ISRAEL
Driver killed in ‘ramming’
A Palestinian motorist was killed in a suspected ramming attack on Saturday near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in which three Israelis were injured, police said. There has been a surge of street violence since the beginning of last month, with at least 14 Israelis killed in stabbings and shootings or being run down by cars. Security forces have killed at least 76 Palestinians, 45 of whom the government says were carrying out or were about to carry out attacks. In Saturday’s incident, the Palestinian driver sustained fatal injuries in a collision with an Israeli car near the settlement of Psagot, a police spokeswoman said. Three Israelis in the second car were lightly hurt. “Preliminary findings indicate that this was likely a terrorist attack,” the police spokeswoman said. She said the Palestinian’s car had Israeli license plates that had not been issued to it, a possible indication it was meant to be used to access Israel or a Jewish settlement illicitly.
SLOVAKIA
Eight die in helicopter crash
Eight people, including seven Afghan migrants, died earlier this week when a helicopter registered in Ukraine crashed in eastern Slovakia, the Ministry of the Interior said in Bratislava on Saturday, updating a previous toll. Ministry spokesman Ivan Netik said the victims of the crash, which likely occurred overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday last week, included a Ukrainian pilot and seven Afghans — five men and two women. “The Mi-2 helicopter registered in Ukraine flew too low in very poor weather conditions as it wanted to evade the air traffic control system,” Netik said. The helicopter crashed about 15km from the Ukrainian border, which is an outer frontier of the EU’s passport-free Schengen area. “It is likely that the helicopter was used by criminals to transport illegal migrants,” the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Liberty museum proposed
A large copper face is the first thing that greets visitors to the museum in the base of the Statue of Liberty. It is an exact replica of Lady Liberty’s own visage, giving people a chance to see an aspect of the statue that otherwise is far out of reach. However, it is a chance that only a limited number of visitors to Liberty Island get, since the museum is open only to those who have tickets to the pedestal or the crown. The National Park Service wants to change that, and has proposed the building of a larger museum on Liberty Island, but outside of the actual statue that would be accessible to anyone who traveled to the island.
NIGER
Amadou arrested on arrival
Opposition presidential candidate Hama Amadou was on Saturday arrested on his return from a year in exile over allegations of baby trafficking, a party colleague said. “He was arrested on leaving the plane. Police presented him with a warrant issued for his arrest,” lawmaker Amadou Salah said. The former prime minister and national assembly president fled the country in August last year. Salah said that after leaving the airplane, Amadou “was led to a car [and taken] to an as yet unknown destination.” Security forces blocked the route and access to the area as the two-time former prime minister was driven away. Earlier, a reporter had witnessed clashes between security forces and supporters of Amadou’s Modem party outside the airport. After sporadic clashes across the day, calm had returned as night fell at about 7pm.
CHINA
Landslide kills at least 16
A landslide that engulfed homes killed at least 16 people, with 21 still missing, as heavy rains brought misery across a large swath of the nation. Photographs posted on Sina Weibo showed rescue teams working through the night as they attempted to pull people from mud and rock that had buried 27 houses in Zhejiang Province. More than 300 people were evacuated after the landslide, which struck on Friday evening, state broadcaster CCTV said. Hunan Province was hit by the worst winter flooding in more than 50 years, Xinhua news agency reported, forcing thousands to flee.
NORTH KOREA
No-sail zone declared
The nation has declared a no-sail zone off its east coast in a sign it could be preparing a missile launch, Yonhap news agency reported yesterday. The warning covers all movement of ships from Wednesday last week through Dec. 7, the agency said, quoting an unnamed government source. “We are observing closely whether North Korea will launch a Scud missile or a new model of ballistic missile because the area under the warning is quite vast,” a government source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
INDONESIA
Tigers, piranhas turn jailer
When the country’s anti-drugs czar announced plans to guard a death-row prison island with crocodiles, the government rushed to explain that it was just a joke, but on Friday National Narcotics Agency head Budi Waseso said he was now thinking of using tigers and piranhas too. Media outlets quoted Waseso as saying that he had already obtained two crocodiles from a farm and might ultimately put as many as 1,000 in place to keep convicts from escaping.
‘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