UNITED STATES
Mayor’s son mugged
A spokeswoman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the mayor’s 17-year-old son was mugged near the family’s home on Friday. Spokeswoman Kelley Quinn on Saturday said that Zach Emanuel had “injuries that required medical treatment, but was able to join the family for a long planned trip” to Chile. She says the mayor requested the news media respect his family’s privacy. Chicago Police spokesman Thomas Sweeney said police are investigating an attack on Friday night near the mayor’s home in which two males took their victim’s cellphone.
ECUADOR
Quito returns Berlin’s funds
President Rafael Correa on Saturday said that the government is giving back about US$8.5 million donated by Germany last year because of an environmental row. “Go ahead, take your 7 million euros. If you like, we will give you another 7 million euros for training programs in respect, on sovereignty and on international law,” Correa said in his weekly address. Germany had expressed disappointment in Quito’s refusal to allow a German parliamentary delegation to visit Yasuni National Park. Many indigenous and environmental groups oppose government plans to allow oil to be pumped in the remote Amazon basin area that sits atop 920 million barrels of crude oil. Correa said that the German lawmakers “were coming here to supervise what was going on in Yusuni” without government permission, slamming the move as a “lack of respect.” He added that the Germans “are welcome as tourists. They are welcome as brothers. They are not welcome as supervisors.”
UNITED STATES
Muhammad Ali hospitalized
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was in stable condition after being hospitalized on Saturday with a “mild” case of pneumonia, his spokesman Bob Gunnell said on Saturday night. The 72-year-old Ali was not expected to remain in the hospital long, Gunnell said, without providing further details. Ali last appeared in public in September at an awards ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky.
COLOMBIA
FARC begins ceasefire
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) began a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday hailed as a key step in peace negotiations — but uncertainty marred the truce, which the guerrillas threatened to break if attacked by the army. “Today, the FARC’s unilateral and indefinite ceasefire began. I hope it will turn into a bilateral and final ceasefire, and we can put an end to a war that’s lasted more than 50 years,” President Juan Manuel Santos said at a ceremony in La Guajira. Santos said that he hoped the move would facilitate ongoing peace talks in Havana, Cuba. The rebels declared Christmas ceasefires the past two years, but this is the first without an expiration date.
UNITED STATES
State ready for executions
Oklahoma’s prison system boss says the state has the drugs it needs to execute four inmates early next year and plans to administer the same three drugs used in a botched execution this spring, but with an increased dose. Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton told a federal judge on Friday that the agency plans to use the exact formula used successfully in 11 executions in Florida, one that he believes is “humane.” A judge plans to rule today in a case in which lawyers for 21 death row inmates say one of the three drugs, the sedative midazolam, presents a risk of cruel and unusual punishment.
FRANCE
Drunk driver covers 50km
A drunk driver clocked 50km going the wrong way on a western highway, colliding with three cars along the way, but injuring only one person, police said on Saturday. The 56-year-old from the central city of Tours was driving home from southwestern Bordeaux after drinking heavily late on Friday, they said. After driving for about two hours he lost control of his car, which fishtailed without crashing. When he set off again, he was on the wrong side of the road. Over the next 50km, the slow-moving car struck a guardrail and at least three other cars while causing only one minor injury, rescue workers said, while unable to provide details. The motorist was stopped at a toll booth, visibly “lost” and “in another world,” highway police said. His blood-alcohol level was 2.34 grams per liter, well above the driving limit of 0.5.
ZAMBIA
Ruling party ends rift
Defense Minister Edgar Lungu on Saturday filed nomination papers for presidential elections next month after the ruling party’s two feuding factions agreed to field a sole candidate. The copper-rich southern African nation is set to vote on Jan. 20 to elect a successor to former president Michael Sata, who died in October from an undisclosed ailment. The ruling Patriotic Front Party has been wracked by infighting since Sata’s death. On Saturday, Lungu’s faction and his rivals led by Acting President Guy Scott agreed to field a joint candidate. Lungu arrived at the Supreme Court to submit his papers along with Scott and thousands of supporters. “We are going to the election as a united front,” Lungu told reporters. “I am ready for the elections.”
MOZAMBIQUE
Kidnapped tycoon freed
A wealthy businessman who was kidnapped last month has been released, authorities said on Saturday. Mohamed Bachir Suleman, who had been accused by the US of being an international drug trafficker, was freed by his captors on Friday, according to Minister of the Interior Alberto Mondlane. Mondlane said Suleman was released in the southern Gaza Province and had been held in police custody overnight. Three men were arrested when they tried to flee, police said. Suleman said he believed his kidnappers were Zimbabwean and South African nationals. Suleman looked pale after police transported him to the capital, Maputo, where he also lives. Officials said they did not receive any ransom demands from the kidnappers. Suleman said the kidnappers demanded US$10 million from him when he was abducted. “I told them I don’t have that money,” Suleman said. “They then demanded US$5 million, which I also didn’t have.”
FRANCE
Fishmonger exposes himself
A fishmonger in women’s lingerie has a lot of explaining to do after being arrested after allegedly exposing himself to holiday shoppers through his store window. Police in the northern town of Auchel found the 48-year-old cavorting and drunk, a police source told reporters on Friday. The fishmonger was decked out in a wig and bustier, along with false breasts — and fishnet stockings. However, a codpiece was what he needed. He was showing “his privates,” a source said. He was found to have a .15 blood-alcohol level, police said. The shopkeeper, who has agreed to plead guilty to indecent exposure, said that he was stressed about the new fish shop, citing “pressure from the numbers, the end-of-year holidays and lots of orders.” He was due to appear in court on Feb. 13.
‘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