Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

Japanese authorities have seized a Chinese fishing vessel and arrested its captain in an incident likely to deepen an already fraught diplomatic relationship between Tokyo and Beijing. The boat was intercepted on Thursday about 170 kilometres from the south-western port city of Nagasaki after its skipper ignored repeated orders to stop for an inspection, according to Japanese media reports. A vessel from Japan’s fisheries agency pursued the boat after spotting it inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Eleven crew members were on board. It is the first time since 2022 that Japan has…

Britney Spears has sold the rights to her music catalogue, which includes hit songs such as Toxic, …Baby One More Time and Gimme More, according to media reports. The US music publisher Primary Wave is reported to have completed the purchase on 30 December. TMZ said the sale was confirmed in legal documents, while an unnamed source familiar with the deal corroborated the report to the New York Times. The terms of the agreement and the price paid for the catalogue have not been disclosed. In recent years, however, the sale of music rights has proved highly lucrative for major…

Indonesia has said it is preparing to deploy up to 8,000 troops to Gaza as part of a proposed international peacekeeping force under Donald Trump’s Middle East plan. The announcement was made by the Indonesian army chief of staff, General Maruli Simanjuntak, marking the first time a country has given a specific indication of troop numbers for the international stabilisation force envisaged in the plan’s second phase. Israeli public radio reported on Tuesday that a site in southern Gaza, between Rafah and Khan Younis, has been earmarked for a barracks to house the Indonesian contingent. If deployed, Indonesian peacekeepers would…

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been shot dead at the age of 53 by four masked assailants at his home in the western Libyan city of Zintan. For many years, Saif was regarded as his father’s heir apparent and, even after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, remained a potential force in Libya’s fractured and violent politics. He was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the international criminal court in 2011 and was convicted in absentia by a Libyan court in 2015 over war crimes committed during the uprising against his…

A Malaysia-based street artist has filed a lawsuit against low-cost airline AirAsia and its parent company, Capital A Berhad, accusing them of using his artwork on an aircraft without permission. Ernest Zacharevic, a Lithuanian-born artist who is based in Penang, alleged that AirAsia reproduced his 2012 street mural Children on a Bicycle on one of its planes between October and November 2024. In court documents filed on Monday at the Kuala Lumpur high court, Zacharevic said the airline used the artwork as part of its external corporate branding without his consent, authorisation or any licensing agreement. Children on a Bicycle…

Democrats will prevent Donald Trump from attempting to interfere with this year’s US midterm elections, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said on Sunday. His comments follow growing concern after Trump suggested that Republicans should “take over the voting”, remarks that critics say risk undermining confidence in the electoral process. Under the US constitution, election rules are set by individual states, with Congress able to legislate for federal elections. The president has no authority over how elections are run. “What Donald Trump wants to do is try to nationalise the election, translation: steal it,” Jeffries said during an interview on…

Iran has sentenced the Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to more than seven additional years in prison, according to her supporters, as the authorities intensify their crackdown on dissent following nationwide protests. The new sentence was imposed after Mohammadi began a hunger strike earlier this month. Her supporters said the ruling reflects a broader effort by Tehran to silence critics in the wake of demonstrations that have left thousands dead at the hands of security forces. Mohammadi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, confirmed the sentence on Sunday, saying it was handed down on Saturday by a court in Mashhad. He said…

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media tycoon and prominent pro-democracy activist, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on national security charges, prompting widespread international condemnation and renewed concerns over the city’s declining civil liberties. Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai, said the sentence was “heartbreakingly cruel” given her father’s age and deteriorating health, warning that it could mean he would “die a martyr behind bars”. His son, Sebastien Lai, described the punishment as “draconian” and “devastating”. The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily was convicted in December of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He pleaded not…

Former US president Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, have called for their congressional testimony on links to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to be held in public, arguing that closed-door proceedings would allow the issue to be politicised. Both were ordered to give private depositions before the House of Representatives’ oversight committee, which is examining Epstein’s connections to influential figures and the handling of information about his crimes. Democrats say the Republican-led investigation is being used to target political opponents of President Donald Trump, rather than to conduct genuine oversight. Trump, who had a longstanding association with Epstein,…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the United States has set a fresh deadline of June for Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace agreement, signalling increased pressure from Washington to bring the war to an end by early summer. Speaking to reporters, the Ukrainian president said the Trump administration was pushing for a clear timetable to end the conflict and had invited both sides to further talks next week. “They say they want to get everything done by June,” Zelenskyy said. “They will do everything to end the war and they want a clear schedule of all events.” He added that…