CHINA
Huawei blaze kills three
Three people have been found dead after a huge fire broke out at an unfinished research facility belonging to tech giant Huawei Technologies Co in Dongguan, local authorities said, adding that it launched an investigation after Friday’s blaze at the building under construction in the Songshan Lake National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. The city government initially said that all construction workers had been evacuated, but it said in a statement later on Friday that a “thorough search by firefighters afterward found three people dead inside the building.” They were identified as employees of the industrial park management company, it added.
INDIA
Film star’s drug links probed
Top Bollywood star Deepika Padukone was yesterday questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau, which is probing the movie industry’s links with drug peddlers and cartels, officials said. She arrived at the agency’s office in Mumbai after receiving a summons earlier this week while on a shoot in Goa. Media reported that no drugs had been seized. The agency said in a statement that it started the drug probe after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, whose body was found at his Mumbai residence in June. An investigation is ongoing. Media reported that Padukone was being questioned about whether she had procured banned drugs for consumption following the interception of telephone messages making queries with local contacts.
PERU
Shark fin shipment seized
Police in Tumbes seized a shipment of about 11 tonnes of mutilated sharks, mainly of protected hammerhead sharks whose fins are highly valued and seen as a delicacy in Asian markets. The shark meat was found in cold storage after an operation this week with the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, the SUNAT state customs and tax body said. China and Japan are the largest consumers of shark products, including the fins consumed in soup.
AUSTRALIA
Disposal of whales begins
Wildlife officials yesterday began disposing of hundreds of dead pilot whales after concluding that there was no longer any hope of rescuing more. In the country’s biggest whale beaching, 470 whales were first spotted on a wide sandbank during an aerial reconnaissance of rugged Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania State on Monday. After days of difficult and dangerous rescue attempts, the government said that they had rescued 108 whales, with the rest believed to have died. Fifteen whales have been disposed of at sea, but the operations to dispose of the remaining nearly 350 mammals is expected to take at least several days, Incident Controller and Parks and Wildlife Service manager Rob Buck said.
ARMENIA
Opposition leader jailed
Opposition leader Gagik Tsarukyan, one of the country’s richest businesspeople, was on Friday placed in custody until his trials two months from now after being charged with vote-buying in the 2017 parliamentary elections. Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party, the second-biggest faction in parliament, denied any wrongdoing, saying that the charges are political. The National Security Service raided his home and interrogated him. “They will answer for their decision,” Tsarukyan said late on Friday as he was going to the National Security Service. “In a short time everything will be put in its place.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
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
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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