SUDAN
Darfur leader killed: army
The army killed a key rebel leader from the Darfur region, state media reported yesterday, three days after anti-government forces said they had begun advancing on the capital Khartoum. “The Sudanese army announce that they killed Khalil Ibrahim in fighting today west of Wadbanda in North Kordofan,” the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) said. Ibrahim headed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the most heavily armed group in the Darfur region. The report could not be independently confirmed. On Saturday SUNA, quoting army spokesperson Sawarmi Khaled Saad, said the military was combing the North Kordofan-North Darfur border area after JEM “attacked civilians” and targeted local leaders while looting their property in the Umm-Gozain, Goz Abyadh and Aramal areas. Saad gave no casualty figures. JEM announced on Thursday through its London-based spokesperson that its forces were advancing from Darfur eastward toward the capital Khartoum.
SPAIN
Pianist could avoid jail term
A prosecutor’s office said it might not seek the customary seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for noise pollution for a pianist who practiced at home. The office for the northeastern region of Catalonia said in a statement released late on Friday that it was studying a request for a partial pardon for 26-year-old Laia Martin, a professional musician, given that a “prison sentence could be considered overly stringent.” The office recommended prison earlier in the week after a neighbor claimed noise contamination from Martin’s eight-hour practice sessions had left her with psychological damage.
SYRIA
Thousands attend funerals
Thousands of people on Saturday attended prayers in memory of the 44 people killed by suicide bombers in Damascus as charge and counter-charge swirled over who was behind the attacks. The funeral prayers, at central Omayyad Mosque, came as an Arab League delegation met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem to discuss the arrival of a team to oversee a deal aimed at ending nine months of bloodshed. Mourners prayed before flag-draped coffins, while a crowd outside waved portraits of embattled President Bashar al-Assad and banners of the ruling Baath party as police stood watch. Religious Affairs Minister Abdel Sattar al-Sayyed read a statement from Christian and Muslim religious leaders “denouncing the criminal attacks on Friday ... and the murder, destruction and sabotage,” part of a “dangerous plot against Syria.”
YEMEN
Troops fire on protesters
Troops commanded by relatives of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh have attacked a crowd of more than 100,000 protesters peacefully marching into the capital, killing at least 13 and driving the president to promise to leave the country. Yielding to pressure to defuse the country’s turmoil, Saleh said on Saturday he would leave for the US after forces overseen by his son and nephew opened fire on the protesters. They had marched for four days and 320km on foot to pressure the government not to give Saleh immunity from prosecution, in the first march of its kind in the impoverished nation that is home to a dangerous al-Qaeda offshoot. After protesters arrived at the southern entrances to the capital, forces of the elite Republican Guard fired on them with automatic weapons, tear gas and water cannons, sparking hours of clashes.
UNITED STATES
Famous crossing made over
A New York museum is unveiling a more accurate version of one of the nation’s most iconic scenes, George Washington crossing the Delaware River. The new painting shows Washington on a flat-bottomed ferry instead of the rowboat seen in the famous 1851 painting by Emanuel Leutze. The New York Times says the new picture shows Washington’s troops in the dead of night during a snowstorm, while the original shows a bright sky. It also eliminates the “Stars-and-Stripes” flag, which had not been adopted at that time. Washington crossed the river on Christmas 1776 to mount a surprise attack on Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War for independence from Britain. Artist Mort Kunstler painted the new picture. It debuts today at the New-York Historical Society.
UNITED STATES
Santa goes surfing
Before settling into his sleigh for his long slog delivering presents around the world, Santa Claus took a few hours’ break to go surfing on Saturday on the waves of the Pacific near Los Angeles. Surfing teacher Michael Pless, 61, took to the waves on Seal Beach wearing a custom-fitted “Surfing Santa” suit and a red bonnet, completing the looks with Santa’s traditional white beard. “I wanted to bring the spirit of Christmas to the beach,” he said. Pless, who has surfed as Santa Claus since the 1990s, said adults “think it’s absolutely great” and kids “think it’s absolutely fun” to bring a bit of the North Pole to sunny California.
UNITED STATES
Teen scales top seven peaks
A teenager became the youngest person to climb to the summit of the seven tallest mountains on Earth’s seven continents, according to his mother and his Web site. Jordan Romero, 15, called his mother, Leigh Ann Drake, on Saturday to confirm that he’d reached the top of Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica. The California native beat the record previously held by British climber George Atkinson, who completed the ascents at age 16 in May. Romero’s team began the climb on Wednesday. Romero’s Facebook page, “Find Your Everest,” marked reaching the summit, but the climb is hardly over. “Descent still to come then we celebrate,” a post to the Facebook page read. Romero completes the climbs with his father and stepmother.
UNITED STATES
Man jailed for bestiality
A California man was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison for choking and sexually assaulting a chihuahua, and must now register as a sex offender, Sacramento prosecutors said on Saturday. Robert Edwards De Shields, who is confined to a wheelchair, was convicted last month of the crimes against the eight-month-old chihuahua mix living with the family of the South Sacramento home where he rented a living space. He was high on methamphetamine at the time of the attack. In March the owners found the dog almost lifeless, in pain and in shock, with De Shields in the garage. A veterinarian later found traces of asphyxiation, as well as serious injuries to the animal’s rectum and internal organs. De Shields, a meth addict, has been in and out of custody for years. In the last 19 to 20 years, he has only been free from jail or monitoring by the authorities for about five months, except for periods when he was on the run, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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