News Headlines - 24 September 2020

▽North Korea kills S. Korean official, burns his body

South Korea said Thursday that North Korean troops fatally shot a South Korean government official who may have attempted to defect and set his body on fire after finding him on a floating object near the countries’ disputed sea boundary.
South Korean officials condemned what they called North Korea’s “atrocious act” and urged it to apologize and punish those responsible. North Korea is unlikely to accept the South Korean demand, and ties between the rivals - already strained amid a deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy - will probably suffer a further setback, observers say.

▽GM Korea Ordered to Directly Hire 945 Illegally Dispatched Workers - Businesskorea

The Ministry of Employment and Labor has ordered GM Korea, which is suspected of using 945 illegally dispatched non-regular workers, to directly hire them. If GM Korea fails to comply with the order by the end of October, a fine of 10 million won per worker will be imposed on the carmaker... The ministry's move can be seen as a follow-up to the prosecution’s indictment in July of about 30 officials of GM Korea and its partner companies on charges of violating the Laborer Dispatch Act. The indicted officials included GM Korea president Kaher Kazem and GM Korea executives and heads of partner companies.

▽Joshua Wong charged over illegal protest | The Standard

Activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung will be charged with taking part in unauthorized assembly on October 5 last year, and for violating the ban on face masks.
Wong was arrested today when he reported to the Central Police District Headquarters for his case involving the siege of Hong Kong's police headquarters on June 21 last year.
Activist Koo Sze-yiu was also said to have been arrested and charged with taking part in the same unauthorized assembly. He is now at Cheung Sha Wan police station.
Both will appear in Eastern Magistrates' Courts on September 30.

▽Botswana says it has solved mystery of mass elephant die-off | The Guardian

Hundreds of elephants died in Botswana earlier this year from ingesting toxins produced by cyanobacteria, according to government officials who say they will be testing waterholes for algal blooms next rainy season to reduce the risk of another mass die-off.
The mysterious death of 350 elephants in the Okavango delta between May and June baffled conservationists, with leading theories suggesting they were killed by a rodent virus known as EMC (encephalomyocarditis) or toxins from algal blooms.

▽NASA outlines plan to land the first woman on the Moon by 2024 - CNN

The space agency said that in four years, it plans to land the first woman ever on the Moon and the first man since 1972 through its Artemis program.
The program calls for $28 billion in funding through 2025 for Phase 1, NASA said in its news release.
Artemis is named after the Greek goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo. NASA's Apollo 11 mission succeeded in landing the first humans on the moon on July 20, 1969.