SOUTH KOREA
Yoon’s office searched
Police yesterday searched the office of former president Yoon Suk-yeol and his security detail as part of a criminal probe into the impeached leader. Police said that they had “initiated the execution of a search-and-seizure warrant at the presidential office and the presidential residence complex.” Police seized encrypted phone servers and raided the office of Yoon’s presidential security detail, plus his chief of security’s house, in what they said was part of a probe into “alleged obstruction of an arrest warrant execution.” Yoon spent weeks in his compound in January, protected by members of the Presidential Security Service who had remained loyal to him. His guards had installed barbed wire and barricades at the residence, forcing hundreds of police officers and investigators to use ladders and scale perimeter walls to reach the main building.
Photo: AFP
PAKISTAN
Bomb attack claimed
The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed a bomb explosion that killed three policemen and wounded more than a dozen. A bomb planted on a parked motorcycle targeted a passing bus carrying 40 policemen in Mastung city earlier in the day. The group’s regional branch, Islamic State Khorasan said that its “soldiers” targeted the “apostate” police.
SOUTH AFRICA
Abducted missionary freed
A US missionary abducted from his church last week has been rescued by police after a shoot-out in which three suspects were killed, police said yesterday. Josh Sullivan, 45, was taken at gunpoint on Thursday last week while he was delivering a sermon at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell outside the coastal city of Gqeberha. Police yesterday said in a statement that the previous day, officers acting on a tip-off had approached a house in the KwaMagxaki district of Gqeberha. The suspects tried to flee in a vehicle as they approached, opening fire on officers, the statement said. In the ensuing shoot-out, the three suspects were fatally wounded and Sullivan was rescued, “miraculously unharmed,” from the same vehicle, it said. Sullivan arrived in the nation with his family from Tennessee in November 2018, his personal Web site said.
PERU
Ex-president sentenced
A court on Tuesday sentenced former president Ollanta Humala and his wife to 15 years in prison for graft linked to a globe-spanning corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction group Odebrecht paying bribes to politicians. The court found the 62-year-old and his wife, Nadine Heredia, guilty of money laundering for receiving illegal contributions from Odebrecht and the Venezuelan government in two presidential campaigns. Humala was taken into custody in the courtroom right after the verdict was read out and later jailed at a police base. His lawyers said they would appeal his conviction. Judge Nayko Coronado also ordered the arrest of Heredia, who did not attend the sentencing hearing and sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy in Lima. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs later said that after talks with Brazil, she was granted safe passage to travel there with her son. Humala, who led the country from 2011 to 2016, in 2022 became the first ex-president from the nation to go on trial in the Odebrecht corruption scandal, which has also seen three other former presidents implicated. Alan Garcia committed suicide in 2019, Alejandro Toledo was sentenced last year to more than 20 years in prison and investigations continue into Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
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