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.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
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