SUDAN
UN officials deported
The government on Friday said it ordered two top UN officials to leave Khartoum for “insulting” the country and being “prejudiced” against its government. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ali Zaatari and UN Development Program Country Director Yvonne Helle were told to leave. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it ordered Zaatari, a Jordanian national, to leave for “insulting the Sudanese people and its political leadership in an interview with a Norwegian newspaper.” Early this month, a Web site close to Sudan’s security apparatus said that Zaatari had criticized President Omar al-Bashir’s government in an interview published by the Norwegian publication Bistandsaktuelt. The Sudan Media Centre quoted Zaatari as saying that the Sudanese “rely on humanitarian aid that we give them” and that he was “forced” to work with Bashir. Zaatari confirmed he had been interviewed by Bistandsaktuelt, but denied he had made the comments attributed to him.
SWEDEN
Mosque attack injures five
Police say a suspected arson attack at a mosque has injured at least five people, while a second mosque in the same town was vandalized. Police on Friday said the two attacks in the central town of Eskilstuna took place within hours of each other on Thursday and early on Friday. They said 20 people were inside the mosque when the blaze broke out. Two of the injured people were treated for smoke inhalation, while the others had minor injuries. Police spokesman Lars Franzell said a witness had seen someone throwing an object through the first mosque’s window.
DR CONGO
Journalist shot dead
A journalist for state media was shot dead on Friday in Goma in the vast country’s restive east, officials said. Robert Chamwami Shalubuto’s body was found in a grocery store close to his home after having been shot in the chest, said Celestin Sibomana, spokesman for North Kivu Province, of which Goma is the capital. North Kivu Deputy Governor Feller Lutaichirwa also confirmed the killing of the journalist for Congolese National Radio and Television (RTNC) “Investigations have been initiated,” he said, adding: “For some time, journalists have become people to kill in the city. We believe that a front has been opened against journalists.”
UNITED STATES
Baby born on subway
A woman in Philadelphia got an unexpected holiday surprise on the subway when she went into labor, delivering a healthy child dubbed the “Christmas baby.” The woman was on a train on Thursday in central Philadelphia when her water broke. Two transit police officers were urgently called to the train as the woman went into labor. The officers helped the woman deliver as fellow passengers looked on, and one transit worker was photographed leaving the train with the baby wrapped in clothes. Sargent Daniel Caban said he was hoping for a quiet day on the job, but the delivery was a “pleasant” surprise. “This was just a blessing, during the holidays, a Christmas baby,” he told an NBC station. The mother and child were immediately taken to hospital and were doing well. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority chief Thomas Nestel said the child, the subway’s newest rider, was not charged a fare.
PAKISTAN
Military kills 39 militants
Warplanes and ground forces killed 39 militants as part of an ongoing operation in a volatile tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said. The airstrikes were carried out on Friday evening in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal region, an army statement said yesterday, adding that an underground tunnel system and a large underground cache of weapons and ammunition were also destroyed. The military claimed several important militant commanders were among the dead, but did not provide further details on the identities of the slain militants. Also late on Friday night, Pakistani troops ambushed a large assembly of militants on the border between the Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions, the statement said. It said an intense battle took place in which 16 militants were killed and another 20 injured.
AFGHANISTAN
Airstrike kills three civilians
The NATO-led foreign force mistakenly killed three civilians in an air strike, officials said yesterday, less than a week before most foreign troops are due to pull out at the end of a 13-year mission. The mistaken killing of civilians in air strikes has been a source of anger throughout the force’s mission, frequently straining ties between the NATO force and the government. The latest incident took place in Logar Province just south of Kabul on Friday, and involved nomads who had clashed in a dispute over land, provincial officials said. Authorities in the area were negotiating a ceasefire, but NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) apparently mistook the nomads for insurgents preparing an attack, officials said. “ISAF launched an air strike which killed three people and wounded two,” Logar police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said.
‘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