HONG KONG — Mao Zedong’s grandson just can’t catch a break. 

The most-mocked man at China’s annual rubber-stamp congress—which is wrapping up this week in Beijing—was in some respects also its most privileged.

The only living grandson of the “Great Helmsman,” Major General Mao Xinyu, 43, once again served as the butt of jokes about his girth, his intellect, and his career, which even he has admitted owes something to his name.

On Weibo, China’s Twitter, thousands shared a photo of the beefy man in his ill-fitting military uniform with this caption:

“My mom told me since I was little that a military uniform looks good on everyone. When she saw this picture, she finally admitted defeat.”

What Mao’s grandson reveals about modern China

Photo by Getty Images

HONG KONG — More than 100 people, including prominent academics, journalists, lawyers and activists, have signed an open letter to the Chinese government calling for freedom of speech and political reform.

The letter, posted on several Chinese websites, calls on Beijing to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is part of the UN’s International Bill of Human Rights, the BBC reported.

China signed the bill in 1998, but the parliament never ratified it.

GlobalPost’s senior correspondent Benjamin Carlson said the list of signatories to the letter include a “who’s-who of pro-reform figures in China — intellectuals, academics, etc. Yet it also includes some names that rarely sign such petitions.”

“In that respect,” Carlson added from Hong Kong, “it’s remarkable.”

100 Chinese dissidents call for freedom of speech, political reform

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“People say that the Korean peninsula is divided into two,” said Yang Deong-nam, a former militiaman who took up arms against the army during an uprising here in 1980. “But actually, if we keep fighting, we will be divided into three,” he said, referring to the schism between the more conservative and prosperous east and the agrarian and left-leaning west.

During her electoral campaign, Park Geun-hye promised to build a government more inclusive of the entire country, whereas previous presidents have stayed close to their cliques of patronage.

South Korea: A president and a peninsula divided

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JERUSALEM — A group of Jewish women gathered in prayer Monday at the Western Wall to mark Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new lunar month.

Even as they gathered to pray, police closed in. The women fell to the ground, unwilling to be dragged away.

Police did not want to be seen apprehending women at prayer, so they stepped back, waiting. Only after the service ended did police arrest 10, including three American rabbis: Robyn Fryer Bodzin, Debra Cantor and Susan Silverman, sister of famed comedienne Sarah Silverman.

Their crime? Being women wearing traditionally male religious garb at what is considered the holiest of Jewish sites.

Israel: Women reclaim Judaism’s holiest site

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BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — It’s been a bad week for Washington’s image.

First, a leaked Justice Department memoprovided a handy legal framework to justify the US government’s killing of its own citizens without even a semblance of due process. Then a report by a respected international body alleged, in excruciating detail, gross violations of international law by the United States and its allies in a process known as “extraordinary rendition.”

And Tuesday night, The New York Times website revealed the location of a previously secret drone base in Saudi Arabia from where the United States launches strikes against Al Qaeda militants inside Yemen — including US citizens.

The revelations come at a particularly sensitive time for Barack Obama. As he heads into his second term, the president is crafting a new foreign policy agenda with a brand new team. Confirmation hearings for Obama’s pick for the Pentagon were very contentious, and the nominee, Chuck Hagel, hasn’t yet been confirmed.

Another key post, head of the Central Intelligence Agency, is also likely to be hard going for the White House, with John Brennan set to face the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

Analysis: A war on terror where the rules don’t apply

Photo by AFP/Getty Images

msnbc:

From The Cycle:

February 1st is Hillary Clinton’s last day as secretary of state. Since January 21, 2009, she has visited 112 countries and six continents (she couldn’t make it to Antarctica). She’s also danced with jazz singers in South Africa, snapped “selfies” with Meryl Streep, and rubbed shoulders with Sir Elton John. Check out this slideshow for proof that if you’re Hillary, you can be all work and have playtime, too.

(Photo credit: Kevin Lamarque/ AFP/ GETTY)

Hillary Clinton says goodbye… for now (LIVE VIDEO)

LIVE at 2:30 p.m. ET

Israeli elections surprise: The centrist Yesh Atid, led by recently retired journalist Yair Lapid, seemingly came out of nowhere, with election polls predicting it would win 18 seats in Israel’s parliament, just behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu.

More on the centrist party that might influence Israel’s next government.

reuters:

Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister on Tuesday on corruption allegations, ratcheting up pressure on a government that is also facing street protests led by a cleric who has a history of ties to the army.

The combination of the arrest order and the mass protest in the capital Islamabad led by Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahirul Qadri raised fears among politicians that the military was working with the judiciary to force out a civilian leader.

READ ON: Pakistan turmoil deepens as court orders PM’s arrest

As Park Geun-hye becomes South Korea’s first female leader, she joins a string of powerful female Asian politicians who have kept it in the family, following their fathers or husbands or preceding their sons into the realm of public service. 

“Park Geun-hye’s rise closely follows a pattern in male-dominated Asia of the daughters and husbands of national figureheads becoming powerful through association,” GlobalPost’s East Asia correspondent Geoffrey Cain points out.

“What’s interesting is that all their fathers and brothers were once considered national heroes but later assassinated or exiled somehow.”

See the rest: All in the family: What many Asian female leaders share