■ Israel
Sharon in stable condition
Former prime minister Ariel Sharon was in stable condition on Saturday, a day after being rushed into intensive care with an infection that attacked his heart, hospital officials said. Sharon, 78, has been in a coma since suffering a major stroke in January. He was in stable condition on Saturday, said Anat Dolev, spokeswoman for the Chaim Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv. Sharon has undergone several extensive brain operations to stop cerebral hemorrhaging, in addition to more minor procedures. Sharon lapsed into a coma just months after he ended Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip bolted his hard-line Likud Party to form the centrist Kadima faction.
■ United States
Laura Bush gets bling again
It's bling again for first lady Laura Bush's birthday. For the second year in a row, US President George W. Bush gave his wife jewelry. This year, it's a triple-strand necklace with amber-colored citrine, a birthstone for this month. The Bushes celebrated on Saturday night with four other couples over Mexican food at their Texas ranch. The president and first lady reunited after two days of separately cam-paigning for candidates in the congressional elections. Bush teased his wife during his rallies. "I'm not going to tell you her age," he said on Friday in Iowa, "but we were both born in the same year and I turned 60 this year." Mrs. Bush celebrated her 59th birthday last year in Argentina, where she and the president were attending a Summit of the Americas.
■ France
Massive blackouts
A surge in electricity demand in Germany due to cold weather triggered massive blackouts across western Europe on Saturday, including to about a tenth of France, electricity operators said. "About 5 million consumers lost" power in the blackout, said a spokesman for the French electricity transmission company RTE. "Similar cuts took place in all western European countries," he added. The German energy company RWE said the blackouts were caused by surging electricity demand Saturday evening due to a plunge in temperatures to the freezing point. The blackout also disrupted the country's high speed trains, causing delays on a dozen lines.
■ Germany
Bad conduct in Kabul
German troops in Afghanistan put a gun to a child's head after picking him off the streets at random, according to a newspaper yesterday quoting a former non-commissioned officer. The Berliner Morgenpost said the incident occurred in Kabul in 2002. The report said a German soldier had ordered the child into a patrol vehicle and out the loaded pistol to his temple, as colleagues took photographs. "The kid was clearly frightened until he realized that he wouldn't be killed," it quoted the former NCO as saying, adding that he had been given a dollar and allowed to go.
■ Russia
FSB kills three rebels
Three suspected Chechen rebels were shot dead in a firefight on Saturday in the southern republic of Ingushetia, a news agency report said quoting Russia's FSB security service. "The liquidated terrorists were wanted by the federal authorities and were being pursued in connection with a criminal case under investi-gation by the prosecutor's office in Grozny," a local FSB official told Russia's RIA Novosti. He said the militants, believed to be under the direct command of Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov, opened fire when FSB and interior ministry troops approached to arrest them.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in