Foreign News
Imran Khan jailed for 14 years in corruption case
Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in prison over a corruption case, in the latest of a series of charges laid against him.
It is the longest valid prison sentence the cricket star-turned-politician, who has been detained since August 2023, has received.
He has faced charges in over 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts – all of which he decried as politically motivated.
The latest case has been described by Pakistani authorities as the largest the country has seen – though the country has seen huge financial scandals in the past, some of which involved former leaders.
Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were accused of receiving a parcel of land as a bribe from a real estate tycoon through the Al-Qadir Trust, which the couple had set up while he was in office.
In exchange, investigators said, Khan used £190m ($232m) repatriated by the UK’s National Crime Agency to pay the tycoon’s court fines.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party argued that the land was donated to the trust for a spiritual education centre and was not used for Khan’s personal gain.
In a post on X, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that the former prime minister “has done no wrong” and that this was a “politically motivated unfair trial”.
“But [Imran Khan] will not give in, he will not give up, he will not break,” he wrote.
Friday’s verdict comes after multiple delays as Khan’s party held talks with the government.
After his conviction on Friday, Khan told reporters in the courtroom that he would “neither make any deal nor seek any relief.”
Khan’s prison sentence of 14 years is the maximum that could be given in the case. He has also been fined more than £4,000.
His wife has been sentenced to seven years and fined more than £2,000. Bibi, who has been out on bail since last October, was taken into custody in court after her sentence was announced.
In 2023, Khan was sentenced to three years in prison for not declaring money earned from selling gifts he had received while in office.
Last year, Khan received a 14-year jail sentence over the selling of state gifts, and another 10 years for leaking state secrets. Both those sentences were suspended months later.
Despite being in jail and barred from holding public office, Khan still looms large over Pakistan’s political scene. Last year’s election saw candidates backed by Imran Khan winning the most number of seats out of all the parties.
Khan’s prosecution has triggered large-scale protests by his supporters – which have been met with a crackdown from authorities. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and many injured in clashes with the police.
[BBC]
Chinese news agency Xinhua quoting the China Earthquake Networks Center has reported that a total of 3,614 aftershocks had been detected as of 8 a.m. Tuesday [14] since the 6.8-magnitude earthquake which jolted Dingri County in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region last week.
Most aftershocks were below 3.0 magnitude, the center revealed.
The two strongest aftershocks, one of 4.9 magnitude and another of 5.0 magnitude, occurred on Monday night — toppling some houses in the county, local authorities said.
“As residents had earlier moved to tents and prefab houses, no casualties have been reported so far,” said Tashi Dondrup, county head of Dingri.
On Jan. 7, the 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Dingri, home to the northern base camp of the world’s highest peak, Mount Qomolangma, claiming 126 lives.
[Xinhua]
At least 16 civilians in Nigeria’s north-western Zamfara State have been killed in a military air strike, apparently after being mistaken for criminal gangs.
Residents told local media the victims were members of local vigilante groups and civilians defending themselves from armed gangs notorious for kidnapping people for ransom.
The strikes targeted militant gangs in Zurmi and Maradun areas and the state governor, Dauda Lawal, offered his condolences to the community.
The military has acknowledged conducting air strikes, which it said had dealt “a decisive blow to bandits terrorising villages in the area”.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it was investigating “reports of vigilante losses”.
“While the operation successfully eliminated several bandits and led to the recovery of some kidnap victims, the NAF views with grave concern reports of the loss of civilian lives in the course of the operation,” it said in a statement.
It said an ongoing “comprehensive investigation” would ascertain the truth of the matter, which would be “communicated to inform and reassure the public”.
The AFP news agency quoted a local as saying that the civilians were returning to their villages after chasing away bandits when they were bombed.
The villagers “recovered 16 bodies from the attacks and took several other people with severe injuries to the hospital”, Sa’idu Ibrahim was quoted as saying.
Rights group Amnesty International Nigeria put the death toll at 20 and said dozens of others were injured in the attack on Tunga Kara village, and called on authorities to “immediately and impartially” investigate the incident.
“Launching air raids is not a legitimate law enforcement method by anyone’s standard. Such reckless use of deadly force is unlawful, outrageous and lays bare the Nigerian military’s shocking disregard for the lives of those it supposedly exists to protect,” it said in a statement.
In recent years, Nigeria’s security forces have been fighting powerful criminal gangs, known as bandits, who have been terrorising north-west and central states. The bandits raid villages, burn homes and kill and abduct residents for ransom.
Several accidental air strikes have occurred in recent months including a Christmas Day attack that killed at least 10 civilians in neighbouring Sokoto state.
In 2023, at least 85 civilians, mostly women and children, attending a Muslim religious gathering at a village in Kaduna state were killed after they were mistaken for bandits.
In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people who had been displaced by jihadist violence in a town near the Cameroonian border.
[BBC]
South Korea’s suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol will receive his annual pay rise despite his impeachment for briefly placing the country under martial law, the government has said.
Yoon’s salary will increase by 3% to 262.6 million won ($179,000; £147,000), in line with the standard for government officials.
Since his impeachment in December, Yoon has resisted attempts to investigate and arrest him for alleged insurrection and abuse of power, placing the country deeper in political turmoil.
While suspended from his duties, Yoon remains in office until South Korea’s constitutional court upholds his impeachment.
Yoon cited threats from “anti-state forces” and North Korea to justify his martial law declaration. However, it soon became clear that his move had been spurred not by external threats but by his own domestic political troubles.
News of Yoon’s salary increase has drawn criticism among South Koreans, some of whom say they cannot believe he is still getting paid – let alone getting a increment – while he is suspended.
Some on social media pointed out that the Yoon’s 3% salary rise is nearly double the increase in the country’s minimum wage.
“Minimum wage increased by 1.7% while Yoon gets 3% for what?” reads a post on X which has received thousands of likes.
Earlier this month, Yoon’s security blocked investigators from reaching him at the presidential residence. The stalemate saw an initial arrest warrant expire at midnight on 7 January, but a local court extended it.
Investigators are preparing for another attempt to arrest Yoon and have requested assistance from the police.
On Monday, authorities said any attempt to arrest Yoon would make sure to avoid “any casualties or bloodshed”. They also warned that security staff and lawmakers could be arrested if they obstruct the arrest.
Yoon’s lawyers said assigning police officers and investigators to arrest the president was “a betrayal of the public”. They have claimed that the arrest warrant was “illegal”.
They also demanded that personnel on the arrest team not wear a mask to “prevent rioters from breaking into a national secret site and impersonating police officers”.
In the capital Seoul, thousands have joined large-scale protests, both in support of and against Yoon.
While his critics want to see the disgraced president impeached and arrested over his martial law attempt, Yoon supporters see his short-lived martial law order as justified to protect the South Korea’s democracy.
Han Duck-soo, who became acting president after Yoon’s impeachment but has since been impeached by parliament himself, will also see his annual salary increase by 3% to 204 million won ($138,000; £114,000).
For comparison, the US president is paid $400,000 (£329,000) and the UK Prime Minister’s salary is around £172,000 ($209,000).
[BBC]
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