CHINA
Jailed artist released
An artist who could not be reached for more than a week after he painted a politically charged mural in Shenzhen yesterday wrote on Twitter that he has been freed. “I was released a few days ago and we are in my hometown now,” the Twitter account of painter Hu Jiamin (胡嘉岷) read days after Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported that Hu and his French wife, Marine Brossard, had been taken away by plainclothes men. Hu said in another post that he would return to France on Saturday. The couple had painted a mural honoring Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), who died in 2010, at the entrance of a public exhibition in Shenzhen on Dec. 15. City authorities covered the wall with a banner the same evening, witnesses said. Their painting depicted an empty blue chair inside a room with red bars, an apparent reference to Liu.
UNITED STATES
Manure sent to Mnuchin
A gift-wrapped package addressed to Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin’s home in a posh Los Angeles neighborhood that was suspected of being a bomb was instead filled with horse manure, police told local media. The package was found on Saturday evening in a next-door neighbor’s driveway in Bel Air, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) told the Los Angeles Times and KNBC television, the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles. The package also included a Christmas card with negative comments about President Donald Trump and the new tax law signed by Trump last week. Reuters could not reach LAPD officials for comment on Sunday. An LAPD bomb squad X-rayed the package before opening it and found the horse manure inside, police told local media. Mnuchin, who KNBC said was not home when the package was discovered, is a former Goldman Sachs Group executive and Hollywood film financier.
EGYPT
Fifteen arrested over attack
Security officials said that 15 people — 12 Muslims and three Christians — have been arrested in connection with an attack on an unlicensed Christian church south of Cairo. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators stormed the church after Friday prayers, according to the local diocese, who said they wrecked some of its fittings while chanting anti-Christian slogans and calling for its demolition. Three Christians were wounded by the attackers. Christians constitute about 10 percent of Egypt’s population.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police probe pork attack
Police in Northern Ireland are treating as a hate crime an incident in which pork was forced through the letterbox of an Islamic center on Christmas Eve. Center treasurer Raied al-Wazzan, the treasurer of the center in Belfast, described those responsible as “ignorant people.” A colleague, Anwar Macady, said that it was the first time the center had been attacked in such a way, and it was sad that it had happened on Christmas Eve. “They’re supposed to be celebrating mercy and forgiveness. I think this man is only representing himself, and a handful of people who may support him,” he said. “We know that this person doesn’t represent the wider society of Northern Ireland and we are very thankful for the people who sent us messages to tell us the message of support.” In August an Islamic center in Newtownards, Co Down, was subjected to a racist attack when a pig’s head was left on its doorstep.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing