‘The Prophet’ of cult-like church near Owen Sound, gets 18 months for assaulting members

　 Fred King, 2nd from right, and members of his legal team arrive at court on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 in Owen Sound, Ont. ‘The Prophet’ of cult-like church near Owen Sound, gets 18 months for assaulting members OWEN SOUND — Disgraced Chatsworth church leader Fred King, known to his parishioners simply as “The Prophet,” was sentenced today to 18 months jail followed by two years probation.His church, which came to public attention first through a W5 television expose, has disbanded, according to defence lawyer Paul Mergler. King, 57, pleaded guilty in May to nine assaults which took place between Dec. 12, 1988 and Aug. 10, 2008, mostly in Chatsworth Township or elsewhere in Grey County, and in one case in Peel Region, involving four church members.　The abuse included squeezing a child’s hand with crushing force for fighting with a sister, and beating a teen in church in front of its members after she’d tried to run away. King also beat a young man stripped of clothes in front of his mother, leaving him standing outside for hours at night as mosquitoes bit him. Grey County Crown attorney Michael Martin said King, who led the church since 1986, was “all powerful within that religious denomination” and often preached for hours on end. He alone decided when behaviour needed “correction” and what form it took.　King, a tall, heavyset man, would “sadistically humiliate and repeatedly assault women . . . and children with complete impunity,” Martin said. Fred King, centre (in green jacket), and his brother Joseph King, right (in blue jacket), leave the Ontario Court of Justice following Fred King's bail hearing in Owen Sound on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. Fred King faces 25 charges from 1978-2008 following an investigation of allegations surrounding his Chatsworth area Church of Jesus Christ Restored. This breach of trust was often carried out in front of the congregation, Martin noted. Victims worked in “church-controlled jobs, either as farm labour or within the printing business.”King had nothing to say when given the opportunity to speak in court Wednesday.King admitted in the Superior Court of Justice in May to a litany of physical abuse, often designed to humiliate, something Justice Clayton Conlan said he found particularly disturbing as he accepted the sentence recommended by Crown and defence.He called King’s abuse of his church members a “gross violation” of King’s position of trust. Emotional scars left, he suspects, will never heal. The “sordid” facts were the primary aggravating factor in deciding the sentence. But to his credit, King pleaded guilty, saving the justice system time and avoiding aggravation the victims would have had to endure at trial. He’s a first offender, Conlan said.King’s victims in the charges he admitted to include three males between 11 and 19 years of age at the time, and Carol Christie. She and husband John Christie did not attend the sentencing because they attended a funeral instead. Fred King, center, follows an unidentified woman, left, and a member of his legal team into the courthouse on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 in Owen Sound, Ont. James Masters/The Owen Sound Sun Times/Postmedia NetworkFred King, center, follows an unidentified woman, left, and a member of his legal team into the courthouse on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 in Owen Sound, Ont. Only Christie, 63, of Owen Sound, may be named under terms of a publication ban, which was lifted on her name with her agreement. The ban was imposed to protect the privacy of the other victims at the Crown’s request.After a particularly severe and humiliating attack in front of parishioners, which was detailed in court, Christie ran from the church in March 2008, never to return. Two of the charges King pleaded to related to assaults on her when she was roughly 35 to 55 years old.Christie came forward and was featured on a W5 investigative report, and in local media in 2012, which detailed abuse allegations. The television report led the OPP to investigate, Martin said.Christie and her husband wrote a book about her experiences in the church. A former church member has alleged that Fred King had many wives at once who were handed down from his father, Stan King. But no polygamy charges ever resulted from the 16-month police investigation.Among charges that were withdrawn Wednesday were six allegations of sexual misconduct including on a young girl and a woman. In two cases the charges alleged repeated sexual assaults. The Crown said he stands behind the credibility of Christie, one of those complaints. Defence lawyer Mergler said late disclosure of information led to the plea arrangement and withdrawal of the sex related charges.Mergler, said its been tough on his client while facing these charges and before, when a civil suit was settled with a number of complainants who all received “very significant” damage awards.So it could be argued, he said, financial “restitution” has already been made to the extent possible. He also said there were “numerous and huge triable issues” in this case which had been set for three weeks of trial before a judge alone. Fred King, the church leader and alleged polygamist who was arrested Friday in Hamilton. Before Friday, the rural Ontario man hadn't been seen for two years, after church members in Chatsworth, Ont., accused him of sexual exploitation and assault. “There have been death threats,” against King, at least one of which police were told about and which led to imposition of a peace bond, Mergler said. “There was vandalism, including people urinating on the gates to the property. There has been some effective banishment and public vilification, one could say.”King’s “health has suffered” from stress-related issues which arose with this court matter. A term of bail required him not to live at home in Chatsworth, but instead in Oakville with his wife and brother Joe, one of his bail guarantors, who died this summer. That required Fred to take on many more duties n the family printing plant, which will miss him while he’s in jail, Mergler said. Letters from three of King’s children, all adults now, and from his wife, who attended court Wednesday, were submitted for the judge to consider. They work for the family printing business too. “The church has been disbanded. So so all of those people are there because they want to be,” Mergler said.King always “adamantly denied” any of the sexual charges, he noted. But his crimes, court case precedents and terms of the Criminal Code all “cry out for a jail term” in this case, he said.“Clearly the time for impunity has past.” Fred King’s brother, Judson King, is charged with assault with a weapon, sexual assault and three counts of assault between 1981 and 2007. He is to appear in assignment court in the Superior Court of Justice Nov. 7.

Dog poop cake' pulled from shelves following outcry

Dog poop cake' is pictured at a specialty store on Shanghai's Nanjing Road last month. Yin Liqin / For China Daily 'Dog poop cake' is pictured at a specialty store on Shanghai's Nanjing Road last month. Yin Liqin / For China Daily As the saying goes, "You are what you eat". And according to a manufacturer of mung bean cakes in Shanghai, if one eats its product labeled "dog poop cake", you are likely to be "blessed with the kind of luck that would see you step on dog poop". While tourists in the city have been intrigued by the product, locals are said to be indignant that the manufacturer is calling it "a specialty of Shanghai", leading to production of the cake being suspended and the product being pulled from shelves since Wednesday, after receiving wide media attention. "I don't get it. I just want to be innovative, which is supposed to be encouraged," said Zhang Neirong, owner and manager of Shanghai Fengdu Food Co, which began labeling its signature mung bean cakes as "dog poop cake" this year. Zhang said that due to overwhelming criticism and pressure, he has withdrawn the product from his partnering food stores in Shanghai. He has also stopped producing the cake's packaging - a linen bag and a post-it-size label that reads, "Savor the dog poop cake, enjoy the luck of stepping on dog poop" on a background featuring Shanghai's skyline. The mung bean cakes inside look and taste no different from the regular offerings prevalent at the city's food stores and supermarkets. But the price, 42 yuan ($6.2) for 200 grams, is almost twice the average price. A shop assistant working at a specialty store near the Bund, who refused to be named, said shoppers intrigued by the cakes are not usually concerned by the price, adding that more than 90 percent of purchases at her shop are made by tourists. On Tuesday last week, a local newspaper published a front-page article about how the cakes have been labeled a specialty, and questioned whether the product is creative or vulgar. The report quoted historians and food critics slamming such labeling of the cakes, although the government said there is no law or regulations defining the city's "specialty food". Zhang said he renamed his mung bean cakes after learning that a specialty in Sichuan province is "dog poop candy", while stating on his packaging that "dog poop cake" is a specialty of Shanghai to drive up sales. Made of yellow bean and peanuts, "dog poop candy", a specialty of Ya'an, Sichuan province, is believed to have gained its peculiar name because of its shape and color.

Taipei Palace Museum to sue Beijing museum for copyright infringemen

The Taipei Palace Museum will file a lawsuit against the Palace Museum in Beijing for violating its copyright by including three of its collections in a painting album without authorization. According to the Beijing Youth Daily, the Taipei Palace Museum has been preparing documents since November 3, but is yet to file them in a Beijing court. Law experts say that if the Taipei Palace Museum files a lawsuit in Beijing, due to the different intellectual property regulations, the Taipei side has to not only prove that it owns the copyright of the litigated paintings, but also that the Beijing side has conducted the infringement act according to China's Copyright Law. Three paintings including Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains are referred to as copyright offense According to Taipei Palace Museum staff, a painting album published by the Palace Museum in Beijing contains images of three paintings: Travelers among Mountains and Streams, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, and Early Spring, which are now among the Taipei museum's collections. Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains is one of the few surviving works by the painter Huang Gongwang, and was burnt into two pieces in 1650, with one of them stored today at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou while the other kept at the Taipei Palace Musuem. The two halves were reunited for the first time in 2011 at the Taipei Palace Museum during an exhibition. Though the Palace Museum in Beijing marks below each image that they are from the Taipei Palace Museum, the Beijing side shall submit official application for an authorization before usage, according to Taipei museum's copyright usage regulations. The Taipei side claimed that after finding the three paintings, they had tried to contact the Beijing side in November and December last year to ask for a supplementary application, but no reply was received. Therefore, the Taipei Palace Museum decided to file a lawsuit against the Palace Museum in Beijing for copyright offenses. So far, the Beijing side hasn't made an official response.

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President Xi urges independent R&D for aviation engines, gas turbines

President Xi Jinping on Sunday called for acceleration of independent research, development and manufacturing of aircraft engines and gas turbines to make China an aviation industry power. His words came on the heels of the establishment of the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) Sunday in Beijing. The founding of the firm is a strategic move that will help enhance national power as well as the capacity of the armed forces, Xi said in a written instruction. The move will also benefit the reform of state-owned enterprises and the restructuring of the aviation industry, he continued. Xi encouraged AECC employees to be bold in innovating to make the country an aviation power. The AECC received investment from the State Council, the Beijing Municipal Government, Aviation Industry Corporation of China and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, with a registered capital of 50 billion yuan (around 7.5 billion US dollars). The firm has 96,000 employees. Premier Li Keqiang said in his written instruction that aircraft engines are sophisticated products of the equipment manufacturing industry.Making breakthroughs in this area as soon as possible will have great value for improving China's economic and military power and national strength. Li urged indigenous innovation to make the AECC a world-class aircraft engine company. Vice Premier Ma Kai, who attended the opening ceremony, also stressed indigenous innovation and continued reforms to build the AECC into a modern enterprise full of vitality. He called for personnel training to cultivate scientific and skilled personnel as well as innovators. China will launch at least 100 key projects over the next 15 years to increase the country's technological capability and improve people's livelihoods, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan unveiled earlier this year. Aviation engines and gas turbines were listed among the top 10 of the 100 projects.

Ethnic peace talks test Suu Kyi

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi faces what could be the toughest test of her leadership yet when she opens a major ethnic peace conference Wednesday aimed at ending wars that have blighted the country since its independence. The five-day talks will bring hundreds of ethnic minority rebel leaders to the capital, along with military top brass and international delegates such as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The conference is Suu Kyi's flagship effort to quell the long-running rebellions rumbling across Myanmar's impoverished frontier states, fuelled in part by the illegal drugs, jade and timber trades. Myanmar is home to more than 100 ethnic groups and many minorities harbor deep seated historical suspicions of the Bamar majority group - which includes Suu Kyi - complaining that they have endured decades of discrimination. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has made ending the nearly 70 years of fighting the first priority of her newly minted government, which took over from the military in March after sweeping the first free election in generations. "If you ask me what my most important aim is for my country, that is to achieve peace and unity among the different peoples of our union," she said during a recent visit to China. "Without peace, there can be no sustained development." The 71-year-old is hoping to expand a shaky ceasefire signed last year between some rebel armies and the military-backed government. This week's conference will include both signatories to the ceasefire agreement and non-signatories, although some groups are still locked in intense fighting with government forces and their role in the talks remains unclear. Success also depends heavily on the military, which controls key levers of government and whose leaders are thought to have made billions from the vast natural resources of Myanmar's borderlands. "Anyone who is suggesting there could be any sort of agreement in the coming days or weeks is dreaming," said Anthony Davis, a security analyst and writer for IHS-Jane's, predicting the negotiations could take "many years." The conference has nevertheless been hailed as an important first step and one loaded with symbolism in a nation emerging from a dark military past. It is dubbed the '21st Century Panglong' - a reference to a 1947 agreement signed by Suu Kyi's independence hero father that granted a level of autonomy to major ethnic groups.

N. Korea fires back at UN over missile tests

North Korea hit back on Sunday at a UN Security Council statement condemning its latest test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), and threatened to take further steps as "a full-fledged military power." The 15-member council issued the toughly-worded condemnation in a unanimous statement and agreed to "take further significant measures" against North Korea, just days after the SLBM launch. Council members agreed to "continue to closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures," according to the statement, without elaborating. North Korea is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology, but has carried out several launches following its fourth nuclear test in January. A spokesman for the North's foreign ministry labeled the UN statement a "product of brigandish acts of the US" and said Washington had ignored a warning about "hurting its dignity." "Now that the US posed threats to the dignity and the right to existence of the North Korea defying its serious warning, it will continue to take a series of eventful action steps as a full-fledged military power," the spokesman said. "The DPRK has substantial means capable of reducing aggression troops in the US mainland and the operation theatre in the Pacific to ashes in a moment," the spokesman added in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday described the latest SLBM test as the "greatest success" and said it put the US mainland and the Pacific within striking range. The missile was fired from a submarine off the northeastern port of Sinpo on Wednesday. It flew 500 kilometers towards Japan, far exceeding the range of the North's previous sub-launched missiles. A proven SLBM system would take North Korea's nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a "second-strike" capability in the event of an attack on its military bases. While Pyongyang has made faster progress in its SLBM system than originally expected, it is still years away from deployment, analysts said. North Korea has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006. In March, the council adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date, targeting North Korea's trade in minerals as well as tightening banking restrictions. The council met behind closed doors on Wednesday after North Korea launched a missile from a submarine towards Japan, the latest provocation from Pyongyang.