VENEZUELA
Politician allowed treatment
A judge has ordered the immediate release of a jailed opposition leader so he can undergo medical treatment. Former San Diego mayor Vicencio Scarano was stripped of his position and sentenced to 10 months in jail in March last year for allegedly backing violent anti-government demonstrations. The opposition considers him one of the nation’s top political prisoners at an army-run facility outside Caracas. In May last year, Scarano’s wife was elected to replace him. In granting Scarano the benefit of house arrest while he undergoes treatment for a prostate problem, a judge ordered that he refrain from any political activism and not speak to the media.
EL SALVADOR
UN leader urges inclusion
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the nation to work together to combat rampant violence and social exclusion. Ban has called on the country to do more to safeguard human rights and include women, indigenous and young people in decisionmaking. He spoke in San Salvador, on Friday’s anniversary of 1992 peace accords that ended the Central American nation’s civil war that killed at least 75,000 people. Ban said the nation has made progress on issues such as consolidating democracy, improving healthcare and educating girls, but the anniversary is a reminder that the quest for peace “did not end 23 years ago.” President Salvador Sanchez Ceren said the nation is working to solve problems such as poverty and build “an equitable society.”
UNITED STATES
Cabbie gets US$1,000 tip
A quick chat and a two-minute drive is all it took for a cab driver to be tipped nearly US$1,000. Oumar Maiga, a night-shift driver from Philadelphia, was so stunned that he waited a month for the credit card transaction to clear, convinced the mystery benefactor might claim a mix-up. His boss, Freedom Taxi owner Everett Abitbol, said it was the largest tip he had ever seen for such a small fare: US$4.31 for a brief, late-night pick-up in downtown Philadelphia. Maiga picked up the anonymous passenger and the two struck up a conversation. The two exchanged pleasantries about the driver’s busy schedule in the run-up to Christmas and the passenger said he knew being a cabbie was a tough job, Abitbol said. “He said: ‘Hey, I’m going to take care of you’ and when our driver looked down he said: ‘Sir, I think you made a mistake,’ but he said: ‘That’s what I want to give you, I know what I did.’” Abitbol said the tip could not have happened to a nicer man, adding that Maiga had been with the company since it opened in 2011.
UNITED STATES
Lip-syncing cop goes viral
A video of a bald and burly Delaware police officer enthusiastically lip-syncing to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off is getting global attention. The video, posted to the Dover Police Department’s Facebook page on Friday, shows Master Corporal Jeff Davis in uniform and driving a patrol car while lip-syncing to the popular song — sassy head rolls and finger-pointing included. Department spokesman Captain Mark Hoffman said on Saturday that he has had calls about the video from media outlets in Australia, Britain, Germany and throughout the US. It has had more than 6 million YouTube views. Hoffman said Davis, a 19-year veteran of the department, is “the class clown” and loved making the video, and that the 48-year-old father of four knows Shake It Off so well because of his 10-year-old daughter.
FRANCE
Chunnel resumes service
Train service through the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain resumed early yesterday, a day after a truck fire forced the crucial link’s closure and suspension of all trains, operator Eurotunnel said. “Our passenger service is currently operating to schedule with up to one departure per hour,” the firm said online. Services resumed from Britain at 2:45am local time and from France at 4:30am, it said on Twitter. The fire on Saturday forced all Eurostar trains to turn back to their origins, while 42 people were evacuated using the service tunnel. Police officials in southern England said the fire was “at the French end of the tunnel and is being dealt with by the French authorities.”
RUSSIA
Mine blast kills two: officials
At least two miners were killed and several others injured on Saturday in a mine explosion in the Sverdlovsk region which sparked an underground blaze, emergency officials said. One worker at the Ural Mountains mine was still missing and rescue operations were “difficult” due to a fire started by the blast that erupted around 1:45pm GMT, the national Ministry of Emergency Situations said. Of the 89 people who went into the mine and were working at a depth of 440m to prepare a detonation, 86 were evacuated, local police said.
SAUDI ARABIA
US group talks rebel training
A delegation of US senators led by John McCain has met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the kingdom, where talks focused on the training of Syrian rebels. A message on McCain’s Twitter said that the US delegation also met on Saturday with the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Ahmed al-Jarba, and the commander of Saudi Arabia’s training and equipment program.
EGYPT
Faten Hamama laid to rest
Hundreds of mourners gathered yesterday at a mosque outside Cairo for the funeral of actress Faten Hamama, a pillar of Middle Eastern cinema who died on Saturday after a career that spanned seven decades and graced the golden age of Egyptian filmmaking. Her passing drew condolences from across the film industry and from President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. The Ministry of Culture said Hamama, 84, died after a period of illness, and ordered the halt of all artistic work nationwide for two days of mourning. Images from outside the ceremony, which began after midday prayers, were broadcast live on private channel CBC. Crowds blocked traffic in the area as mourners moved to the mosque entrance where Hamama’s casket was carried aloft.
AFGHANISTAN
Cabinet pick in tax probe
An investigation has been launched after it emerged that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s nominee for minister of agriculture is wanted for tax evasion in Estonia, an official said yesterday. According to Interpol’s Web site, Mohammad Yaqub Haidari, 52, is wanted for “large-scale tax evasion, fraudulent conversion” in a case dating back to 2003. “We have started our investigation based on Afghan law. If this accusation is proved, he will be removed from the list of cabinet nominees,” presidential spokesman Nazifullah Salarzai told reporters. Afghanistan’s new Cabinet was unveiled on Monday last week after three months of wrangling. The names of the 25 proposed ministers have been sent to the legislature where lawmakers are to vote for them tomorrow.
‘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