S. Korea catches ferry-disaster fugitive
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korean police detained the eldest son of the owner of a sunken ferry Friday after two months on the run, three days after his billionaire father was confirmed dead.
Yoo Dae-gyun was picked up from an office south of Seoul along with a woman accused of helping him evade the police, Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency said.
Yoo is a major shareholder in Chonghaejin Marine Co., the operator of the ferry that sank in April. His father, Yoo Byung-eun, had founded the predecessor of Chonghaejin.
For months, authorities had sought the two and said embezzlement and other purported corruption by the Yoo family may have contributed to the April 16 disaster that left 294 people dead and 10 still missing.
The body of the elder Yoo, 73, was discovered in a southern rural area by a resident on June 12. DNA testing confirmed the body was that of the elder Yoo late Tuesday, and the National Forensic Service, South Korea's state-run forensic lab, said Friday that decomposition had made it impossible to determine the cause of his death.
Jordanians shoot down drone, reports say
AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan's air force shot down an "aerial target" near the Syrian border Friday, a Jordanian military official said. Eyewitnesses said the object was a drone.
It was not immediately clear where the object came from, but there have been reports of intense fighting in the southern Syrian province of Daraa that borders Jordan. Syria's civil war has often spilled across the country's borders.
The aerial target was followed by Jordan's air force and shot down at dawn over an empty area in the province of Mafraq, said the Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Eyewitnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety, said the drone was shot down near the Zaatari camp in Jordan, which is home to more than 120,000 Syrian refugees.
Filipino militants, troops clash; 5 killed
MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine troops attacked a Muslim militant hideout on southern Basilan island, triggering a clash that killed three Abu Sayyaf members believed to have been involved in the 2011 kidnapping of an American woman and her teenage son, a military report said Friday.
Two government militiamen were killed and two others were wounded.
The report said the operation Thursday in Ungkaya Pukan township targeted Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Sulaiman Ajanti, who was accused of being behind atrocities in Basilan and Zamboanga City and the kidnapping of Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann and her then 14-year-old son. The Philippine-born woman adopted as a child by an American couple was released after 2 ½ months in captivity. Her son escaped after five months.
Ajanti and two of his followers were killed in the clash and five militants were wounded, the report said.
Abu Sayyaf, which has about 300 armed fighters split into several factions, was organized in the early 1990s in the south and vowed to wage jihad, or holy war, but the early combat deaths of its key commanders sent the group on a path of criminality.
Militia critic abducted in Libya, dad says
CAIRO -- Armed men abducted a well-known Libyan political activist in the country's capital, his father said Friday, the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted officials, activists and foreigners in the strife-torn nation.
Abdullah Banoun, the father of activist Abdel-Moaz Banoun said his son was taken by two armed men who attacked his car Thursday. No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but the father blamed the militias.
Abdel-Moaz Banoun has been an outspoken critic of the militias and has urged that they be disbanded. He has also advocated the establishment of a unified police and army, which Libya has lacked since the 2011 civil war that ousted and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
An umbrella group for Islamist militias, called the Operation Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, said on its Facebook page on Friday that "troops arrested Abdel-Moaz over allegations that he served under Gadhafi" and "instigated rallies against" the Islamic militias.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 07/26/2014