SOUTH SUDAN
Peace talks begin
The country’s warring parties were due to start peace talks yesterday in the Ethiopian capital in a bid to end nearly three weeks of conflict that has left thousands dead in the world’s newest nation. Government and rebel negotiating teams arrived in Addis Ababa on Wednesday evening and while talks were expected yesterday, formal negotiations may not open for several days, Ethiopia’s foreign minister said. UN special envoy Hilde Johnson said in Juba it was “positive that they are sending delegations” after the violence that has forced 200,000 people to flee their homes. Fighting erupted on Dec. 15, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup. Machar has denied this, in turn accusing the president of conducting a violent purge of his opponents, and the fighting has spread across the country, with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north.
INDIA
Gang-raped, burned teen dies
A teenager was gang-raped in two separate attacks and then died after being set on fire, sparking protests in the eastern city of Kolkata, police said yesterday. The 16-year-old was assaulted first on Oct. 26 last year and then again the day after by a group of more than six men near her family’s home in Madhyagram, about 25km north of Kolkata. The second rape occurred as she was returning home after reporting the first attack at a police station. She was then set on fire on Dec. 23 and died in a state-run hospital late on New Year’s Eve, police said. “She gave us a dying declaration in front of the health officials that she was set on fire by two persons close to the accused when she was alone at home on Dec. 23,” policeman Nimbala Santosh Uttamrao said. Police made their first arrests on Wednesday, two months after the initial crime, police chief Rajiv Kumar said. Several hundred activists on Wednesday protested in Kolkata over the crime.
PAKISTAN
Musharraf’s lawyers walk
Lawyers for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf walked out of a hearing in his treason case yesterday, complaining of being threatened and harassed. The 70-year-old had been expected to attend the special tribunal for the first time after failing to show up for two previous sessions due to security threats against him. It was unclear whether he would come to court following his lawyers’ walkout. Anwar Mansoor Khan, one of the lawyers representing the former general, told the court he has been receiving threats and was unable to sleep the night before the hearing. “I was under total threat ... from 1am to five in the morning. Someone was banging on my door and ringing my bell,” Khan told the court. When one of the judges asked who was threatening him, Khan answered: “This very government.” The court promised to investigate, but Khan walked out of court, followed by other members of Musharraf’s legal team.
SOUTH KOREA
Army fights to keep sex ban
The military yesterday said it would fight a court ruling quashing its move to kick an officer candidate out of the elite Army Academy for having sex with his girlfriend while on leave. An appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the Academy abused its authority to discipline cadets when it expelled a candidate for having sex with his girlfriend while on a weekend leave. It ruled his conduct did no harm to the institution’s honor. The academy maintains rules against sexual relations as part of its code of conduct that also bans drinking, smoking and marriage and it intends to take the case to the Supreme Court.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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