MEXICO
17 bodies dumped in ravine
Authorities have pulled 17 bodies from a ravine after they were reportedly discovered by a man who traveled from the US in search of a missing relative. “There were nine complete bodies and eight half-burned” in the 500m-deep canyon in Guerrero State, an official from the attorney general’s office said on condition of anonymity on Tuesday. The bodies were discovered between Tuesday and Friday last week in Chichihualco Village.
VATICAN CITY
Moneyval urges action
The Vatican should be much more aggressive in dealing with people suspected of financial crimes like money laundering and step up prosecutions and indictments, Moneyval said on Tuesday. While the Vatican has made great strides in cleaning up its scandal-plagued bank and other financial departments, it is still excessively timid on the judicial front, the monitoring body of the Council of Europe said.
FRANCE
Three terror suspects held
Three people are being questioned by investigators in connection with terrorist attacks in the Paris area this year, including two suspected of supplying the guns used in the deadly siege of a kosher supermarket in January, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. The three were detained as part of investigations by the police to retrace the links to the sets of attackers responsible for the rampages, which left 17 people dead in January and 130 people dead after an assault on Nov. 13. One of the suspects, Claude Hermant, 52, has a history with the far right.
CUBA
Colombia, rebels sign pact
Representatives of the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels on Tuesday signed an agreement on reparations for war victims and the establishment of special tribunals to try former combatants once the two sides reach a definitive peace pact. The signing ceremony in Havana helps put peace talks back on track toward reaching a March 23 deadline for a comprehensive plan to end the war. The accord creates a truth commission to clarify what happened in the war and promises to search for thousands of missing people, identify their remains and return them.
ITALY
Fingerprint migrants: EU
The European Commission on Tuesday demanded Rome use force if required to take the fingerprints of refugee and migrant arrivals after launching legal action against the country for its failure to register all newcomers in an EU-wide database. Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano on Tuesday said the nation’s legal system already allowed for the use of force in such situations, but other lawmakers expressed concern over the demand.
UNITED KINGDOM
Zombie study urged: ‘BMJ’
An article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) urges more funding for research into zombie epidemics “to tackle the looming threat of apocalyptic disease.” “Zombie infections: epidemiology, treatment and prevention,” by Tara Smith of Kent State University comes with meticulous footnotes citing sources such as the movie Night of the Living Dead. A BMJ spokesman said the article was part of a light-hearted tradition of running a special Christmas issue. “The subject matter is quirky and fun, but they use proper research methods and have to stand up scientifically,” he said.
NORTH KOREA
Canadian pastor sentenced
The Supreme Court sentenced a South Korea-born Canadian pastor to hard labor for life for subversion, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Lim Hyeon-soo, the head pastor at a Toronto church, has been held since February. He had appeared on state media earlier this year confessing to crimes against the state. The court said Lim had attempted to overthrow the government and undermine its social system with “religious activities” for the past 18 years. However, it rejected the prosecution’s call for the death penalty.
CAMBODIA
CNRP ends boycott
Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) lawmakers yesterday ended a parliamentary boycott in a bid to ease a feud between their self-exiled leader and Prime Minister Hun Sen. The opposition party has boycotted parliament since October in response to the beatings of two of its lawmakers. The CNRP agreed over the weekend to return to the assembly to jointly review draft laws. “CNRP met with representatives of the unions and we need to take their opinions up for discussion in parliament,” CNRP lawmaker Mu Sochua said.
PHILIPPINES
Typhoon death toll rises
Nine people were killed and hundreds spent the night huddled on their roofs in the center of the nation as floods generated by Typhoon Melor inundated villages, disaster officials said yesterday. Melor had paralyzed Manila by late on Tuesday, with floodwaters chest-deep in some areas disrupting train services and causing traffic gridlock on major roads. Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali said in a radio interview four people were killed, while in Northern Samar, another five were reported killed. Five fishermen are listed as missing.
ISRAEL
Palestinian attackers slain
Police say two Palestinians attacked security forces and were killed during a night raid in the West Bank. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said they attempted to ram their vehicles into soldiers and border police before being fatally shot. Samri said the forces were conducting arrests and confiscating weapons in the Qalandiya refugee camp, near Ramallah. Palestinian camp activist Raed Hamdan identified the two as Ahmad Jahajha, a 21-year-old resident of the Qalandiya camp, and Hikmat Hamdan, 29, from the nearby town of el-Bireh.
LIBYA
Peace pact signing delayed
The signing of a long-delayed peace deal between the nation’s warring factions has been pushed back again today because of logistical problems, a UN spokesman said yesterday. The pact calls for a unity government to bring together two rival administrations and parliaments, although questions remain about how the myriad of armed factions will react and how the new unity government is to be established.
JAPAN
Name law upheld
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a law that married couples must have a common surname, a defeat for campaigners who have blasted the 19th century statute as sexist and archaic. The top court’s Grand Bench said the law did not violate the constitution. In a separate decision the court decided that another law, which requires divorced women to wait six months before remarrying, did violate the constitution. However, the judges stopped short of abolishing the waiting period.
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