PAKISTAN
Militants kill nine in north
Militants on Saturday fired on a bus in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, killing nine people including two soldiers, and injuring more than 20 others, local police said. The attack happened on the Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan with China, police officer Azmat Shah said. The bus was carrying passengers from Gilgit to the Rawalpindi when it was shot at, causing the driver to lose control and crash into a truck, which in turn caught fire. Both drivers were killed on site. At least 26 people were injured — including a local Islamic cleric, Mufti Sher Zaman — and transferred to local hospitals, as police helped reroute traffic in the area after condoning off the site, officials said. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
PHILIPPINES
China vessels ‘swarm’ reef
Manila yesterday said that more than 135 Chinese vessels were “swarming” a reef off its coast, describing the boats’ growing presence as “alarming.” The boats were “dispersed and scattered” within the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef, about 320km west of Palawan Island, the coast guard said. The reef is more than 1,000km from the nearest Chinese landmass of Hainan Province. The Philippines said it counted 111 “Chinese maritime militia vessels” on Nov. 13. When the coast guard deployed two patrol boats to the area on Saturday the number had increased to “more than 135,” it said.
PERU
Nine killed in mine attack
Nine people were killed and more than a dozen injured in an attack on a gold mine in Pataz Province, authorities said on Saturday. A group of “armed criminals” raided the Poderosa mine, “violently confronting the company’s internal security,” the Ministry of the Interior wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Seven attackers had been apprehended and police had “taken control of the situation,” it added. Among the dead were seven security guards who tried to repel the attack and two miners. The latter were killed when the assailants threw explosives into the mine shaft, authorities said, adding that they were still investigating the motive for the attack.
GUINEA-BISSAU
Coup foiled: president
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on Saturday said that gunfire and clashes that had erupted in the capital on Friday were an attempted coup. “I can assure you that the events of Dec. 1, 2023, are yet another attempted coup and those responsible will suffer serious consequences,” he told reporters after arriving from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he was attending the COP28 UN climate summit. Clashes between two army factions broke out in Bissau on Thursday night and continued on Friday after national guard soldiers freed an opposition minister who was detained in a corruption investigation.
RUSSIA
Security forces raid gay bars
Security forces on Friday night raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow, less than 48 hours after the country’s top court banned what it called the “global LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization. Police searched venues across the capital, including a nightclub, a male sauna and a bar that hosted LGBTQ+ parties, under the pretext of a drug raid, local media reported. Eyewitnesses told journalists that clubgoers’ documents were checked and photographed by the security services. They also said that managers had been able to warn patrons before police arrived.
‘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
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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