SOUTH AFRICA
Mandela out of hospital
Former president Nelson Mandela was released on Wednesday from the hospital after being treated for a lung infection and having gallstones removed, a government spokesman said. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon will continue to receive medical care at home. Mandela had been in the hospital since Dec. 8. In recent days, officials have said he was improving and in good spirits, but doctors have taken extraordinary care with his health because of his age. Mandela was released on Wednesday evening and will receive “home-based high care” at his residence in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton until he fully recovers, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said.
NIGERIA
Fireworks factory explodes
A massive explosion ripped through a warehouse full of fireworks in Lagos on Wednesday, sparking a fire that threatened surrounding city blocks and sending a plume of thick smoke high into the sky. At least one person died and 15 others were wounded, emergency officials said. The blast occurred around 9am in the Jankara area of Lagos Island. The force of the explosion echoed kilometers away and shook windows. A journalist saw members of the Nigerian Red Cross treating people with minor cuts and bruises a few blocks from the site. Later, rescuers pulled out a badly charred corpse from the still-smoldering structure. Many people were injured when they stampeded through the area’s narrow alleyways, National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib said. A half-dozen firefighters arrived at the scene with two trucks and locals also ran fire hoses from the trucks to nearby buildings to try to beat back the flames. The trucks quickly ran out of water. One man even scooped up water from a puddle with a bowl in an attempt to fight the blaze.
JAPAN
Hiroshima survivors honored
Hiroshima University yeterday said it would bestow honorary doctorates on three former students from Southeast Asia who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of the city. The degrees will be given to former Brunei prime minister Pengiran Yusuf, 91; Hasan Rahaya, 91, a former Indonesian parliamentarian; and Abdul Razak, 87, who taught Japanese in Malaysia, the university said. The three were among a group of students from Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia studying in the country during World War II under a program designed to provide young foreigners with pro-Japanese education. According to the university, they were forced to stop their studies after Hiroshima was hit by the atomic bomb dropped by US forces, killing an estimated 140,000 people instantly. They were among nine foreign students at the university who were exposed to radiation from the bomb, a university official said.
THE PHILIPPINES
Latecomer storm kills six
A late season storm has left at least six people dead in separate incidents in the central part of the country, but has spared a southern region that was devastated by a typhoon that killed more than 1,000 people weeks earlier. The national disaster agency said in a report yesterday that three people died when a tree fell on their house in Eastern Samar province, where Tropical Storm Wukong made landfall on Christmas Day. Another person was killed in a landslide in Iloilo province. Officials say heavy rain on mountains surrounding Kalibo, the capital of Aklan province, triggered a flash flood late on Wednesday. It was the 17th storm to hit the country this year.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Thunderbirds’ creator dies
Gerry Anderson, the creator of television show Thunderbirds, died on Wednesday at age 83 after a long battle with mixed dementia, his son said on his blog. The puppeteer started his career in the 1950s, creating a string of popular British shows including 1964’s Stingray. His company, AP Films, pioneered the “supermarionation” puppetry technique with the fusion of marionette figures and small-scale models to create live action-style shows. Anderson’s most notable production was 1965 series Thunderbirds, about a secret organization that performs rescue missions using high-tech tools and vehicles. The show became a cult favorite and was adapted for the big screen, most recently in the 2004 film Thunderbirds.
VENEZUELA
Chavez delegates duties
Ailing President Hugo Chavez, who is still in Cuba recovering from his latest cancer surgery, has delegated several economic duties to Vice President Nicolas Maduro. According to a decree signed by Chavez and published on Wednesday in the country’s government gazette, Maduro is now responsible for making certain decisions related to the national budget and expropriations. Chavez, 58, is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 10, but his health has raised concerns over the future of his leftist movement. Officials have never disclosed the type or severity of Chavez’s cancer and he only designated a successor — Maduro — earlier this month.
UNITED STATES
Storm grounds planes
A powerful winter storm forced the cancelation of about 200 flights yesterday, as heavy snow and high winds pummeled the northeastern US. The National Weather Service forecast 30.5cm to 46cm of snow for northern New England as the storm moved northeast out of the lower Great Lakes, where it dumped more than 30.5cm of snow in Michigan. The storm front was accompanied by freezing rain and sleet. The Ohio River Valley and the Northeast were under blizzard and winter storm warnings. Snow will fall in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire at up to 5cm an hour, the weather agency said.
FRANCE
EU mission head appointed
Authorities have named the general who will lead a EU mission to the Sahel region, a move seen as intended to speed up military intervention against al-Qaeda-linked forces occupying northern Mali. The European Training Mission will be headed by General Francois Lecointre, 50, a marine infantryman who has served in Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Gabon and Bosnia. The announcement came after al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Christmas Day issued a four-minute video in which one of the group’s leaders, Abou Zeid, criticized France for “not deigning to respond to our offer of dialogue” over four Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger in September 2010.
UNITED STATES
Bush’s health deteriorates
After more than a month in a Texas hospital battling bronchitis, former US president George H.W. Bush has taken a turn for the worse and was transferred to intensive care on Sunday with a “stubborn fever,” spokesman Jim McGrath said on Wednesday. The 88-year-old was first admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston on Nov. 7 for bronchitis and released on Nov. 19, but then readmitted four days later. McGrath said doctors were “cautiously optimistic,” but that there was no talk yet of a discharge date.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was