News Line

South Korea's opposition parties have announced they will vote on a motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye on December 9, with a spokesman for the main opposition Democratic Party saying impeachment will be pursued through "close cooperation and without wavering," Reuters reported. Two-hundred "yes" votes in the 300-seat parliament are needed to move ahead with impeachment. The three opposition parties and anti-Park independent lawmakers have a total of 172 seats, meaning they will rely on dissenters from Park's Saenuri party in order for impeachment to take place. If the motion passes, the Constitution Court has 180 days to approve or reject it. If approved, a new election must be called within 60 days. Park, whose approval rating is hovering at a record low of four percent, is embroiled in a corruption scandal involving a personal friend who has been indicted for abuse of power.

Eighteen people were killed after a minibus carrying around 20 people veered off the road and plunged into a roadside pond in China’s central Hubei province, the People’s Daily reports. Two people have been reportedly hospitalized, TASS said, citing the Sina news agency. The circumstances of the crash and the route of the bus were not immediately known.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed “consequences” for companies if they try to move their business to a foreign country, as he spoke on a deal that his team reached with Indiana-based air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier. The president-elect did not elaborate, but mentioned that those firms leaving the United States “will be taxed heavily at the border,” while he promised the “lowest” corporate taxes at home. “We will be a very strong border,” he added. “They can leave from state to state, but leaving the country would be very, very difficult.” Trump wants to bring taxes for businesses down from 35 percent to 15 percent, so that there is “no need for them to leave anymore.” As a side note, Trump also mentioned his campaign to build a wall along the Mexican border, saying: “Trust me, we are going to build the wall.”

Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday launched an investigation against 192 judges and prosecutors on charges of being ‘Gulenist terrorist group’ (FETO) members, the Daily Sabah reports. Turkish authorities say the July 15 attempt to overthrow the president and government was masterminded by Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999.

Former French economy minister Arnaud Montebourg has formally entered the presidential race. Montebourg announced his candidacy Thursday in the presidential primary France’s Socialist party has scheduled for January. The 54-year-old Montebourg’s politics are firmly left-leaning. He lost his cabinet position in 2014 because he denounced president Francois Hollande’s pro-business shift. Montebourg says he favors a strong state to protect France’s industry from “foreign interests.” Another former economy minister of Hollande’s, centrist Emmanuel Macron also is seeing the presidency but without taking part into a primary. Macron advocates free market policies. Hollande must say whether he will stand for re-election before a December 15 deadline. (AP)

A Progress MS-04 spaceship is experiencing problems in transferring telemetric information, TASS reported on Thursday, citing a source familiar with the situation. A Soyuz-U carrier rocket with a Progress MS-04 spaceship blasted off earlier in the day from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to deliver 2.5 tons of cargo to the International Space Station.