INDONESIA
Eruption prompts moves
Thousands of people are to be permanently relocated from around a volcano that erupted in the past few days, killing nine people after spewing fireballs and ash on homes, officials said yesterday. Authorities raised Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki’s alert level to the highest of a four-tiered system after several eruptions since Sunday evening, telling locals and tourists to avoid a 7km radius of the crater. More than 2,600 families living in the area around the volcano on the popular tourist island of Flores were advised to permanently relocate, the disaster mitigation agency said in a statement. “The mountain cannot be moved. We must move,” agency head Suharyanto, who goes by one name, told residents at a temporary shelter, according to a video the agency released yesterday. “We must empty the 7km radius.” The government would help locals move to a new area or to build houses on land they already own, he said.
Photo: Antara Foto / Aditya Pradana Putra / via Reuters
JAPAN
Snow falls late on Fuji
Mount Fuji finally got its trademark snowcap early yesterday, more than a month after it normally would and after setting a record for the most-delayed snowfall in 130 years. The first snowfall on Mount Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage site, could be seen from the southwestern side of the mountain, the Shizuoka branch of the nation’s meteorological agency said. However, the agency’s Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which is on the other side of the mountain and has been in charge of making the announcement since 1984, still could not see the snow due to cloudy weather — meaning it was not official as of yesterday. The lack of snow on Mount Fuji on Tuesday broke the previous record set on Oct. 26, 2016, meteorological officials said. Usually, the 3,776m-high mountain has sprinkles of snow falling on its summit starting on Oct. 2, about a month after the summertime hiking season there ends. Last year, snow fell on the mountain on Oct. 5, the agency said. The snowless mountain has captured attention on social media. People posted photographs showing the bare peak, some expressing surprise and others concerned over climate change.
Photo: Kyodo / via Reuters
CHINA
Spy to be executed
A former high-level government employee has been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power, Beijing’s spy agency said yesterday. The individual, surnamed Zhang, “provided a large number of top secret and classified state secrets to foreign intelligence agencies,” the Ministry of State Security said in a post on its official WeChat account. In his job, Zhang had access to “a large number of state secrets,” the ministry said. He was recruited and became a “puppet” after leaving that job and began handing foreign spy agencies state secrets in exchange for cash, the ministry said. “Zhang ... was weak in character and unable to resist the temptation of money,” it added. The ministry did not specify which state organization employed Zhang, nor did it give his full name. It accused a foreign spy surnamed Li of luring Zhang to an unnamed country with the promise of “experiencing exotic customs,” where they pressured him into becoming a double agent. Zhang was sentenced to death following an investigation, it added. A colleague who assisted him, surnamed Zhu, was given six years in jail, it said. No details were given about when he would be executed. China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, although rights groups say that thousands of people are executed every year.
‘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
RSS