General NewsBiden's final tree lighting, global unrest, and historic border deal
Biden's final tree lighting, global unrest, and historic border deal
It happened while you were asleep. Here's what global agencies reported overnight from Thursday to Friday.
- President Joe Biden on Thursday ceremoniously lit the Christmas tree lights in front of the White House for the last time in his term. The ceremony was held under the theme "Season Peace and Light" and was attended by about 12,000 people. Before pressing the button to light up the 40-foot tree in green at Ellipse Park in front of the White House, Biden expressed his wish for Americans to "continue to seek the light of liberty and love, kindness and compassion, dignity and decency."
- The leader of the ruling party in South Korea on Friday called for the suspension of the constitutional powers of President Yoon Suk Yeol for attempting to declare martial law. This increases the chances of removing the president from office through impeachment.
- The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina made a legally binding decision to refuse the extradition of Chechen Selima Hadisova to Russia, which had issued a warrant for her arrest on terrorism charges, the Bosnian portal Vijesti reported on Thursday. The court found that the "appropriate legal conditions" for extradition to Russia were not met. A decision was also made to release the woman from custody, where she had been for over two months. The 33-year-old woman was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina on September 29, when she arrived by plane in Sarajevo with her three children from Istanbul. Moscow seeks her on terrorism charges.
- Over the past five years, Serbia has extradited five Chinese citizens. Belgrade and Beijing are currently working on improving cooperation in this area, the Balkan bureau of Radio Free Europe reported on Thursday. Although the extradition process to China came to light in 2021 when one Chinese citizen was sent there from Serbia, new data from the Ministry of Justice shows that extraditions occurred more frequently than previously thought, according to RFE. For the agreement to take effect, it must be ratified by Serbian parliamentarians. The treaty must also be ratified in China.
- A bronze monument of Yevgeny Prigozhin and his deputy Dmitry Utkin, former leaders of the Wagner Group accused of numerous crimes, has been unveiled in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). Prigozhin is depicted in a bulletproof vest with three ammunition magazines and a walkie-talkie in his left hand. His deputy Utkin stands with a slightly lowered AK-47 rifle. Prigozhin and Utkin died in a plane crash northwest of Moscow on August 23, 2023, two months after the mutiny, during which mercenaries they recruited took over the Russian city of Rostov and began a march on the capital, ultimately halted.
- Due to ongoing fighting for over a week between rebels and the governmental army, more than 280,000 residents of northern Syria have become refugees - the UN reported on Thursday. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 727 people have already died in the conflict, including 111 civilians. On Thursday, the rebels captured another major city, Hama.
- After 33 years since declaring independence, two Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, have finally agreed on the course of their shared border - authorities in Bishkek and Dushanbe reported. Government delegations from both countries, led by Kyrgyzstan's Deputy Prime Minister Kamchybek Tashiev and Tajikistan's Chairman of the National Security State Committee Saymumin Yatimov, met in Batken, a city located in the southwestern part of Kyrgyzstan, and agreed on the final shape of the border delimitation and demarcation. Subsequently, Bishkek and Dushanbe began preparing documents on this matter. According to a statement from both sides, the legal procedures will take several months.
