ITALY
Doctor with Ebola recovers
A doctor who contracted Ebola in west Africa has recovered from the disease after undergoing experimental treatment, local media reported on Thursday. The 50-year-old from Sicily, who has not been named, has been in isolation at Rome’s Spallanzani institute since he was evacuated from Sierra Leone in mid-November. Doctors reported 10 days ago that he could breathe, walk and eat unassisted. Since then he has reportedly made further progress and a press conference was expected to confirm that he is moving into a convalescence stage of his recovery.
UNITED STATES
Officers injured in shootout
Two police officers were injured in a New Year’s Day shootout after they pulled over two vehicles, one of which was stolen and had two bodies inside, authorities said. The two officers stopped a sports utility vehicle and a truck at about 4pm on Thursday on a highway outside of Lewisburg, West Virginia, West Virginia State Police lieutenant Michael Baylous said in a news release. The sports utility vehicle had a North Carolina license plate that showed it had been stolen. As the officers were conducting the stop, the driver of the truck shot at them with a handgun, wounding both officers, Baylous said. One officer returned fire, wounding the suspect in the leg. Baylous said the driver of the SUV fled the scene and hid, but later turned himself in without incident. The driver of the truck also fled and was eventually taken into custody by the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department, he said. During a search, authorities found two recently deceased bodies under a mattress in the bed of the truck, according to the news release.
UNITED STATES
Kanye, McCartney team up
Kanye West and Paul McCartney, two music legends from opposite sides of the track, have teamed up in an unlikely collaboration on a new single released on Thursday called Only One. The soft ballad, which West said was inspired by his daughter, features the vocals of West while former Beatle McCartney plays the organ. The lullaby-like collaboration has been in the works since early last year, when the two met in a bungalow in Los Angeles, according to a statement released by West’s record label Def Jam recordings.
UNITED STATES
Man decapitates mother
A Florida man decapitated his mother with an axe on New Year’s Eve because he was fed up with her nagging, US authorities and media said on Thursday. Christian Jose Gomez, 23, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after admitting to killing his mother, Maria Suarez-Cassagne, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Police in the city of Oldsmar went to the woman’s house after a relative called to say Gomez “had cut her head off,” the sheriff’s office said. He then dumped her body near the home’s garbage cans and disappeared on a bicycle before police caught him.
CANADA
One shot dead at party
Seven people were shot at a New Year’s party in Calgary, including one person who died of his wounds, news reports said yesterday. Police said suspects had fled the scene after they opened fire. “Apparently the offenders left in a vehicle,” a police source told reporters. It is not clear how many shooters there were or why gunfire erupted at the party. Police received several calls at 5:05am on Thursday reporting gunfire at the party, where about 50 people had gathered.
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
‘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