CHINA
Dad tried to kill daughter
A court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for trying to kill his baby daughter by inserting sewing needles into her body, state media reported yesterday. A court in Heilongjiang Province found Yin Zhihe (殷志賀) guilty of attempting to murder his two-month-old daughter in August, Xinhua news agency said. The court found that Yin wanted to kill the child because he believed that she was not his daughter, Xinhua reported. Yin first inserted one needle into the baby’s ribcage on Aug. 4. The next day, the baby’s cries prompted her mother to take the child to hospital, where the needle was found and surgically removed. However, Yin later inserted three more needles in the child’s chest, navel and stomach. The needles were removed in an operation, but had already caused respiratory failure and injuries to the baby’s organs. A DNA test showed that Yin was the girl’s biological father, the report said.
CHINA
Woman, 60, had twins
A woman had twin girls at the age of 60 following in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment after her only child died, making her possibly the oldest person in the country to give birth, state media reported on Tuesday. Sheng Hailin (盛海琳), now 63, lost her first daughter, then in her late 20s, in an accidental gas poisoning case in 2009, the China Daily said. A military hospital in the eastern city of Hefei agreed to give her and her husband IVF therapy, the report said. She gave birth to Zhizhi, who weighed 1.85kg, and Huihui, 1.45kg, on May 25, 2010, at the No. 105 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, the paper said.
EGYPT
Former PM arrested
Security forces on Tuesday arrested the former prime minister of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi who was sentenced to one year in jail for failing to implement a court ruling to renationalize a textile firm. “Security forces managed to arrest Hisham Kandil, former prime minister, in carrying out a court order issued against him. He was caught in a mountain area with smugglers trying to flee to Sudan,” the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
NIGERIA
At least 50 Islamists killed
Troops killed at least 50 suspected Boko Haram Islamists retreating into neighboring Cameroon following a Dec. 20 attack on a military base in the northeastern town of Bama, the army said on Tuesday. Fifteen soldiers and five civilians were killed, and more than 20 vehicles transporting escaping Islamists were destroyed in the battle, Chris Olukolade, defense headquarters spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement from Abuja, the capital. “Although a good number of the insurgents escaped with bullet wounds while some have been arrested, over 50 of them died in the course of exchange of fire with ground troops in the ongoing operations to apprehend fleeing terrorists,” he said.
IRAQ
Bomb attacks kill 20
At least 20 people were killed in bomb attacks in Christian areas of Baghdad yesterday, including a car bomb that exploded near a church after a Christmas service, police and medics said. A bomb in a parked car went off while worshipers were leaving a church in the Doura district of southern Baghdad after finishing prayers, police sources said. Most of the victims were Christian, they said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
UNITED STATES
Santa shot with pellet gun
A man dressed as Santa Claus was recovering after being shot with a pellet gun on Tuesday at a toy giveaway in Washington. A local news crew was interviewing the unnamed man at the time of the Christmas Eve shooting in the capital’s Southeast district. The man was struck in the upper back and could be seen bending over, reaching for his back and screaming out in pain after loud popping sounds. “It’s a pellet gun,” he said. “Someone’s shooting. Someone just shot me,” the man added. Police said the man was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. WJLA, whose cameraman was on the scene, said the giveaway carried on. The station reported that the man wanted to keep giving out toys, but he was ordered to hospital and a man dressed as the Grinch took over.
UNITED STATES
Newborns put in stockings
California hospitals are spreading holiday cheer for new parents by delivering newborns in giant Christmas stockings. The bright red stockings were provided this week for babies born at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in Redlands, California. The Long Beach Press Telegram said it was a half-century-old tradition. The Redlands Community Hospital has been handing out stockings to parents of infants born this month. This year, 16 volunteers made 250 fleece stockings during a day-long sewing bee.
UNITED STATES
Decorations spark panic
An Atlanta, Georgia, homeowner says he hopes he did not offend anyone with his Christmas decoration of a mannequin with outstretched arms entangled in a string of Christmas lights and clinging to a ledge that prompted an emergency response to his house. Bubba Murphy Lake told WSB-TV that someone passing the house in Berkeley Lake with their children thought the display looked so realistic that they called the emergency fire dispatcher. He says fire officials told him to take the display down — at least temporarily. The display also had a ladder toppled over in the front yard.
BRAZIL
Lottery winners freed
Police say they have freed a kidnapped lottery winner of more than US$3 million whose captors were demanding a ransom of about US$200,000. Inspector Antonio de Olimin told the G1 news portal that a 43-year-old bricklayer who won the lottery about three months ago and his brother were kidnapped on Monday in the Sao Paulo suburb of Guarulhos. He said police on Tuesday discovered the house where the two brothers were being held hostage while investigating a gang of bank and cargo truck robbers. Olimin says one suspected kidnapper was killed in a shootout with police and another was arrested. The two brothers were freed unhurt.
BRAZIL
Torrential rain kills 14
President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday flew over the flood-hit state of Espirito Santo, where at least 14 people have died in days of torrential rain. A Civil Defense statement raised the death toll to 14 and said nearly 50,000 people were forced to leave their homes. It said 47 cities in Espirito Santo, which borders Rio de Janeiro State, were affected by the flooding, including many left without communications, drinkable water and power. Rousseff said two helicopters and army trucks would be sent to the area to deliver food and medicine to those affected. “The tragedy in Espirito Santo destroyed homes, roads and dreams. We are going to try to rebuild them,” the president said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the