PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Province asks for outside aid
Enga Governor Peter Ipatas yesterday called for help from foreign police forces, including neighboring Australia, after more than 50 people were killed in a clash in the highlands. “We are so close to Australia, our security is important to Australia,” he told parliament, calling for a deployment to Enga. “They can give us the manpower and the number of manpower we want, to finally get the culture of policing right.” The brutal killing of as many as 64 tribal fighters along a remote stretch of road in the nation’s highlands on Sunday has fueled fears that violence is spiraling out of control. Prime Minister James Marape has labeled the attack “domestic terrorism.” He is facing a vote of no confidence following deadly riots in major cities last month.
AUSTRALIA
Taekwondo coach kills family
A taekwondo instructor killed a seven-year-old student at his academy and the boy’s parents before going to a Sydney hospital with stab and slash wounds on his body, police said yesterday. Kwang Kyung Yoo, owner of the Lion’s Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy, is to be charged with three counts of murder, Homicide Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty said. The bodies were discovered on Tuesday after the instructor admitted himself to a hospital on Monday night with “stab wounds or slash wounds” to his chest, stomach and arms, Doherty said. Police allege that Yoo killed Min Cho, 41, and her son at his academy after a class on Monday before driving to their home, where he killed Cho’s husband and the boy’s father, Steven Cho, 39. All four were born in South Korea and the slain boy had been a regular taekwondo student. “We’re still establishing what other connections or ... what other relationships may have been or may not have been,” Doherty said.
SOUTH AFRICA
‘Death ship’ heads for Iraq
A “death ship” carrying thousands of cattle whose foul smell caused a stink in top tourist city Cape Town was on Tuesday to continue its voyage to Iraq, port officials said. The ship, en route from Brazil and carrying an estimated 19,000 cattle, docked in Cape Town on Sunday, bringing with it a nauseating odor that permeated the city center. A city councilor on Monday confirmed that the smell was from the Al Kuwait vessel, which was immediately boarded by inspectors from the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on Sunday evening. It dubbed the vessel a “Kuwaiti death ship” and attributed the smell to the awful conditions animals endured, having spent two-and-a-half weeks on board, with a buildup of feces and ammonia. “The feces that the cattle were standing is already basically up to the top of their hooves in some pens,” said Grace le Grange, a senior inspector who boarded the vessel. Several animals had to be euthanized due to injuries, she said.
TURKEY
Six arrested for spying
Authorities have detained six people suspected of spying on Uighurs in Turkey for China’s intelligence service, and another suspect was being sought by police, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday. Prosecutors in Istanbul identified seven people believed to be gathering information on notable individuals from the Uighur community and some associations tied to them in Turkey, Anadolu said, without providing further details. About 50,000 Uighurs are estimated to live in Turkey, the largest Uighur diaspora outside Central Asia.
‘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
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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