Child starves as parents raise virtual baby

News reports say a South Korean couple addicted to an Internet game about raising a virtual child have been arrested for neglecting their real 3-month-old daughter and letting her starve to death. The couple spent between four and six hours every day at Internet cafes in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, and bottle-fed their baby only once a day, the Yonhap news agency and other South Korean media reported, citing police. The couple found their baby dead on September 24 when they returned home after playing online games at a nearby Internet cafe, Yonhap reported. The 41-year-old father and his 25-year-old wife, both jobless, went into hiding after a police autopsy found the baby died because of a long period of malnutrition, the report said. Police arrested the couple on Wednesday.—AP