South Korean court ends president’s rule

SEOUL, South Korea — In a historic ruling today, South Korea’s Constitutional Court formally removed impeached President Park Geun-hye from office over a corruption scandal that has plunged the country into political turmoil, worsened an alreadyserious national divide and led to calls for sweeping reforms.

It was a stunning fall for Park, the daughter of a dictator who rode a lingering conservative nostalgia for her father to a big win in 2012, only to see her presidency descend into scandal. The unanimous ruling opens her up to possible criminal proceedings, and makes her South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be removed early from office since democracy came in the country in the late 1980s.

South Korea must now hold an election within two months to choose Park’s successor. Liberal Moon Jae-in, who lost to Park in the 2012 election, currently enjoys a comfortable lead in opinion surveys. Whoever becomes the next leader will take over a country facing a hostile North Korea, a stagnant economy and deep social and political divides.

Pre-verdict surveys showed that 70 to 80 percent of South Koreans had wanted the court to approve Park’s impeachment. But there have been worries that Park’s ouster would further polarize the country and cause violence between her supporters and opponents. hot spots could cause a flare-up, even in areas where there’s “not much left to burn.”

Most of the burned land is in Kansas, where about 2,000 firefighters have been battling a series of blazes that consumed more than 1,000 square miles and damaged or destroyed dozens of structures. The firefight Thursday was focused on four counties, down from 21 on Monday. The Associated Press in January that uncovered critical problems with the program known as WebOps and revealed conflicts of interest in a new contract potentially worth $500 million to expand psychological operations against terrorist groups.

The AP found the WebOps programis so beset with incompetence and flawed data that multiple people with direct knowledge of it say it’s having little impact. prompting a large-scale response.

“A person, probably armed with an ax, attacked people at random,” police said in a statement. “At least five people were injured, one of them very seriously.”

The suspected attacker was arrested after jumping off an overpass near the train station, the statement said. The man suffered serious injuries and was being treated in a hospital.