South Korea's Former First Lady Sentenced to Jail Amid Global Crises
Seoul, South Korea – Kim Keon Hee, the former first lady of South Korea, was sentenced to 20 months in jail for bribery, according to BBC World. The court also ordered her to return a diamond necklace and pay back 12.85 million won. However, she was cleared of charges related to stock price manipulation and receiving free opinion polls before the 2022 presidential election, which her husband, Yoon Suk Yeol, won.
Yoon Suk Yeol, the ousted former president, had already been sentenced to five years in jail for abusing power and obstructing justice in relation to his failed martial law bid in 2024, BBC World reported. This marks the first time in South Korea's history that a former president has been jailed.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned a Russian drone strike on a passenger train in the Kharkiv region as "terrorism," according to BBC World. The attack reportedly killed at least five people and injured several others. Officials stated that more than 200 people were on the train when one of the carriages was hit by a drone, and two other drones exploded nearby. Zelensky emphasized that 18 people were in the targeted carriage and that there was no "military justification" for targeting civilians.
Southern Africa is also facing a humanitarian crisis as devastating floods have killed more than 100 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, The Guardian reported. Authorities and aid workers are warning of potential hunger, cholera outbreaks, and attacks by crocodiles that have spread with the floodwaters. More than 70 people have died in Zimbabwe and 30 in South Africa, where hundreds have been evacuated.
In Venezuela, there is speculation about potential economic reforms. The Guardian reported that some are wondering if Delcy Rodríguez, a Sorbonne-educated successor to President Maduro, could become a Latin American version of Deng Xiaoping, implementing reforms and opening up the country's economy.
In the United States, a five-year-old U.S. citizen named Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos was deported to Honduras alongside her mother on January 11, according to The Guardian. The mother's visa application was pending at the time of deportation. Génesis, who had never been to Honduras before, misses her cousins, classmates, and kindergarten teachers in Austin, Texas. "The day I separate from my daughter will be the most painful of my life," said Génesis's mother, Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos, according to The Guardian. The mother plans to send Génesis back to the U.S. soon, accompanied by another relative.
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