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 Investigators scale barbed wire to arrest South Korea’s impeached president

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• Investigators cutting barbed wire
• Investigators cutting barbed wire

 South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol has become the country’s first sitting president to be arrest­ed, ending a week-long standoff between inves­tigators and his presidential security team.

Yoon, whose failed attempt to impose martial law plunged the country into turmoil and saw him impeached by parliament, is being investigated on charges of insur­rection.

He is, however, still technically the president as a constitutional court has to decide whether his impeachment is valid.

Investigators used ladders and wirecutters in the freezing cold to get to Yoon, whose Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel had erected barricades in a bid to thwart his arrest.

The CIO had previously attempt­ed to arrest him on January 3 but they were blocked by buses and barbed wire.

But just before dawn on Wednes­day, a team of investigators arrived, this time armed with ladders to bypass bus barricades and pliers to cut through barbed wire fences.

Other members of the team – which numbered around 1,000 officers – scaled walls and hiked up nearby trails in a bid to reach the presidential residence.

After several hours, authorities announced that Yoon had been arrested.

In a three-minute video released just before his arrest, the 64-year-old leader said he would comply with the investigation against him even though he was against it.

Yoon has consistently maintained that the warrant for his arrest is not legally valid.

He said he witnessed how au­thorities “invaded” his home’s secu­rity perimeter with fire equipment.

“I decided to appear before the CIO, even though it is an illegal in­vestigation, in order to prevent any unsavoury bloodshed,” he said.

Yoon’s People Power Party decried his arrest as “illegal”, with floor leader Kweon Seong-dong describing Wednesday’s events as “regretful”.

On the other hand, the floor leader of the opposition Democrat­ic Party, Park Chan-dae, said Yoon’s arrest showed that “justice in South Korea is alive”.

This arrest “is the first step to­ward restoring constitutional order, democracy and the rule of law,” he said during a party meeting.

The country is currently be­ing led by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok as acting president. He was thrust into power after the first acting president, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached by opposition majority parliament.

On Wednesday afternoon, investigators said that Yoon has been questioned but has invoked the right to remain silent. He has been questioned since 11:00 local time on Wednesday and will enter a second round of questioning on Wednesday afternoon.

Yoon is expected to be detained overnight at the Seoul Deten­tion Centre in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, approximately 5km (3 mi) from the CIO’s office.

If a court doesn’t issue a deten­tion warrant within 48 hours of Yoon’s arrest, however, he will be released, and free to return to the presidential residence.

While the arrest of a sitting president is remarkable for South Korean politics, the country’s politi­cal crisis is far from over. -BBC

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 Drug violence in Brussels: House shot at 23 times in Anderlecht

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• The scene after the gunshots

 A house in the Brussels mu­nicipality of Anderlecht was shot at in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The shooting occurred at 1:40 a.m. on the facade of a building, com­posed of a professional room and a dwelling, near Place Lemmens in Anderlecht, the Brussels Public Pros­ecutor’s Office has now confirmed.

Initial reports suggested that the shooting took place on the corner Place Clemenceau, but the scene was later confirmed to be about a ten minutes’ walk away.

The Brussels Public Prosecutor also confirmed that 23 bullet holes and two failed molotov cocktails had been found at the scene. Initial unconfirmed reports suggested 15 shots and one molotov cocktail had been found.

It is not yet known whether there is a link with the shootings that took place in the past few days on Saint-Guidon Square, or with pre­vious shootings at the Clemenceau metro station and in the Peterbos neighbourhood in Anderlecht.

Since the beginning of February, those shootings, linked to the drug environment, have already left two dead and three wounded.

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 Passengers on crashed Toronto plane offered US$30,000 each

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 DELTA Air Lines is offer­ing US$30,000 (£23,792) to each person on board a plane that crash-landed in Toronto on Monday – all of whom survived.

As it landed in the Canadian city, the plane skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a halt upside down. Passengers described their amaze­ment as most of them walked away without injuries.

It remains unclear what caused the inci­dent, which is under investigation.

There were 76 passengers and four crew on the flight, which had travelled from the US city of Minneapolis before making its crash-landing in Canada.

A spokesperson for Delta said the money offer had no strings attached and did not affect customers’ rights.

The plane crew and emergency respond­ers were praised for their quick work in removing people from the wrecked vehicle. The plane’s various safety features have also been credited for ensuring no loss of life.

All but one of the 21 passengers who were taken to hospital had been released by Wednesday morning, the airline said.

Delta’s chief told BBC’s US partner CBS News that the flight crew were experienced and trained for any condition.

The airline’s head Ed Bastian told CBS the plane crew had “performed heroically, but also as expected”, given that “safety is embedded into our system”. He said Delta was continuing to support those affected.

Several theories about what caused the crash have been suggested to the BBC by experts who reviewed footage, including that harsh winter weather and a rapid rate of descent played a role.

One passenger recalled “a very forceful event”, and the sound of “concrete and met­al” at the moment of impact. Another said passengers were left hanging upside down in their seats “like bats”.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered from the wreckage. The investigation is being led by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB), supported by US officials.

The accident was the fourth major air in­cident in North America in a space of three weeks – and was followed on Wednesday by a crash in Arizona in which two people lost their lives when their small planes collided.

Experts continue to insist that air travel is overwhelmingly safe – more so than other forms of transport, in fact.

That message was emphasised by US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who told CBS on Wednesday there was no pattern behind the incidents, each of which he said was “very unique”. -BBC

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Peru declares state of emergency ….following bomb attack against Public Ministry

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Peru declared a state of emer­gency on Monday, following the detonation of explosives attacking the Public Ministry of Tru­jillo. Monday’s incident marks the second attack in Trujillo this year.

During the emergency state de­clared by President Boluarte to stop delinquency, the Presidency of Peru stated that “the Armed Forces and the police will take control of the city due to the state of emergency.” The Superior Court of Justice of La Libertad declared its commitment to “not succumb to any acts of violence.”

An unidentified individual posing as a delivery driver attacked the Pub­lic Ministry of Trujillo by leaving a package with explosive material that later detonated. Two explosions were detected, one originating from the package, which led to another car explosion.

Public Minister Delia Espino­za said in an interview that initial signs link the tragedy with illegal mining. Espinoza also revealed that days earlier, someone threatened a comptroller working on an orga­nized crime case.

According to Espinoza, these events show that the Minister of Interior makes promises he cannot fulfil, stating, “Constitutionally, the labor of prevention is for the police, there is no police intelligence.” Recent research shows that the disapproval of the current Minister of Interior, Juan José Santiváñez, peaked at 80 per cent in December 2024.

Former minister of Interior Oscar Valdés criticised the low efficiency of the state of emergency because of the intelligence system, argu­ing that the government failed to address illegal mining and drug trafficking as the real threats to the country.

Illegal mining has been a contro­versial issue in Peru. On December 1, 2024, the Peruvian Congress ex­tended temporary permits for “in­formal miners,” which critics argue are a part of systemic corruption that legitimised illegal mining and helped circumvent environmen­tal regulations. In April 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights also found that Peru’s failure to regulate mining activities violated inhabitants’ basic right to a healthy environment.

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