Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye arrives for her trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, May 23, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] SEOUL - Ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday appeared in a Seoul court for her first hearing over a set of corruption charges. Park, handcuffed and in a dark blue suit, appeared in the Seoul Central District Court for her trial on a total of 18 criminal charges including bribery, abuse of power, extortion and the leakage of government secrets. It was her first public appearance since she was taken into custody on March 31. The constitutional court upheld the bill to impeach Park on March 10. The first hearing began at about 10:00 am local time (0100 GMT) and was presided over by three judges, including the one who is in charge of the case of Choi Soon-sil, Park's longtime confidante who is also in custody and is at the center of the corruption scandal. Park and Choi were identified by prosecutors as criminal accomplice. They were charged with taking bribes worth about 59.2 billion won (52 million US dollars) from large conglomerates including Samsung, Lotte and SK. Choi and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin also appeared at the court to stand trial together with Park. If convicted for the bribery charge, Park would face at least 10 years in prison. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto leader of Samsung Group, has already stood trial as he was indicted in February. custom silicone wristbandscustom silicone wristbandspersonalized rubber braceletswide rubber bandsrubber arm bandsfidget spinner bracelet
New events that will be introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are BMX freestyle riding, skateboarding, surfing and climbing. PHOTOS BY CHINA DAILY, XINHUA AND GETTY IMAGES Gearing up for four new events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, China's top sports body is hoping to draft overseas athletes of Chinese origin to represent their motherland in areas where China lacks athletic prowess. Without enough talent in surfing, climbing, skateboarding and BMX freestyle riding, four sports added for the Tokyo Games, the General Administration of Sport of China has launched a progressive talent selection program to identify and develop athletes from home and abroad. The administration has formed a leading group with the four respective sporting bodies and Beijing Sport University to run the program, which opened an online registration system on Monday to receive applications from Chinese talent at home, foreign athletes of Chinese ancestry and Chinese citizens living abroad. New events that will be introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are BMX freestyle riding, skateboarding, surfing and climbing. PHOTOS BY CHINA DAILY, XINHUA AND GETTY IMAGES Online registration on the university's website will be open through Aug 31, followed by an audition and two rounds of qualification tests with a two-month training camp to eventually select 50 athletes for each of the sports by the end of this year. An international experts panel consisting of coaches, physical trainers, nutritionists and psychologists with expertise in the four sports, which are currently underdeveloped in China, will assess and guide the registrants. New events that will be introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are BMX freestyle riding, skateboarding, surfing and climbing. PHOTOS BY CHINA DAILY, XINHUA AND GETTY IMAGES The program will reach out to countries with strengths in such extreme sports, such as the United States, Australia and Brazil, to search for established talent with Chinese origins. It would attract them to represent China with stipends and policies on nationality-transfer procedures if necessary, according to the leading group. Due to the lack of talent in these niche sports in China, it is the shortcut that we have to take to prepare for Tokyo in such a short period of time, said Cao Weidong, director of the leading group and Party chief of Beijing Sport University. The reform also is being implemented by overhauling the traditional athletic talent drafting system and by expanding it to the grassroots and extending its reach overseas. It intends to expand the nation's Olympic prowess beyond traditional strong sports including table tennis, badminton and diving. One example is the Chinese Ice Hockey Association organizing tryout camps in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver in June to select young players of Chinese ancestry to join the national program through naturalization for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. New events that will be introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are BMX freestyle riding, skateboarding, surfing and climbing. PHOTOS BY CHINA DAILY, XINHUA AND GETTY IMAGES To channel overseas talent to the national system, with support in policy and logistics, is an experiment of great significance to improve our relatively weak sports quickly, said Liu Xiaonong, director of the athletic department of sports administration. However, persuading some excellent overseas talent to abandon foreign citizenship to be eligible to represent China remains a challenge, given that China doesn't accept dual citizenship, observers said. Still, strong support within China's State-run sports system will appeal to a certain group of overseas Chinese who couldn't join the mainstream athletic systems in their adopted countries, said Zhang Bing, a sports sociology expert at Tsinghua University.
