South Korea
Impeachment vote likely
South Korean lawmakers are preparing for a likely impeachment vote against President Park Geun-hye that, if successful, would drive her from power amid a corruption scandal. The vote will probably happen Friday, which is the last day of the current parliamentary regular session. The opposition feels confident because dozens of members of Park’s ruling party have said they’ll vote to impeach. Millions of South Koreans have taken to the streets in fury over what prosecutors say was collusion by Park and a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that friend extraordinary sway over government decisions.
Japan
Body of pilot recovered
Searchers have found the body of a U.S. Marines Corps pilot who went missing after his jet fighter crashed off Japan. The Marines said in a short statement Friday that a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ship had recovered the body of Capt. Jake Frederick the previous day. Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Joshua Hays said that Frederick was from Texas and based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, N.C. He was on a rotational deployment to Japan. Frederick ejected from his F/A-18 during regular training Wednesday. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Canada
National hero on currency
A black woman often described as Canada’s Rosa Parks for her 1946 decision to sit in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theater will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of a Canadian banknote. Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Thursday that Viola Desmond will grace the front of the $10 bill when the next series goes into circulation in 2018. A businesswoman turned civil libertarian, Desmond built a business as a beautician and mentored young black women in Nova Scotia.
Greece
Christmas to get brighter
As thousands of Greeks protested against government spending cuts during a general strike that crippled the country Thursday, struggling Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced one-off measures to ease the burden on pensioners and island residents. Tsipras said the government would distribute a total of 617 million euros this Christmas to some 1.6 million low-income pensioners, replacing a holiday bonus scrapped by Greece’s bailout creditors. In a nationally televised address, Tsipras said the cash would come from a larger-than-expected surplus in Greece’s primary budget.
Compiled from wire reports