UN Security Council to Meet Sunday on Iran Attack after Israel Request

 Objects are intercepted in the sky after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel April 14, 2024. (Reuters)
Objects are intercepted in the sky after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel April 14, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Security Council to Meet Sunday on Iran Attack after Israel Request

 Objects are intercepted in the sky after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel April 14, 2024. (Reuters)
Objects are intercepted in the sky after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel April 14, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations Security Council is set to meet on Sunday after Israel requested the council condemn Iran's attack on Israel and designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT), according to a schedule released late on Saturday.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, requested the council hold an emergency meeting in a letter on Saturday to the council's president.

"The Iranian attack is a serious threat to global peace and security and I expect the Council to use every means to take concrete action against Iran," Erdan wrote in a post on X.

Iran launched a swarm of explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel late on Saturday in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, risking a major escalation as the United States pledged "ironclad" backing for Israel.



Seoul Court Rejects Second Request to Extend Yoon Detention

Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)
Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)
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Seoul Court Rejects Second Request to Extend Yoon Detention

Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)
Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)

A Seoul court rejected a second request Saturday to extend the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to declare martial law, putting pressure on prosecutors to quickly indict him.

Yoon was arrested last week on insurrection charges, becoming the first sitting South Korean head of state to be detained in a criminal probe.

His December 3 martial law decree only lasted about six hours before it was voted down by lawmakers, but it still managed to plunge South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.

The Seoul Central District Court on Saturday turned down a request for a detention extension, prosecutors said in a brief statement.

This follows a ruling by the same court a day earlier when a judge stated it was "difficult to find sufficient grounds" to grant an extension.

Prosecutors had planned to keep the disgraced leader in custody until February 6 for questioning before formally indicting him, but that plan will now need to be adjusted.

"With the court's rejection of the extension, prosecutors must now work quickly to formally indict Yoon to keep him behind bars," Yoo Jung-hoon, an attorney and political commentator, told AFP.

Yoon has refused to cooperate with the criminal probe, with his legal defense team arguing investigators lack legal authority.

The suspended president is also facing a separate hearing in the Constitutional Court which, if it upholds his impeachment, would officially remove him from office.

An election would then have to be held within 60 days.