KOSOVO
Police claim plot foiled
Police say they have foiled an apparent attempt to detonate a car filled with explosive material in Pristina. Police spokesman Baki Kelani said the driver of the car has been arrested and questioned. He said police acted on intelligence and stopped the suspect late on Thursday as he drove toward an area where most Western embassies are located, including the US embassy. Kelani said the car had Serbian-issued license plates and that the driver has a Serbian passport.
VATICAN CITY
Feminist nabs baby Jesus
An activist from the feminist group Femen bared her breasts in St Peter’s Square on Christmas Day and rushed the Nativity scene, grabbing a figurine of baby Jesus. A Vatican police officer wearing a black cape was quick to arrest the blonde activist and wrest the figurine away from her. The words “God is woman” were daubed in large letters on her chest. Although the incident occurred well after Pope Francis delivered his Christmas message from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, thousands of pilgrims were still in the famous square.
UNITED STATES
Panda cub over shock
The National Zoo’s panda cub Bao Bao is back with her mother after spending more than 24 hours in a tree, where she went after being startled by a tool the Washington zoo uses to contain animals. The zoo said Bao Bao climbed the tree on Tuesday afternoon after touching a “hot wire” used for animal containment. WRC-TV reports that she came down late on Wednesday. Members of the public, who can watch live video of the zoo’s pandas online, posted worried inquiries on the zoo’s Facebook page when they saw that Bao Bao was in a tree overnight and still there on Wednesday. However, the zoo said Bao Bao was “perfectly fine.”
MEXICO
Upscale store reports hack
A leading department store chain in Mexico City says employees’ e-mail accounts were hacked and some customer information was taken. The upscale El Puerto de Liverpool chain said in a statement to the Stock Exchange on Wednesday that the attack was part of “an extortion attempt,” but did not say what the extortionists had demanded. Small and medium-sized businesses in the nation are frequently targets of extortion attempts by gangs who demand protection payments. However, large chains are seldom attacked, and seldom are the demands enforced by hacking into a company’s computers. El Puerto de Liverpool said the attack “sought to damage our reputation,” and added the risk to customers’ accounts was deemed to be small.
HONG KONG
Police arrest 37 protesters
Hong Kong police arrested 37 people overnight on Thursday as pro-democracy protesters returned to the streets for a second night demanding open nominations for the territory’s chief executive, according to police. The police said in a statement that protesters blocked five roads overnight in the Mong Kok neighborhood and disobeyed police orders to leave. The arrested protesters were aged between 13 and 76. Police arrested 12 protesters in the same neighborhood overnight on Wednesday, after they had also blocked roads. The Facebook page of a pro-democracy activist group called Hong Kong Shield said protesters walked by the three protest sites over the two nights, singing political songs and holding the umbrellas that have become a symbol of the city’s democracy movement. Some in the crowd wore red Santa Claus hats and chanted “I want true democracy” in Cantonese. The group is led in part by well-known Hong Kong singer Denise Ho (何韻詩), who was arrested this month during the police clearance of the main Admiralty protest site. The police statement said police “respect the public’s freedoms of expression, speech and assembly” but warned that protesters “should refrain from conducting public meetings and processions.”
CHINA
Man drives into crowd
An elderly man drove his car through a crowd of pedestrians outside a popular Beijing sports stadium yesterday morning, injuring eight people in what appeared to be a protest against an unfavorable court ruling, police said. The Beijing resident, with the surname of Jin (金), had recently lost a property dispute in court, according to a statement by Beijing police. The Beijing Times Web site said his car had the word “injustice” painted on it as it drove through the crowd yesterday morning. The man was wearing a piece of fabric on his head bearing the same word. His car finally came to a stop after slamming into other vehicles at the south gate of the Workers’ Stadium.
JAPAN
McDonald’s lifts fry limit
McDonald’s customers in the nation will be able to order french fries in all sizes again from next month, after the fast-food chain limited sales to small servings because of import delays. McDonald’s Holdings Co (Japan) Ltd said yesterday it plans to resume sales of medium and large-size servings of french fries on Jan. 5, as it has secured enough inventory by implementing emergency measures. The company, owned 49.9 percent by McDonald’s Corp, began restricting serving sizes on Wednesday last week after a labor dispute at ports on the US west coast led to delays in imports.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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