1. President Xi visits Switzerland

    Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off his state visit to Switzerland on Sunday. At a ceremony held at the Federal Palace in the historical Old Town of Bern by the seven members of the Swiss Federal Council, Xi said he is looking forward to consolidating* friendship and boosting cooperation between China and Switzerland.

    During the trip, the president is scheduled to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the ski resort* of Davos, and visit the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee. Xi will be the first Chinese head of state to attend the WEF.

    2. 1 million Chinese visited LA in 2016

    Los Angeles has become the first ever U.S. city destination* to receive more than 1 million Chinese visitors in one year, the authorities said last week. Besides reaching the mark of 1 million Chinese visitors, both the city’s domestic and international visitation had reached an all time high, according to a report released by Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board.

    3. US troops in eastern Europe

    Polish authorities and ordinary Poles welcomed on Saturday U.S. troops who arrived the previous week as part of an unprecedented* deployment to NATO’s eastern flank aimed at deterring* Russia.

    NATO will deploy 3,500 personnel, 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles to western Poland hailing from Fort Carson, Colorado. The new forces will gather first in Poland, then fan out across seven countries from Estonia to Bulgaria. A headquarters unit will be stationed in Germany. It is part of the Pentagon’s “Atlantic Resolve” operation aimed at countering security concerns triggered on NATO’s eastern flank by Russia’s 2014 annexation* of Crimea from Ukraine.

    4. Jay Y. Lee may be arrested

    South Korea’s special prosecutors’ office said on Monday it was seeking a warrant* to arrest the head of Samsung Group, the country’s largest conglomerate, accusing* him of paying multi-million dollar bribes to a friend of President Park Geun-hye.

    The special prosecutors’ office accused Jay Y. Lee of paying bribes totaling 43 billion won (US$36.42 million) to Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the president who is at the center of scandal.

    Lee, who became the de facto head of the Samsung Group after his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, was also accused of embezzlement* and perjury in the prosecution’s application for an arrest warrant.

    5. Plane crash kills at least 37

    A cargo plane attempting to land in thick fog crashed on Monday into a village near Kyrgyzstan’s main airport killing at least 37 people, with authorities blaming “pilot error.” A massive section of the aircraft’s tail billowed smoke as rescuers searched for victims among the wreckage* in the village of Dacha-Suu, home to the majority of the dead. A minimum of 37 people, including the plane’s four pilots, were killed in the crash and the toll* may rise, said a spokesman for the country’s emergency services, Muhammed Svarov.

    6. 24 drowned in the Ganges

    Five more bodies have been recovered from the Ganges river after an overloaded* boat capsized* near the capital of eastern India’s Bihar state, taking the death toll to 24, officials said on Sunday as rescuers ended search operations. The accident happened on Saturday as people were ferrying back after watching kite-flying celebrations to mark a harvest festival. The boat carrying 50 capsized not far from the shore in the state capital Patna.(SD-Agencies)