Having a "shaman adviser", as South Korean president Park Geun-hye does, is not as much of a problem for South Koreans as we here might expect, says our Beijing Correspondent Clifford Coonan. But Koreans do have a problem with political corruption, an alleged case of which now embroils the president and her adviser both.

Germany's new populist right "need a villain, a villainess, and Merkel is for them Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama rolled into one". So they won't mind that she has announced she'll run again next year, reports Derek Scally in Berlin.

VP-elect Mike Pence turned up at a broadway musical last week, where he was unexpectedly addressed by the cast on tolerance to Donald Trump's displeasure. Our theatre critic Peter Crawley talks about Pence's attendance at "Hamilton" and the theatre that ensued on stage and on Twitter.