FINLAND
Nobel winner Ahtisaari dies
Nobel peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari, who served as president from 1994 to 2000, yesterday died at the age of 86, the president’s office said in a statement. Ahtisaari was celebrated around the world for brokering peace in conflict zones in Kosovo, Indonesia and Northern Ireland. Known by diplomats for his willingness to engage with all parties and ability to wait patiently for the right moment for a compromise, Ahtisaari refused to accept that wars and conflicts were inevitable. “Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal,” Ahtisaari said when he accepted the Nobel award in 2008.
MALAYSIA
Anwar backs Hamas
The nation does not agree with Western pressure to condemn Palestinian militant group Hamas, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday. Western and European countries have repeatedly asked Malaysia to condemn Hamas in meetings, Anwar said, without providing details. “I said that we, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before and this will continue,” Anwar told parliament. “As such, we don’t agree with their pressuring attitude, as Hamas too won in Gaza freely through elections and Gazans chose them to lead.” The Muslim-majority nation does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
KOREAS
Lavrov to visit N Korea
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs is to visit North Korea tomorrow and on Thursday, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency and the Russian foreign ministry said yesterday. Lavrov’s visit comes a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed military cooperation, including over North Korea’s satellite program and the war in Ukraine. The nuclear envoys of South Korea and the US yesterday held talks in Jakarta and warned against any illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, Seoul’s foreign ministry said. The envoys also pledged “stern responses” if the North launches a spy satellite this month as it had announced, after two failed attempts.
INDONESIA
Election petitions rejected
The Constitutional Court yesterday rejected several petitions seeking to change eligibility rules for presidential and vice presidential candidates, complicating a widely anticipated bid by the incumbent leader’s son to run on an election ticket on Feb. 14 next year. The rulings came amid growing criticism of what sources say are efforts by outgoing President Joko Widodo to build a political dynasty and retain influence long after leaving office. Chief Justice Anwar Usman, who is Widodo’s brother-in-law and leads a panel of nine judges, rejected petitions to lower the minimum age to 35 from 40 and to allow anyone with civil service experience to run for president and vice president. The judges said determining the age limit was up to lawmakers and that the petition had no “reasoning according to law.”
UNITED STATES
Suzanne Somers dies at 76
Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the TV show Three’s Company, as well as her business endeavors, has died. Somers, 76, had breast cancer for more than 23 years and died on Sunday morning, her family said in a statement provided by her longtime publicist R. Couri Hay. Her husband, Alan Hamel, her son Bruce and other immediate family were with her.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to