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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home