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Pakistan Officially Charges Ex-President Zardari for Graft

In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
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Pakistan Officially Charges Ex-President Zardari for Graft

In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)

A Pakistani court on Monday officially charged the country's former President Asif Ali Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. Zardari was released on bail on medical grounds last December, six months after his arrest.

Zardari became president in 2008, after Pakistan´s former military dictator Pervez Musharraf was forced to resign. Bhutto served twice as a prime minister before she was killed by the Taliban in a bomb and gun attack in 2007. Zardari served as Pakistan´s president until 2013.

During Monday's court appearance in the capital, Islamabad, Zardari pleaded not guilty to money laundering and corruption charges. He later told reporters he was not surprised by the indictment and that charges are something he routinely faces whenever he is in the opposition.

A member of parliament, Zardari is accused of having dozens of bogus bank accounts, a charge he denies, saying he has been politically victimized by Khan's government. Since coming to power, Khan has vowed to make good on his election campaign promise to eliminate corruption.

The government says the corruption cases against Zadari began during ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's tenure.

Zardari's Pakistan People's Parry and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party have called for a rally in the southwestern city of Quetta on Oct. 18. During his rule, Sharif was targeted by similar mass protests by Khan.

Last week, Sharif - speaking from his exile in London - accused Pakistan's powerful military of rigging the 2018 election that brought Khan to power. Khan has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

The 70-year-old Sharif, who served three times as prime minister, was ousted in 2017 over corruption allegations. Khan, a world-famous former cricket player, came to power in 2018.

Sharif was released on bail last year for four weeks, to seek medical treatment abroad, and has been in London since November. Last month, a court issued arrest warrants for Sharif, who was previously sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges stemming from disclosures in the Panama Papers.

Pakistani police on Monday initiated another legal case against Sharif over his latest remarks about the military.

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China Says It Opposes Outside Interference in Iran’s Internal Affairs

Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)
Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)
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China Says It Opposes Outside Interference in Iran’s Internal Affairs

Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)
Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)

China opposes any outside interference in Iran's ​internal affairs, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump warned that Washington ‌would take "very ‌strong action" ‌against Tehran.

China ⁠does ​not ‌condone the use or the threat of force in international relations, Mao Ning, spokesperson at ⁠the Chinese foreign ministry, said ‌at a ‍regular ‍news conference when ‍asked about China's position following Trump's comments.

Trump told CBS News in ​an interview that the United States would take "very ⁠strong action" if Iran starts hanging protesters.

Trump also urged protesters to keep protesting and said that help was on the way.

World

South Korea Vows Legal Action Over Drone Incursion into North

A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)
A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)
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South Korea Vows Legal Action Over Drone Incursion into North

A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)
A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)

The South Korean president's top advisor vowed on Wednesday to punish whoever is found responsible for a recent drone incursion into North Korea, after a furious Pyongyang demanded an apology.

North Korea accused the South over the weekend of sending a drone across their shared border into the city of Kaesong this month, releasing photos of debris from what it said was the downed aircraft.

And on Tuesday the North Korean leader's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, demanded an apology over the incident from the "hooligans of the enemy state" responsible.

Seoul has denied any involvement but has left open the possibility that civilians may have flown the drone, a position reiterated by National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac on Wednesday.

"Our understanding so far is that neither the military nor the government carried out such an operation," Wi told reporters on the sidelines of a summit between the leaders of South Korea and Japan in the Japanese city of Nara.

"That leaves us the task to investigate if someone from the civilian sector may have done it," he said.

"If there is anything that warrants punishment, then there should be punishment."

South and North Korea remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Wi noted that despite Pyongyang's criticism and its demand for an apology, the North has also sent its own drones into South Korea.

"There have been incidents in which their drones fell near the Blue House, and others that reached Yongsan," he said, referring to the current and former locations of the presidential offices.

"These, too, are violations of the Armistice Agreement," he said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has ordered a joint military-police probe into the drone case.

Any civilian involvement would be "a serious crime that threatens peace on the Korean peninsula", he warned.

World

Iran’s Judiciary Signals Fast Trials and Executions for Detained Protesters Despite Trump’s Warning

This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)
This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)
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Iran’s Judiciary Signals Fast Trials and Executions for Detained Protesters Despite Trump’s Warning

This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)
This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)

The head of Iran’s judiciary signaled Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from US President Donald Trump.

The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon.

Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 revolution.

Trump repeatedly has warned that the United States may take military action over the killing of peaceful protesters, just months after it bombed Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war launched by Israel against the Islamic Republic in June.

Mohseni-Ejei made the comment in a video shared by Iranian state television online.

“If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly," he said. “If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast.”

His comments stand as a direct challenge to Trump, who warned Iran about executions an interview with CBS aired Tuesday. “We will take very strong action,” Trump said. “If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.”

Meanwhile, activists said Wednesday that Starlink was offering free service in Iran. The satellite internet service has been key in getting around an internet shutdown launched by the theocracy on Jan. 8. Iran began allowing people to call out internationally on Tuesday via their mobile phones, but calls from people outside the country into Iran remain blocked.

“We can confirm that the free subscription for Starlink terminals is fully functional,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who has helped get the units into Iran. “We tested it using a newly activated Starlink terminal inside Iran.”

Starlink itself did not immediately acknowledge the decision.

Security service personnel also apparently were searching for Starlink dishes, as people in northern Tehran reported authorities raiding apartment buildings with satellite dishes. While satellite television dishes are illegal, many in the capital have them in homes, and officials broadly had given up on enforcing the law in recent years.