330 U.S. troops land in Norway
For Norwegians, the sight of dozens of American Marines traipsing through the snow in military fatigues — the first time foreign troops have been posted to their country’s territory since World War II — may have brought a welcomed sense of security, but it also harked back to a dark era of the Cold War that many had hoped to forget.
A United States military plane on Monday delivered most of the 330 Marines to a garrison in Vaernes, in central Norway, a deployment that Norwegian officials said had been carried out by the U.S. as part of a bilateral agreement. It was the latest effort by the U.S. and its European allies to buttress their defenses against a resurgent Russia, which condemned the move.
S. Korea seeks arrest
SEOUL, South Korea — In a departure from the leniency typically given South Korean big businesses, prosecutors on Monday requested the arrest of the de facto head of Samsung Electronics, the country’s most valuable company, in an influencepeddling scandal that has toppled the country’s president.
Lee Jae-yong, the 48year-old vice chairman at Samsung Electronics, faces allegations of embezzlement, of lying under oath during a parliamentary hearing and of offering a bribe of 43 billion won ($36 million) to a longtime friend of impeached President Park Geun-hye, according to Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for a special prosecutors’ team investigating the political scandal.
Duterte criticized
MANILA — Rights advocates and survivors of the dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos, the former Philippine leader, criticized President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday for saying that he could impose martial law to curb what he has called a runaway drug problem.
Mr. Duterte has previously stated that he told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts their forces can blast away as they pursue militants who abduct sailors in waters where the three countries converge and bring their kidnap victims to the southern Philippines.
Shooting leaves 5 dead
CANCUN, Mexico — A shooting attack at an electronic music festival in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Playa del Carmen on Monday left five people dead, including two Canadians, an Italian and a Colombian, authorities said.
Miguel Angel Pech, attorney general of Quintana Roo state, said the shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. outside the Blue Parrot nightclub, one of the BPM Festival’s venues in Playa del Carmen.
Mr. Pech said it was not a terrorist attack, and said three people had been detained nearby, but it was unclear if they had been involved in the shooting.
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Ex-Haiti rebel leader and Senator-elect Guy Philippe pleaded not guilty Friday to drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges in a Miami federal courtroom.