The broker, identified only by his surname Yoo, has been detained for violation of the immigration law with a recommendation for indictment by the Incheon Airport immigration office, the Justice Ministry said Friday.

Yoo escaped to Thailand when police began investigating him on charges of fraud around December 2015. He had stayed in Thailand since, and is suspected of recruiting 85 Thai women and arranging for them to illegally enter Korea by falsely stating they were tourists.

Three accomplices, including Yoo’s son, met the women at Incheon airport, and brokered their illegal employment at massage parlors.

Yoo received between 500,000 and 1 million won per person from the Thai women for getting them the jobs.

Immigration authorities tracked down Yoo, found that he had opened a restaurant in Thailand, asked the Thai police for cooperation.

Yoo was repatriated to Korea last Saturday, and an arrest warrant was executed.

“It is the first case in which Korean immigration authorities worked with Thai police to nab an illegal employment broker. We will continue to work closely with the country to arrest and repatriate criminals on the wanted list,” an official at the Korean Immigration Service said.

    Australia should be a poster-child for diversity: One-in-two Australians has a parent born abroad. The economy has been growing for 27 straight years. Crime is barely a worry. Melbourne and Sydney dominate rankings of the best places in the world to live.

Visit any medium-size human habitation on the mind-bendingly large continent and it’s obvious that Australia is the proverbial melting pot — Kiwis, Chinese, Irish, Filipinos, Brits, Vietnamese, Italians, Indians, Greeks and Lebanese at every turn.

But this racial, ethnic and linguistic diversity contrasts sharply with a lingering image of Australia as an angry white country stuck in the past.

It was an impression underscored by foreign outrage about an Australian cartoonist’s depiction of a fat-lipped and masculine Serena Williams, and the collective shrug it prompted Down Under.

After the drawing was published, a CNN opinion piece described Australia as “the nicest racist country you will ever see” and the New York Times thundered that “Australia has never fully confronted its own history of racism.”

Many Australians admit there is a problem.

The legacy of European settlers terrorising Aboriginal communities looms large, and inequality between the two groups remains staggering.

Racial epithets are still tossed around in a way that makes visitors’ jaws drop. A “White Australia” immigration policy, only fully dismantled in the 1970s, and more recently off-shore migrant detention centres have also done much to frame the modern image of Australia abroad.

But many Australians also believe the problem can be overstated.

“There is an element in Australian society that is racist,” said John Blaxland, a professor of International Security at the Australian National University. “But every country has them. Name a country that doesn’t.”

He insists the reality of modern Australia is a “vibrant, booming, multicultural society” that integrates almost 200,000 migrants a year — the equivalent of the United States taking three million people.

“Australia is a success story!” he insisted. “We’re really hopeless at selling that message. People are dying to get here, literally and metaphorically. It is such a coveted place to be, why is that so? It’s not because of racism.”

– Powerful white men –

As real as the problems in race relations are, popular stereotypes have also played their part framing Australia as a racist nation.

Ask any foreigner to name a famous Australian and they are likely to cite the endearing yet uncultured “Mick ‘Crocodile’ Dundee” — well before indigenous rights activist Eddie Mabo or pioneering social reformer Edith Cowan.

Today experts point to a coarsening of Australia’s politics and a powerful right-leaning media that has turbocharged the impression of a country that is socially tone-deaf.

Duncan McDonnell, a professor at Griffith University’s school of governance, sees immediate roots of that politics in the Liberal Party’s decision to co-opt right wing messages in the 1990s, giving the politics of prejudice a mainstream platform.

Figures like populist firebrand Pauline Hanson, once on the fringes, found their ideas firmly at the centre of public debate.

The strategy was “on one hand to shoot the messenger and on the other hand steal part of their message.”

“They started being much more explicitly harsh on immigration and also on issues related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.”

Creaking infrastructure and stagnant wages growth have helped give populist messages more purchase.

    – ‘Monetisation of racism’ –

That hard-line message has been amplified by Australia’s conservative press — on Sky News and in print media outlets like the Herald-Sun which printed the Serena cartoon not once, but twice.

Both are owned by Rupert Murdoch and like his properties in Britain and America, simultaneously channel populist sentiment and steer it further to the right.

Australia’s former race discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, describes what he sees a “monetisation of racism.”

Some Australian media — which is still overwhelmingly male and white — have embraced hard-line views as a business model to counteract shrinking audiences, he told AFP.

“You only need to look at the Herald-Sun’s response to get an indication of how that works. You try to take advantage of the outrage, you try to run with it as your front page and that’s your coverage for the next two days.”

Data from the Australian National University suggests Australians have — with some ebbs and flows — actually become markedly more tolerant over the last three decades.

Its tracking of public opinion on key issues since 1987 has found that attitudes toward indigenous Australians and asylum seekers have softened dramatically.

Soutphommasane insists racism is a serious problem, but Australia’s media and her politicians, which garner so much attention, “do not reflect the multicultural character of Australia.”

Bezos, during a question-answer session at a dinner hosted by the Economic Club of Washington, said Trump’s attacks risk eroding protections and social norms important for democracy.

“It’s dangerous to demonize the media,” Bezos said.

“It’s dangerous to call the media lowlifes. It’s dangerous to say they are the enemy of the people.”

He added that “we live in a society where it’s not just the laws of the land that protect us… it’s also the social norms that protect us. It works because we believe the words on that piece of paper.”

Bezos said Trump and other public figures should expect public and media scrutiny, which he called “healthy.”

The comments appeared to be the first direct, public rebuke of Trump by Bezos, a frequent target of attacks by the president.

“I do defend the Post,” he said. “I don’t feel the need to defend Amazon.”

But he paraphrased Washington Post editor Martin Baron as saying that “the adminstration may be at war with us, but we are not at war with the administration.”

Despite his concerns with Trump, Bezos said that he was not overly concerned about the future of the news media.

“We are so robust in this country. The media is going to be fine,” he said during the conversation with economic club president David Rubenstein.

Bezos, whose Amazon fortune has made him the world’s richest person, added that he has had “a couple of conversations” with Trump but declined to say what was discussed.

The study by Seoul National University Hospital researchers came to the conclusion after surveying 1,241 members of the general public, 1,000 cancer patients, 928 medical doctors as well as 1,000 Koreans with family members with cancer.

The study also found that nearly 30 percent of the surveyed Koreans support the idea of physician-assisted suicide, in which a doctor provides lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who wish to end their suffering. Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in Korea.

The general population had the highest proportion of those who agreed with the idea of assisted suicide — 35.9 percent — followed by the cancer patients (29.7 percent), the doctors (27.3 percent) and the family members of cancer patients (25.7 percent).

The study also found that more than 80 percent of all surveyed support the idea of pain management programs for terminally ill cancer patients, even if it involves heavy use of opioids and the subsequent side effects, including addiction.

In the survey, 98.9 percent of the doctors supported the idea of the active use of opioids as a means of pain management for terminally ill patients.

At the same time, 88.5 percent of the cancer patients, 92.5 percent of those with family members with cancer, and 83.1 percent of the general public thought the same.

Koreans are prescribed less than 47 percent of the opiate dosage level that the WHO considers adequate for chronic pain relief.

These were the views of panellists at a session on The Future of Jobs in Asean held yesterday in Hanoi as part of the three-day World Economic Forum (WEF) on Asean. The session was developed in partnership with The Straits Times.

The theme has been a subject of debate, with concern about the impact of technology on jobs and the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is projected to have far-reaching consequences across industries and for the way people work.

The discussions saw panellists bringing up interesting trends and proposals. These included Vietnam’s acceptance of the idea of people, including government officials, holding two jobs as a way to build resilience, and the growing trend among the young to aim for “Fire” – being financially savvy and able to retire early.

Among the proposals were the creation of a virtual database of knowledge to encourage digital literacy among those aged 60 and above, and introducing education leave across age groups to encourage lifetime learning.

Setting the stage for the discussions, Mr Warren Fernandez, editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings’ English/Malay/Tamil Media Group and The Straits Times editor, noted that while the Fourth Industrial Revolution was opening up many more opportunities, it was also leading to angst, anxieties and populist pressures in emerging economies. “The angst over it can be summed up in one word: jobs,” he said.

Drawing attention to recent findings from WEF studies, he highlighted that 65 per cent of children entering primary school today will end up doing a job that does not even exist right now.

Another piece of research showed that by 2020, more than a third of core skills needed to do a job will be those that are not even considered crucial today.

Still, there was a high level of optimism in the region, he noted, referring to a poll of 64,000 youth in Asean, released on Tuesday, which showed the majority believe that new technologies will lead to more jobs and higher income.

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who said he was 99 per cent optimistic about the impact of technology on jobs, brought up his country’s emphasis on lifelong learning.

As part of the widespread educational reforms being undertaken in Vietnam, a virtual database of knowledge is being put in place and will be accessible to all, he said.

For the elderly, there will be an ecosystem of knowledge to help them improve their digital skills. For primary school pupils, new textbooks will be introduced next year with an increased focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses. For other students, the effort is aimed at matching the curriculum with that in other countries, he added.

Mr Ian Lee, chief executive for Asia-Pacific of leading workforce solutions provider The Adecco Group, said that it was difficult to predict the type of jobs needed in the future.

“Ten years ago, cyber-security jobs were not heard of. But today, it is one of the hottest jobs,” he said.

Ms Vivian Lau, president of JA Asia-Pacific, which prepares young people for employment and entrepreneurship, supports the idea of educational leave to allow people to learn, unlearn and prepare for their future.

Ms Francesca Chia, founder and CEO of Malaysia-based start-up GoGet, which connects businesses to part-timers via its platform, emphasised the need to include the elderly who are willing to undergo training to upskill themselves and take on flexible jobs.

Mr Xu Haoliang, United Nations assistant secretary-general and regional director for Asia and the Pacific at the UN Development Programme, had the last word, as he reminded the audience about the need to care for vulnerable groups.

“We really need to think about what we can do together, in partnerships, so that we leave no one behind,” he said.

Juncker used his annual speech to the European Parliament to call for the bloc to stand up for the international order in the face of “trade and currency wars”, in a swipe at US President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach.

Europe’s ability to take strong diplomatic action is often hampered by the need to get agreement from all 28 member countries, so in a bid to simplify the process, Juncker announced plans to abolish the need for unanimity on some foreign policy issues.

With Brussels and Washington at loggerheads on a host of major issues from trade tariffs to the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, Juncker said it was time for Europe to play a more influential role on the world stage.

“We must become a greater global actor,” the head of the EU executive told lawmakers in French, before switching to English to add: “Yes we are global payers, but we have to be global players too.”

The EU must do more to push the euro as a world currency, Juncker said, questioning why Europe pays 80 percent of its energy bills in dollars when only two percent of its energy imports come from the United States.

Boosting the role of the euro as a reserve currency would also create a means of skirting US sanctions that it disagrees with, such as those slapped back on Tehran by Trump when he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year in the face of bitter European opposition.

A European diplomat said in advance of the speech that Juncker knows it is a “critical” moment to prepare Europe for a world in which Trump’s United States is an unpredictable foreign policy friend and a protectionist trade rival.

Juncker urged the EU to strike a “new alliance” with Africa that would create millions of jobs and include a free trade deal — a move Brussels hopes would both showcase its international influence and help to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.

But despite his impassioned call for greater assertiveness, Juncker made no mention of Russia — accused of meddling in numerous elections across Europe and launching a chemical attack in Britain — or of the war still rumbling in the EU’s eastern neighbour Ukraine.

10,000 border guards

Juncker’s showpiece speech is his last before the May elections that will pit Europe’s rising populist movements against his centrist supporters, and he issued a rallying cry to maintain a “continent of tolerance and openness”.

Populist, nationalist and eurosceptic forces have gained ground in many countries, and the polls for the European parliament could well bring in more of Juncker’s opponents to rock the boat just as he tries to consolidate what he sees as real successes in restoring forward momentum to the European project.

As part of efforts to tackle the issue of illegal immigration, which has done much to fuel populist sentiment since the height of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, Juncker confirmed plans to revamp the bloc’s border protection.

“The European Commission is today proposing to strengthen the European Border and Coast Guard to better protect our external borders with an additional 10,000 European border guards by 2020,” Juncker said.

Germany’s powerful Chancellor Angela Merkel has been a Juncker supporter but warned that the European elections marked a crucial turning point, and that immigration would be a major issue.

“The migration question is an even bigger challenge for EU cohesion than the euro crisis,” Merkel told lawmakers in Berlin.

“Will Europe succeed in the face of those who want to destroy it and fragment it, those who want to withdraw in on themselves?”

Juncker leaves office on October 31 next year after a term marked by crisis after crisis: a refugee influx, soaring debt and Brexit.

He said he respected Britain’s choice to leave, but undermined a key part of Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to quit the bloc, warning London it cannot expect to selectively remain in parts of the single market.

“Someone who leaves the union can not be in the same privileged position as a member state,” he said, while welcoming May’s proposal for an “ambitious new partnership” based on a future free trade agreement.

The prime minister was responding to a question raised by the 27th WEF’s discussion panel about whether the fracture of a dam in Laos’ Attapeu province, resulting in a deadly flood, would affect Laos’ approach to hydropower development.

“Of course it will impact the development of hydropower dams in Laos,” he told the panel, in which government leaders from the Mekong Subregion took part.

The Lao government has suspended the consideration of proposals to survey and invest in new hydropower projects following the fracture and collapse of an auxiliary dam at the under construction Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower plant in July.

As an additional precautionary measure, hydropower projects for which documents have been signed by the government and investors, as well as dams that are under construction, must undergo inspections to ensure they meet international safety standards before they can proceed.

“I have given a commitment to the Lao people and the international community that from now on the construction of hydroelectricity dams in Laos must undergo proper studies,” Mr Thongloun told the discussion panel.

“The construction of hydroelectricity dams in Laos must be based on the conditions of top-quality studies and research. Designs must meet international standards and be scientifically sound.”  Mr Thongloun added that international experts and engineers should be engaged in the study, design and construction process.

Dams that have been built must provide assurance that there will be no fracture or environmental damage, the prime minister said.

There are currently 52 hydropower projects with a combined installed capacity of more than 7,231MW operating in Laos and many more are under construction. Two-thirds of the power generated is exported with Thailand being the largest export market for the energy produced in Laos.

Mr Thongloun said many hydropower projects in Laos have met international safety standards and were deemed to be good models for hydropower development in the region and world. They include the Nam Ngum 1 hydropower project, which has been in operation for more than five decades.

The Nam Theun II hydropower project, which went into operation about 10 years ago, is another good example.

The prime minister said he disagreed with the popular concept that Laos could become ‘the battery of Asean or even Asia’, saying Laos’ hydropower potential capacity was small compared to the region’s energy demands.

But he said Laos had the potential to produce electricity for export to neighbouring countries. In addition to the dams currently in operation, the Lao government has made agreements with local and foreign investors to build another 379 hydropower plants, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

As Florence churned slowly towards the coasts of North and South Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane, federal and state officials issued final appeals to residents to get out of the path of the “once in a lifetime” weather system.

“This storm will bring destruction,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said. “Catastrophic effects will be felt.”

Federal emergency management officials warned that Florence — while weakening slightly — remains a “very dangerous storm” capable of wreaking havoc along a wide swathe of the coast.

“Just because the wind speed came down, the intensity of this storm came down to a Cat 2, please do not let your guard down,” said Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Warning of looming storm surges of nine to 12 feet (2.7-3.6 meters), he urged residents to take the storm seriously no matter the category, saying “this is all about the water anyway.”

Florence was downgraded to a Category 2 storm overnight on the five-level Saffir-Simpson wind scale but it is still packing hurricane-force winds of 100 miles (155 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Winds were already picking up along the coastline early Thursday and some minor flooding was reported on the Outer Banks, barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, and in some seaside coastal towns.

Myrtle Beach, a South Carolina beach resort, was virtually deserted with empty streets, boarded up storefronts and very little traffic.

And in Wilmington, North Carolina, a steady rain began to fall as gusts of winds intensified, causing trees to sway and stoplights to flicker.

Avair Vereen, 39, took her seven children to a shelter in Conway High School.

“We live in a mobile home so we were just like ‘No way,'” she said. “If we lose the house, oh well, we can get housing.”

“But we can’t replace us so we decided to come here.”

– Monster storm surge expected –

At 5:00 pm (2100 GMT), Florence was over the Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, and moving west-northwest at five miles per hour, the NHC said.

Steve Goldstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Florence’s forward motion had slowed overnight and it was not expected to make landfall in the Carolinas until “some time Friday afternoon, Friday evening or Saturday morning.”

He said hurricane-force winds extend outward 80 miles from the center of the storm and tropical storm-force winds extend nearly 200 miles out.

Some areas could receive as much as 40 inches (one meter) of rain, forecasters said.

“This rainfall will produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding,” the NHC said.

A tornado watch was also in effect for parts of North Carolina.

“This is a very dangerous storm,” said FEMA’s Long, urging people still in evacuation zones to heed orders to flee to safer ground.

“Your time is running out,” he warned.

Long said the danger was not only along the coast. “Inland flooding kills a lot of people, unfortunately, and that’s what we’re about to see,” he said.

About 1.7 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders and millions of others live in areas likely to be affected by what officials called a “once in a lifetime” storm.

South Carolina ordered the mandatory evacuation of one million coastal residents while North Carolina announced an evacuation of the Outer Banks, a popular tourist destination.

In Virginia, 245,000 coastal residents were told to flee.

A state of emergency has been declared in five coastal states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia — as well as the US capital Washington.

Duke Energy, a power company in the Carolinas, estimated that one million to three million customers could lose electricity because of the storm and that it could take weeks to restore.

‘Catastrophic effects’

Not everybody was heeding orders to evacuate, however.

Antonio Ramirez, a construction worker from El Salvador living in Leland, North Carolina, said he planned to ride out the worst of the weather with his dog Canelo.

“The shelters are not taking dogs,” Ramirez said. “I’m not leaving him here.

In Wilmington, residents who had decided not to evacuate were lining up to get ice from a vending machine — $2 for a 16-pound (7.2-kilo) bag.

“I have no generator,” said Petra Langston, a nurse. “I learned from the past to keep the ice in the washing machine.”

Perched on the porch of his home, carpenter Tony Albright was calmly awaiting Florence’s arrival, beer in hand.

“I built this house myself, so I’m not worried at all, I know it’s solid,” he said. “I charged the batteries of my electronic devices, I have beers and video games.”

“The only thing missing in there is a hot lady.”

Massachusetts State Police said they had responded to 70 reports of fires, explosions and the smell of gas in a widespread zone encompassing the east coast towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover.

“Gas lines are currently being depressurized,” police said on Twitter, adding that “it will take some time.”

“Numerous evacuations of neighborhoods where there are gas odors are underway,” police said. “Far too early to speculate on cause. Joint investigation will be conducted when situation is stabilized.”

Authorities were to cut power to thousands of meters, police said, and residents in all three towns with utilities service from Columbia Gas had been asked to evacuate immediately.

In a release dated Thursday the company had said it would “be upgrading natural gas lines in neighborhoods across the state.”

The mayor of Lawrence additionally requested that all those living in the southern zone of his town leave their homes ahead of the planned power shutdown.

Lawrence General Hospital was treating six patients injured in the gas explosions, and two of them were in critical condition.

“We continue to prepare for multiple casualties,” the hospital said.

Red Cross centers were open to shelter evacuees while Lawrence public schools were to shutter Friday.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said in a statement he was “actively monitoring the situation,” urging “residents to heed instructions from local officials.”

“It appears that the suspect targeted each of his victims,” Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told a news conference in Bakersfield, where Wednesday’s deadly rampage took place.

He said the shooter, identified as Javier Casarez, 54, was in divorce proceedings and his wife had recently filed legal papers related to child support and property.

The tragedy unfolded after Casarez arrived at a trucking company in southeast Bakersfield at around 5:18 pm, accompanied by his wife, Petra Casarez, Youngblood said.

The couple confronted a man at the business. Javier Casarez shot the man and then turned the gun on his wife and shot her. He then chased another man and gunned him down too, Youngblood said.

Casarez then went to a house where he shot a 31-year-old woman and her father.

Youngblood said Casarez carjacked a vehicle with a woman and child inside and let them go, telling the woman he was “not a bad guy,” before driving off.

He killed himself after he pulled into a business and was confronted by police, who released body-cam footage of the suicide from an officer at the scene.

Youngblood said Casarez told the officer he didn’t want to live before shooting himself in the stomach with a Smith & Wesson handgun.

It is as yet unclear how all the victims are connected to Casarez, authorities said.

The mass shooting is the third deadliest in the United States this year after a shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, in February that left 17 people dead and one at a school in Santa Fe, Texas, in May that left 10 people dead, according to data from Gun Violence Archive.