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.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
Burmese President Min Aung Hlaing yesterday cut all prisoners’ sentences by one-sixth, a blanket measure that a source close to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi said would further shorten her detention. Aung San Suu Kyi has been sequestered since a 2021 military coup, but the senior member of her dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) party said that while her term had been reduced, her remaining sentence is still unclear. “We also don’t know exactly how many years she has left,” the source told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The military toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government
RSS