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Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun arrives at the Seoul Central District court in Seoul, South Korea, January 20, 2017. Yoo Seung-kwan/News1 via REUTERS South Korea's special prosecutor has indicted a former culture minister and a former top aide to President Park Geun-hye on charges of abuse of power, coercion and perjury for their role in drafting a blacklist of dissenting artists, a spokesman said. The indictments are the latest twist in a corruption scandal that has gripped the country for months and led to the impeachment of Park by parliament in December. A Constitutional Court is reviewing the impeachment vote. If it is upheld, Park will have to leave office and a presidential election will be called. Lee Kyu-chul, spokesman for the special prosecutor's office investigating the scandal, told a briefing on Tuesday former culture minister Cho Yoon-sun, and a former presidential chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, had been indicted. "The special prosecutor's office has...

Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs A senior Iranian official says any threat to Iraq's security and territorial integrity will affect the entire Middle East, stressing that the Islamic Republic opposes Iraq’s partition and any interference in its internal affairs. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Sunday after a meeting with Jan Kubis, the UN special representative for Iraq, Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said the two sides discussed ways to reinforce Iraq’s territorial integrity and national solidarity. He added that any measure to combat terrorism in Iraq must be carried out under the supervision of the United Nations. The Iranian official emphasized that the Islamic Republic and the UN opposed meddling by any country in the internal affairs of Iraq or any other state without thei...