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S Korea president ordered arrest of own party leader

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South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the arrest of his own ruling party’s leader Han Dong-hoon when he declared martial law on Tuesday night.
The arrest list also included the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, as well as three opposition lawmakers, the National Intelligence Service deputy director said.
The president tried to “use this chance to arrest them and wipe them out”, said director Hong Jang-won.
The revelation came as the country’s political parties held emergency meetings throughout Friday, with MPs planning to bring a vote to impeach Yoon. The motion, which is scheduled for Saturday, will pass if two-thirds of MPs vote for it.
Why did South Korea’s president declare martial law?
Who is Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s scandal-hit president?
Fear, fury and triumph: Six hours that shook South Korea
How two hours of martial law unfolded in South Korea
‘We had to stop this’: Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier’s gun speaks to BBC
The opposition have a majority in the 300-seat parliament but need the support of at least eight ruling party MPs to secure the 200 votes required for the impeachment motion to pass.
In the first clear sign his own party may now vote with the opposition, the leader of Yoon’s ruling party called for his swift suspension on Friday, saying he posed a “great danger” to democracy if he remained in power.
Han Dong-hoon, chief of the People Power Party (PPP), had earlier in the week said his party would not support the opposition’s impeachment motion.
But on Friday he announced there was “credible evidence” that Yoon had ordered the arrest of key politicians – including himself- on “anti-state charges” on Tuesday.
Han said Yoon had planned to jail arrested politicians in a detention centre in Gwacheon, a city south of Seoul.
He expressed concern that “extreme actions”, such as the martial law declaration, could be repeated if Yoon remained in office.
“[These are] putting the Republic of Korea and its people at great risk.
South Koreans spent another day waiting to hear about the fate of their president on Friday, as the impeachment vote loomed.
In the afternoon, there were reports the president was heading to parliament, which his office denied. But opposition MPs lined up to block entry to the assembly, chanting “impeach, impeach”.
Earlier, special forces commander Kwak Jong-kuen had assured parliament he would refuse to follow such an order if martial law was declared again, as the opposition have been suggesting it might be.
Kwak said on Tuesday night he had rejected orders to remove MPs from the assembly floor when they were gathering to vote down the martial law declaration.
“I ordered soldiers not to enter the floor… I ordered that no live ammunition be given out [and] that no harm must come to the civilians,” he said.
Listen: Democracy in crisis in South Korea
Later in the day, he and other two other commanders were suspended for executing the martial law order before it was revoked.
Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law shocked the country and unnerved South Korea’s allies and financial markets.
He cited threats from “anti-state forces” and North Korea. But it soon became clear that his move had been spurred not by external threats but by his own domestic political troubles.
The order was abruptly reversed hours later after 190 MPs managed to make it into the parliament and vote it down – some of them climbing fences and breaking barricades to get into the chamber.
Opposition lawmakers are concerned that there will be another attempt to impose martial law. Some of them earlier told BBC they have been staying close to the National Assembly grounds so they could get there quickly to vote down any such declaration

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International

FTX executives shave serious time off their sentences

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Ryan Salame and Caroline Ellison, FTX executives convicted for their roles in the notorious crypto fraud led by their former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, have both shaved time off their lengthy prison sentences.

Salame, a former top executive of FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform, pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges in September 2023, and was sentenced in May to 7 1/2 years in federal prison. He began his sentence in October. But the Federal Bureau of Prisons currently lists his release date as March 1, 2031, more than a year earlier than his initial release date in April 2032. Business Insider first reported Salame’s new release date.

Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and the former CEO of FTX’s hedge fund arm, Alameda Research, was sentenced to 2 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to seven federal counts of fraud and conspiracy and was a key witness against Bankman-Fried. Her current release date is listed as July 20, 2025, three months earlier than her initial release date.

Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, does not have a release date listed on the prisons website.

The Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. However, in several past statements about early release dates, the bureau has told CNN that it does not comment on the conditions of any individual inmate, but inmates can earn good conduct time that is calculated into their projected release date.

Qualified inmates are currently eligible for up to 54 days of GCT time for each year of the sentence imposed by the court. Inmates have other ways of earning time credits while incarcerated, including participation in various prison programs.

FTX was a high-profile crypto startup that allowed people to buy and sell digital assets. It had its name emblazoned on an arena in Miami and on every Major League Baseball umpire’s jersey. The exchange had several celebrity endorsers and was widely believed to be a gold-standard for safety and security.

But FTX collapsed in November 2022 when customers pulled their funds as rumors spread about FTX’s unusually close ties to its founder’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda

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‘It’s a scary time’: US universities urge international students to return to campus before Trump inauguration

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Fear and uncertainty are spreading across many US college campuses ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, with some schools advising international students to return early from winter break amid promises of another travel ban like the one that stranded students abroad at the start of Trump’s last term.

In a country where more than 1.1 million international students enrolled in US colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year, the former president has pledged more hardline immigration policies upon his return to the White House, including an expansion of his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and the revocation of student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners.”

International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the US but don’t provide a legal pathway to stay in the country.

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International

Questions swirl over deadly crash of Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Here’s what we know

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Azerbaijan held a day of mourning on Thursday for the dozens of victims of an airliner crash in Kazakhstan, as questions were being asked over the cause of the disaster.

The reasons that Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 came down are still unknown. Reuters reported Thursday that the plane was downed by a Russian air defense system, citing multiple unnamed sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation.

Officials from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia, three countries linked to the disaster, urged people not to speculate about the crash until investigations have concluded.

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