TAIPEI (Dispatches) -- Taiwan on Tuesday announced an extension in mandatory military service from four months to one year, citing the threat from China. Beijing considers self-ruled Taiwan a part of its territory, to be taken one day, by force if necessary. “No one wants war... but my fellow countrymen, peace will not fall from the sky,” President Tsai Ing-wen told a press conference after a high-level government meeting on national security. “The current four-month military service is not enough to meet the fast and ever-changing situation,” she said. “We have decided to restore the one-year military service from 2024.” The extended requirement will apply to men born after January 1, 2005, Tsai added. Mandatory service used to be deeply unpopular in Taiwan, and its previous government had reduced it from one year to four months with the aim of creating a mainly volunteer force.

 

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JUBA (Reuters) -- Clashes have killed 56 people during four days of fighting in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei state, after youth from the Nuer community attacked another ethnic group, a local official said on Tuesday, with the Nuer making up most of the casualties. The territory of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been plagued by blood feuds and clashes over cattle and land for decades. Armed Nuer youth began attacking the Murle community on Dec. 24 in Gumuruk County and Likuangole County, said Abraham Kelang, a government official in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area. He said 51 of those killed were Nuer attackers, with only five Murle defenders killed. Last week, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) said armed Nuer youth were being mobilized ahead of a potential raid against the Murle.

 

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LIMA (Reuters) -- The anti-corruption unit of Peru’s attorney general’s office detained six generals amid an investigation into allegations the government of ousted former President Pedro Castillo illegally promoted police and military officers. Police also seized “documents and devices” during a raid of the home of Castillo’s former Defense Minister Walter Ayala, the anti-corruption unit said. Castillo, who was arrested earlier this month after lawmakers voted him out of office for attempting to illegally dissolve Congress, is being investigated for influence peddling. He faces six separate charges of corruption, all of which he has denied.  The leftist former president is serving 48 months of pretrial detention while he is being investigated on charges of “rebellion.” Former Defense Minister Ayala criticized the search of his home and the arrest of the generals. “This has been unnecessary, because they haven’t found anything,” Ayala told reporters. “This investigation is over a year old ... this is a show.”

 

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BRASILIA (Reuters) -- A man arrested for attempting to set off a bomb in protest against Brazil’s election result was inspired to build up an arsenal by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s call to arms, according to a copy of his police testimony seen by Reuters. George Washington de Oliveira Sousa was arrested on Saturday, the day after police said they foiled his plot to set off an explosive device near the Brasilia airport. The incident added a new dimension to post-election violence in Brazil, where tensions remain high after the most fraught election in a generation. Incoming Justice Minister Flavio Dino said in a television interview on Monday that security would need to be beefed up for Sunday’s inauguration of leftist President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated the incumbent Bolsonaro. “We’re not talking about a lone wolf,” Dino said of Sousa. “There are powerful people behind this and the police will investigate. We won’t allow political terrorism in Brazil.” 

 

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LAWEUENG, Indonesia (AFP) -- Rohingya refugees received emergency medical treatment after a boat carrying nearly 200 people came ashore in Indonesia on Monday, authorities said, in the fourth such landing in the country in recent months. Each year thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, risk their lives on long, expensive sea journeys -- often in poor-quality vessels -- in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. The wooden vessel arrived at around 5:30 pm (1030 GMT) on a beach in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh, said local police spokesman Winardy. “One hundred and eighty-five Rohingya immigrants landed in Pidie (district). The figure consists of 83 adult males, 70 adult females and 32 children,” Winardy, who goes by one name, said in a statement. 

 

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TOKYO (AP) — Heavy snow in large swaths of Japan has killed 17 and injured more than 90 people and left hundreds of homes without power, disaster management officials said. Powerful winter fronts have dumped heavy snow in northern regions since last week, stranding hundreds of vehicles on highways, delaying delivery services and causing 11 deaths by Saturday. More snowfall over the Christmas weekend brought the number of dead to 17 and injured to 93 by Monday morning, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Many of them had fallen while removing snow from the roofs or were buried underneath thick piles of snow sliding off rooftops. The disaster management agency said a woman in her 70s was found dead buried underneath a thick pile of rooftop snow that suddenly fell on her in Yamagata prefecture’s Nagai City, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Tokyo, where snow piled up higher than 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) Saturday.