SYRIA
Mass grave found
The bodies of 230 people killed by the Islamic State group have been found in a mass grave uncovered by their relatives in Deir Ezzor Province, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. The discovery brings the number of Shaitat tribal members slain during the jihadists’ summer advance in Deir Ezzor Province near Iraq to more than 900, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The UK-based group said it had “learned from trusted sources that more than 230 bodies have been found in a mass grave in the desert near al-Kashkiyeh in the east of Deir Ezzor.” The “vast majority” were civilians, many of them executed in cold blood after the tribe rose up against the militants after they had driven out rival jihadists and rebels from the area.
CANADA
Terrorist may have had help
The man who killed a soldier and then stormed the parliament in October may not have been acting alone, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Wednesday. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian citizen who wanted to travel to Syria, was shot dead after a gunfight in the halls of parliament. “People say he was a lone wolf. It’s true he was a single attacker, but it is not necessarily the case that it was only one guy,” Harper said in an interview with the French-language TVA network. Zehaf-Bibeau struck two days after Martin Rouleau, a Muslim convert, ran down two Canadian soldiers in Quebec, killing one. Rouleau was shot dead by police. “It is possible there were other people around these men,” Harper said. He did not elaborate except to say that investigations were continuing.
UNITED STATES
Uber driver in rape charge
A Boston man who works as an Uber Technologies Inc driver was charged with taking a woman to a secluded area and raping her, as questions about the company’s driver-screening process prompted it to begin an assessment of its safety programs. Alejandro Done, 46, pulled up at about 7:30pm on Dec. 6 to a Boston residence, where a young woman was waiting for a pre-arranged ride-sharing driver, according to a statement by Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas. Police said they identified the defendant as the driver of the car through company records. Uber has faced criticism over the safety of its rides. This month, one of its drivers was accused of raping a woman in New Delhi.
UNITED STATES
Executions at 20-year low
Amid growing concerns about how executions are carried out in the country, the number of prison inmates being put to death fell to a 20-year low this year, the Death Penalty Information Center said in a report issued yesterday. The 35 executions this year was the lowest since 1994, said the Washington-based nonprofit, which does not take a position on whether the death penalty should be abolished, in its annual survey of national data. The number of people sentenced to death is also falling, the report said, reaching 72 by the middle of this month, the lowest in 40 years. The report said that high-profile botched executions in Ohio, Arizona and especially the execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma also led to what the center described as “outcry and delays” that indicate increasing concerns among the public about how the death penalty is imposed. In all three of those states, executions by lethal injection using new drug combinations took longer than expected.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number