a period of two dec-
ades was beginning a three-year jail
term in Hongkong yesterday.
Kenny Chung Chi-man, 41, last
year gave money to two boys aged
nine and 11 after molesting them
in his home, months after being
released from a previous 11-month
jail term for child abuse.
He told police he “couldn’t help
touching young boys once he saw
them” and confessed to sexual
contact with more than 100 boys
since he was in his early 20s.
Chung admitted luring scores of
theSun | FRIDAY JANUARY 9 2009
and Ukraine’s debts to Moscow.
A European Commission energy
director said yesterday EU observ-
ers would be ready in two days.
Naftogaz deputy head Igor Di-
denko sounded a note of optimism,
telling reporters in Brussels: “We do
expect that everything is going in a
progressive, positive direction.”
France and Germany said Russia
had to honour its gas contracts with
Europe regardless of the dispute,
but they also warned Ukraine not to
forget its own obligations.
“We expect the talks between
Ukraine and Russia to yield quick
results,” German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said in Paris after talks with
French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The dispute between Kiev and
its former master follows tensions
over Ukraine’s efforts to join Nato, a
move bitterly opposed by Moscow.
A total of 18 countries were
experiencing supply disruptions.
Most were drawing on alternative
sources or using stockpiled gas, but
with the row in its eighth day, those
reserves were dwindling. – Reuters
unless charges were laid.
In his blog, Minerva had said
he once worked in the financial
field in the United States.
He became a household name
last year for his predictions of sharp
falls in the won and local stock
market and the collapse of the US
investment bank Lehman Brothers.
He later stopped making pre-
dictions, saying the authorities
had muzzled his blog which at-
tracted hundreds of thousands of
visitors. The manager of one bro-
kerage firm in Seoul, who asked
not to be identified, said Minerva
had become influential enough to
deter some investors from buying
South Korean shares.
Local economists and analysts
said officials from the government
and central bank have asked them
not to make negative comments
to the media on the economy and
markets. – Reuters
boys to his home in the urban Sham
Shui Po area after meeting them in
internet cafes and other places, the
district court heard. – dpa
Divorcee wants
kidney back: Reports
NEW YORK: Never mind the bro-
ken heart, a New York divorcee
has told his ex – she’d better
return his kidney.
Long Island surgeon Richard
Batista says he donated one of
his kidneys to his wife Dawnell
Batista eight years ago and that
she repaid the gift by cheating
on him and filing for divorce,
New York dailies reported.
Batista’s lawyer wants the
kidney returned or US$1.5 million
(RM5.3 million) compensation, the
Post and Daily News reported.
Batista said his ex’s alleged
affair “put a hole in my heart that
still exists”, they said. – AFP