Guatemalan ex-paramilitaries sentenced to 40 years each in Maya Achi rape trial
Indigenous women from the Achi group participate in a Mayan blessing ceremony in front of the Supreme Court building ahead of the trial of former Guatemalan paramilitaries accused of raping 36 Achi women between 1981 and 1985, during Guatemala's decades-long civil war, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin
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The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Beijing rejects US threat claims
US stance: At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Hegseth called on Indo-Pacific allies, including Australia, to increase defence spending as he warned of a 'real and potentially imminent' threat posed by China. — Reuters The government has protested to the United States against 'vilifying' remarks made by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations. China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as 'deplorable' and 'intended to sow division'. 'Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a 'threat',' the ministry said on its website yesterday. 'The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,' it added in the statement. Hegseth had urged allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security partner Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the 'real and potentially imminent' threat from China. Asked about the call to boost defence spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10bil (RM27.3bil) to defence. 'What we'll do is we'll determine our defence policy,' Albanese told reporters yesterday, a transcript of his remarks showed. As part of Washington's long-standing defence ties with the Philippines, the US military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon. China's delegation at the forum said 'external intervention' was the biggest risk for stability in the South China Sea, saying the country had shown 'goodwill and restraint' through talks on the issue. 'Some foreign powers have sent warplanes and warships to the South China Sea for so-called 'freedom of navigation',' the state-backed Global Times newspaper cited Senior Col Zhang Chi from the PLA National Defence University as saying. Such actions infringed China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, he added. The United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines have conducted joint maritime operations in the busy waterway. — Reuters
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Wave of anger could sweep liberals to victory in South Korea election
JECHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - When then-President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law decree plunged South Korea into chaos, it plummeted sales at Park Myung-Ja's diner in Jechon and became a turning point for many voters in the town. The 66-year-old chef and restaurant owner is one face of South Korea's North Chungcheong Province, a swing region that has become even more pivotal at a time of deep political polarisation in Asia's fourth-largest economy. "We need to get furthest away from all that martial law drama to get things back to where they were," Park said at her Korean restaurant two hours south of Seoul, adding liberal candidate "Lee Jae-myung looks alright for that". Voters are now looking for the winner of the June 3 snap election to calm the economic and political shocks that have roiled the country since Yoon's December 3 martial law decree led to months of economic downturn and sparked nationwide protests. Park's Chungcheong Province is a key battleground for Kim Moon-soo, candidate for the conservative People Power Party campaigning on deregulations for companies, and liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee, who's vowing to bring back stability after months of turmoil. In swing regions such as North Chungcheong Province, where Jechon is located, the ruling conservative party risks losing a big chunk of its vote base with many voters blaming the martial law debacle for weaker private consumption and easing export momentum. Park's business crashed after Yoon's declaration with some of her biggest customers who are local council officials cancelling dinner reservations in groups of five to 10. "The first call I got on Dec. 4 was from a regular customer who does his year-end dinner here every year. I asked him why he is cancelling it, and he said -- 'don't you watch news?'" Lee, who defied Yoon's martial law decree, had a 10-percentage point lead over Kim in one of the final opinion polls issued on Tuesday with 45% of voters trusting him to revive the economy compared to 32% for Kim. Conservatives have criticised Lee for a series of criminal cases he faces over accusations of election law violations, corruption, and other issues, but they have struggled to unify behind a single candidate and to distance themselves from Yoon. On Friday, right-winger Kim said voting for Lee would end up "collapsing our economy", hoping to sway voters in small cities such as Jecheon, an inland town of about 130,000 surrounded by mountainous tourist spots, who are looking for a turning point to revive South Korea's fortunes. But the martial law call continues to weigh heavily on conservative chances. "We definitely had fewer customers, especially from office dinners, after the martial law declaration. It did bite us hard," said Choi, a Chinese restaurant owner in Pangyo, a town south of Seoul. "Lee is someone who will uplift more of us who are not doing so well." HEAVY ON SPECTACLE Consumer sentiment, which dropped by the most since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December, recovered to pre-martial-law levels of 101.8 in May, on expectations of a fresh stimulus package under a new leader. The shock move rattled markets and put the won among the region's worst-performing currencies of the last year, hurt business sentiment even before exporters absorbed the full force of U.S. President Donald Trump's punitive tariff policies. Now, the strains are setting in, as economic tailwinds from the semiconductor boom and reforms in the capital markets in the past few years are fading. Whoever wins the June 3 election will face an economy that contracted in the first quarter, manage negotiations with Washington to avoid high tariffs, and assuage voters such as Park who are seeing their living standards go backwards from elevated grocery bills and weak spending. South Korea's election campaign has been light on policy and heavy on spectacle after twists and turns involving the main candidates. "I wish they had taken housing supply and boosting the domestic market more seriously in their pledges," said 59-year-old Jung Soo-hyeon. "But perhaps because it's a snap election, that kind of in-depth consideration seems to be missing — which is a bit disappointing." Analysts say voters watched economic pledges closely as consumption has been badly hit. A win for Lee could spur "faster economic growth in the short term," Kim Jin-wook of Citi Research said. The Democratic Party "would likely be relatively more keen on providing policy and support for the mid-to-low-income bracket," he added. While both top candidates have pledged to draft a second supplementary budget for the year as soon as the election is over, Lee has also promised vouchers to help local businesses and subsidies for childcare, youth, and the elderly. While Lee has backed away from advocating for universal basic income, some voters including Park, who backed Yoon last time, said they see Lee as most likely to look out for their interests. "Lee's party seems to be willing to give out more to those who are struggling,"Park said, emphasizing that "change" is important. ($1 = 1,376.1000 won) (Additional reporting by Yeonbin Park; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
UK to expand submarine fleet as defence review calls for 'warfighting readiness'
FILE PHOTO: British Defence Secretary John Healey visits the MBDA Storm Shadow factory on May 31, 2025 in Stevenage, England. Dan Kitwood/Pool via REUTERS/File photo LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet, the government has announced ahead of a defence review expected to say the country must invest billions to be ready and equipped to fight a modern war. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, like other leaders across Europe, is racing to rebuild his country's defence capabilities after U.S. President Donald Trump told the continent it needed to take more responsibility for its own security. Monday's Strategic Defence Review will call for Britain's armed forces to move to a state of "warfighting readiness", spelling out changing security threats and which defence technologies are needed to counter them. "We know that threats are increasing and we must act decisively to face down Russian aggression," defence minister John Healey said in a statement. Britain will build up to 12 of its next-generation attack submarines, which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional non-nuclear weapons, to replace the current fleet of seven from the late 2030s, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. Britain operates a separate fleet of submarines armed with nuclear weapons. The government for the first time said a pre-existing programme to develop a new nuclear warhead to replace the model used by that fleet would cost 15 billion pounds. "With new state-of-the-art submarines patrolling international waters and our own nuclear warhead programme on British shores, we are making Britain secure at home and strong abroad," Healey added. The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, U.S. and Australia under the security partnership known as AUKUS. REVERSE DECLINE In light of Trump's decision to upend decades of strategic reliance on the U.S. by Europe, Starmer has already committed to increasing Britain's defence spending in an attempt to reverse a long-term decline in its military capability. He has promised to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and target a 3% level over the longer term. On Sunday he warned Britain must be ready to fight and win a war against states with advanced military forces. In the days running up to the Strategic Defence Review, which Starmer commissioned shortly after taking office last July, the government has announced plans to spend billions on munitions plants, battlefield technology and military housing. Juggling severely strained public finances, a slow-growing economy and declining popularity among an increasingly dissatisfied electorate, Starmer has sought to cast increased spending on defence as a way to create jobs and wealth. "This plan will ensure Britain is secure at home and strong abroad, while delivering a defence dividend of well-paid jobs up and down the country," he is expected to say in a speech launching Monday's review. (Reporting by William James; Editing by David Holmes)
