UNITED STATES
Ocean monitor to launch
A US$180 million satellite to study the world’s oceans in a changing climate is to blast off today atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX will try to land on a floating platform after launch. The satellite, known as Jason-3, aims to offer a more precise look at how global warming and sea level rise affect wind speeds and currents as close as 1km from shore, whereas past satellites were limited to about 10km from the coast. The technology will also monitor global sea surface heights, tropical cyclones and help support seasonal and coastal forecasts. The satellite is the fruit of a four-way partnership between NOAA, NASA, the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.
MEXICO
Wedding abductees reappear
Twenty-one people who were kidnapped a few days ago by an armed group in the violent state of Guerrero reappeared on Friday, officials said, a rare occurrence in a country where most kidnappings end in mystery or death. Of the people kidnapped, 19 were taken on Saturday last week in the village of Arcelia on their way to a wedding, with two of them killed on the spot, according to media reports. Two days later, the same group kidnapped five teachers, including the director of a secondary school, in Ajuchitlan, close to Arcelia. The 17 members of the Arcelia group reappeared on a regional road at about 2am on Friday, their feet battered after spending days walking, Guerrero Attorney General Javier Olea said, citing police testimony. Four of the five kidnapped teachers came back the same afternoon. The school director died of an asthma attack the day he was kidnapped, Olea said.
UNITED STATES
Methane leak victims meet
California residents sickened and forced to evacuate their homes in the biggest methane gas leak in state history voiced their frustrations at a public meeting on Friday, with many saying they opposed the resumption of work at the natural gas facility. Neither the state nor the utility have been able to stop the leak that has affected thousands of residents since it was detected on Oct. 23 last year at an underground natural gas storage field in Porter Ranch in northern Los Angeles. Environmental activists such as Erin Brockovich have called it the worst leak in the country since the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Southern California Gas Co, one of the country’s biggest gas utilities and a division of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, has said the leak was caused by a broken injection-well pipe.
CANADA
Oil sand blast kills one
One person was killed and another injured following an explosion at an oil sands plant in the west, the Canadian subsidiary of the Chinese company CNOOC said on Friday. Canada-based Nexen Energy ULC did not give a reason for the explosion at its Long Lake facility south of Fort McMurray, Alberta. “Our emergency response plan has been activated and response personnel, including first responders ... are on site,” Nexen said in a statement. “We are deeply saddened to confirm one fatality and a second person is at hospital. All other personnel are accounted for.” The site was shut down “and we are stabilizing the scene.” Nexen said that there is “no immediate danger to neighboring communities or personnel still on site,” and said that regulators “have been notified.”
IRAN
Tehran eyes sanctions end
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif said nuclear-related sanctions on his country were set to be lifted yesterday as diplomatic sources said the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency was likely to say that Tehran had complied with landmark agreement with world powers reached in July last year. According to the Iranian Students News Agency, he told reporters in Vienna that it “was a good day for the world. It’s also a good day for the region.”
MALAYSIA
Suspected militants arrested
Authorities have arrested four suspected militants and confiscated a weapon along with Islamic State (IS) group documents, national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said yesterday. “Congratulations E8 CK [anti-terror unit] for arresting one male suspect on Friday at a train station... Weapon and IS documents were confiscated,” the police chief said on Twitter. Khalid said the 28-year-old suspect admitted that he was planning to be a suicide bomber and was awaiting instructions from an IS member in Syria. Counter-terrorism assistant director Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay later said that a knife and IS documents had been confiscated at the suspect’s house. The other three were arrested by security forces after being deported from Turkey.
COMOROS
Diplomatic ties with Iran cut
The government on Friday said that it had cut diplomatic relations with Iran over what it termed Tehran’s “aggression” toward Riyadh, a diplomatic ally. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the nation viewed Tehran as “interfering” in “the internal affairs of certain countries” and “not respecting diplomatic conventions.” The ministry said it had called on the Iranian ambassador to clear his desk.
KENYA
Four ivory busts reported
Authorities seized four separate illegal ivory shipments at the main international airport in Nairobi over the past week after sniffer dogs led them to the luggage of passengers headed for China, the African Wildlife Foundation said. Most of the items had been turned into jewelry and ornaments and in some cases they had been crammed into boxes of cigarettes, according to an e-mailed statement from the foundation. “Four ivory busts in one week is ridiculous,” the foundation’s Philip Muruthi said in a statement on Friday. “This should put all travelers attempting to smuggle wildlife products from Africa on alert.”
SOUTH KOREA
US man faces 20-year term
Prosecutors have asked for a 20-year prison term for a US man charged with fatally stabbing a university student at a Seoul Burger King restaurant in 1997. Prosecutors made the request on Friday at the end of the new trial of Arthur Patterson, Seoul Central District Court spokesman Joon Young-maeng said, adding that the verdict would be delivered on Jan. 29. Patterson, 36, was extradited to Seoul in September last year. Patterson’s friend Edward Lee, who was with him at the time of the killing, was initially sentenced to life in prison for the murder, but was later acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Patterson had received an 18-month term for destroying evidence and possessing a dangerous weapon. He was later freed in a special amnesty and left the country while authorities launched a new investigation, according to the Ministry of Justice. He was charged with murder in 2011, when prosecutors cited fresh evidence.
‘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