China

Israel launched dozens more airstrikes into neighboring Syria over the weekend, claiming ongoing threats to its security. Syria’s new leadership calls those threats a false pretext, adding it has no desire for a new conflict. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

DAMASCUS, Syria — A U.N. envoy called Sunday for a quick end to Western sanctions against Syria as the country’s new leaders and regional and global powers begin to chart a path forward following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government has been under strict sanctions by the United States, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korean lawmakers have impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law, a high-stakes move that must now be approved by judges. In a Saturday vote, 12 conservative lawmakers joined opposition forces to impeach Yoon, who is just halfway through his single five-year term. The impeachment suspends Yoon’s powers until the Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove …

Suva, Fiji — Seven foreigners including four Australians and an American have been hospitalized after drinking cocktails at a five-star Fiji hotel resort, health officials said Sunday.  The hotel guests were taken to hospital on Saturday night suffering “nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms,” Fiji’s health ministry said in a statement.  They fell ill after drinking a cocktail prepared at a bar in the luxury Warwick Fiji …

JERUSALEM — The threats to Israel from Syria remain despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday, amid military moves by his country to counter such threats. “The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared and the latest developments in Syria increase the strength of the threat — despite the …

DAMASCUS, SYRIA — At Damascus’ international airport, the new head of security — one of the rebels who marched across Syria to the capital — arrived with his team. The few maintenance workers who showed up for work huddled around Maj Hamza al-Ahmed, eager to learn what will happen next. They quickly unloaded all the complaints they had been too afraid to express during the rule …

SYDNEY — The five remaining members of the Australian “Bali Nine” drug ring flew home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, ending a saga that had frayed relations between the two countries. Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than 8 kilograms of heroin off the holiday island of Bali. In a case that drew global …

OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, Democratic Republic of Congo — Scattered along the banks of the Ituri River, buildings cram together, cranes transport dirt and debris scatters the soil. The patches of trees are a scant reminder that a forest once grew there. Nestled in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the Chinese-run gold mine is rapidly encroaching on an area that many say it shouldn’t be operating in at …

MAGARACIK, TURKEY — Finally home in Turkey, Mehmet Erturk cannot eat the bread his wife has made him. After 20 years jailed in Syria, half his teeth are missing and the other half are threatening to fall out. “It was torture after torture,” he told AFP, miming the truncheon blows to the mouth the guards would give him at a notorious Damascus prison known as the …

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The Iranian currency extended its fall Saturday, hitting a new all-time low against the U.S. dollar amid uncertainties about Donald Trump’s imminent arrival in the White House and tensions with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.  The rial plunged to 756,000 to the dollar on the unofficial market Saturday, compared to 741,500 rials on Friday, according to Bonbast.com, which reports exchange …

India’s Supreme Court has said it would review the controversial speech by a top court judge in which he said that the country would function according to the demands or wishes of the Hindu majority community.  Many are demanding the impeachment of the judge, Shekhar Kumar Yadav, who practices at the High Court of Allahabad, the topmost court in the north Indian state of Uttar …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who became South Korea’s acting president after Saturday’s impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, is a career technocrat whose wide-ranging experience and reputation for rationality could serve him well in his latest role.  With parliament’s impeachment vote against Yoon passed after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, Yoon is suspended from exercising presidential powers, and the constitution requires …

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — In the final days leading to his ouster, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad complained to Iran’s foreign minister that Turkey was actively supporting Sunni rebels in their offensive to topple him, two Iranian officials told Reuters this week. Five decades of rule by Assad’s family ended Sunday when he fled to Moscow, where the government granted him asylum. Iran had backed Assad …

At least 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Saturday, medics said, while the Israeli military said it targeted gunmen operating from shelters and aid storages. At least 10 people were killed in an airstrike near the municipality building in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where people gathered to receive aid, medics said. Casualties were being carried by foot, on rickshaws …

With the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Turkey is preparing for nearly 3 million Syrian refugees to return to their country. But experts say the process will be challenging. Metin Corabatir, head of the Research Center on Asylum and Migration, discusses the complexities of their return. Click here for the full story in Kurdish. …

South Korean lawmakers have impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law. In a vote Saturday, 12 conservative lawmakers joined opposition forces to impeach Yoon, whose powers will now be suspended until the country’s Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove him from office. Here is more from VOA’s Bill Gallo in Seoul. …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, a stunning fall from grace for a man who rose from political obscurity to the height of political power. His decades of achievement could be on the verge of crumbling due to a single, baffling decision to send out troops under martial law over vague claims that one of Asia’s leading …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korean lawmakers have impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law, a high-stakes move that must now be approved by judges. In a Saturday vote, 12 conservative lawmakers joined opposition forces to impeach Yoon, who is just halfway through his single five-year term. The impeachment suspends Yoon’s powers until the Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove …

ZURICH — Saudi Arabia scored a major win in its campaign to attract major sports events to the kingdom when it was formally appointed as the 2034 World Cup host on Wednesday. Still, many questions remain about the tournament as well as the 2030 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with three games in South America. Here are some of the …

Jakarta, indonesia — Indonesia remains cautiously determined to join BRICS despite a threat from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to double tariffs on members of the Russia- and China-led bloc if it pursues its stated goal of establishing an alternative to the U.S. dollar in international trade. At a parliament meeting this month with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, legislators expressed their concern about Trump’s threats. “Although we …

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA/WASHINGTON — Expressing a renewed desire to return to their homeland, some Syrian refugees residing Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, are hopeful that recent developments, including the ousting of the Assad family regime that brutally ruled Syria for 53 years, might signal a safer future in Syria. Since the Syrian civil war broke out more than a decade ago, Syrians have fled to countries in the Middle …

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Macau next week for a gathering marking 25 years since the former Portuguese colony’s handover to China, state news agency Xinhua said Saturday. Xi will also attend the inauguration of Macau’s incoming administration and conduct an inspection tour during the December 18-20 visit, according to Xinhua. Macau grew into a trading post with a mixed Portuguese-Chinese population and cultural …

Palestinian health officials and U.N. aid workers report at least 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in central Gaza overnight, while the Israeli military reports that it conducted operations in Gaza and southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours. Senior emergency officer Louise Wateridge with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees — UNRWA — reported Friday that 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes …

WASHINGTON — Syrian Kurdish groups have welcomed the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, viewing it as a historic opportunity for change after 54 years of rule by the Assad dynasty. However, concerns remain among Kurdish communities about potential opposition to Kurdish rights from the Islamist rebels who led the regime’s overthrow. Following Assad’s fall on Sunday, Mazloum Abdi, the top commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian …