South Korea
Officials raid Samsung unit
South Korean prosecutors investigating a corruption scandal surrounding the country’s president and her friend raided a unit of Samsung and the national pension fund on Wednesday. Officials at Samsung Group and National Pension Service confirmed investigators visited their offices in Seoul. The Investment Management Office of the world’s third-largest pension fund was the target of the raid, according to an NPS official who declined to be named, citing office rules. Samsung spokeswoman Lim Bomi declined to say which Samsung department was raided.
PANAMA
Deaths reported from storm
Late-season storm Otto strengthened into a hurricane Tuesday as civil defense officials reported three deaths in Panama amid heavy rain and Costa Rica ordered the evacuation of 4,000 people from its Caribbean coast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Otto was likely to gain strength as it headed for an expected Thursday afternoon landfall around the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. It could become the first hurricane to make landfall in Costa Rica since reliable record-keeping began in 1851. The storm caused heavy rains in Panama as it moved off that nation’s northern coast.
BRITAIN
Dislike for Trump suggestion
Donald Trump has a plan for making the vaunted relationship between Britain and the U.S. even more special: Make the impish acting leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, British ambassador in Washington. Prime Minister Theresa May has another idea — leave British appointments to the government, thank you very much. Her representatives Tuesday quickly shot down Trump’s extraordinarily undiplomatic initiative, which was expressed in a tweet the night before by the U.S. president-elect. Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and others said there was no way Farage would be chosen. Farage played a key role in convincing British voters to leave the European Union in the June referendum. Trump endorsed the Brexit movement.
Dodo skeleton is big seller
Summers Place Auctions has sold a composite dodo skeleton to a private collector for $416,300, including buyer’s premium. The unique specimen of a creature once found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean was created by a dodo enthusiast who collected the bird’s bones for 40 years until he realized he had enough bones to create an almost complete skeleton.
Compiled from wire reports.