HONG KONG: A Hong Kong university professor was charged with his wife’s murder on Wednesday, a day after her decomposing body was found inside a suitcase in his campus office, reports said.
Hong Kong University mechanical engineering associate professor Cheung Kie-chung was taken away by police on Tuesday, according to the South China Morning Post and other news media.
Cheung, 53, had reported that his 52-year-old wife walked out after an argument on Aug. 17. She was believed to have been dead for several days when her body was found Tuesday dressed only in her underwear with an electric wire around her neck suggesting strangulation, Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported.
The Post said a post-mortem examination was being conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death.
Despite Cheung’s claim, there was no security camera footage showing his wife, who was not named in the reports, leaving the dormitory where she lived with her husband and an adult daughter and son. He was later seen leaving with a wooden box, the reports said, adding that the suitcase containing the body had been encased inside a sealed wooden box.
Cheung’s arrest came days after the start of the trial in Hong Kong of an anesthesiologist charged with killing his wife and daughter by placing a leaking yoga ball filled with deadly carbon monoxide in their car.
Malaysian citizen Khaw Kim-sun, 53, was allegedly having an affair and had become estranged from his wife and four children, although they continued to live together. Khaw, who has pleaded not guilty, was arrested in September.
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Prof. charged with murder after wife’s body found in office
Prof. charged with murder after wife’s body found in office
- Cheung, 53, had reported that his 52-year-old wife walked out after an argument on Aug. 17
- She was believed to have been dead for several days when her body was found Tuesday dressed only in her underwear with an electric wire around her neck
The last US-Russia nuclear pact expires, prompting fears of a new arms race
MOSCOW: The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.
The termination of the New START Treaty could set the stage for what many fear could be an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year declared readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington follows suit, but US President Donald Trump has been noncommittal about extending it.
Putin discussed the pact’s expiration with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting Washington hasn’t responded to his proposed extension.
Russia “will act in a balanced and responsible manner based on thorough analysis of the security situation,” Ushakov said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday night said in a statement that “under the current circumstances, we assume that the parties to the New START Treaty are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations within the context of the Treaty, including its core provisions, and are fundamentally free to choose their next steps.”
New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers — deployed and ready for use. It was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five more years.
The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow US inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.
In offering in September to abide by New START’s limits for a year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin said the pact’s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.
New START followed a long succession of US-Russian nuclear arms reduction pacts. Those have been terminated, as well.
The termination of the New START Treaty could set the stage for what many fear could be an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year declared readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington follows suit, but US President Donald Trump has been noncommittal about extending it.
Putin discussed the pact’s expiration with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting Washington hasn’t responded to his proposed extension.
Russia “will act in a balanced and responsible manner based on thorough analysis of the security situation,” Ushakov said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday night said in a statement that “under the current circumstances, we assume that the parties to the New START Treaty are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations within the context of the Treaty, including its core provisions, and are fundamentally free to choose their next steps.”
New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers — deployed and ready for use. It was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five more years.
The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow US inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.
In offering in September to abide by New START’s limits for a year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin said the pact’s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.
New START followed a long succession of US-Russian nuclear arms reduction pacts. Those have been terminated, as well.
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