MEXICO
Kidnapping sparks fire
Townspeople angry over the feared kidnapping of a priest set fire inside an eastern town’s municipal building on Saturday, weeks after two other clerics were killed in the same state, Veracruz. Dozens of protesters had stormed the town hall in Catemaco earlier in the day and returned in the evening to burn part of it, demanding that Father Jose Luis Sanchez Ruiz be found alive. They also torched a police car. Father Aaron Reyes, spokesman for the diocese of San Andres Tuxtla, said the protesters are not linked to the church and used the priest’s disappearance as a motive to protest. Sanchez Ruiz, 54, was last seen on Thursday. He had received threats after complaining about crime in Catemaco, according to a priest who requested anonymity for security reasons.
IRAQ
HRW warns over Peshmerga
Kurdish security forces have unlawfully destroyed Arab homes and villages in the north of the country over the past two years in what may amount to a war crime, rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are part of a 100,000-strong alliance that is battling to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, but has so far gained just a small foothold in the city. HRW said in a report that violations between September 2014 and May in 21 towns and villages within disputed areas of Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces had followed “a pattern of apparently unlawful demolitions.”
UNITED STATES
Farage meets Trump
British European Parliament member and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has become the first British politician to meet with president-elect Donald Trump since his win, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) confirmed late on Saturday. Trump hosted Farage at his New York City residence, where they spent over an hour discussing the Republican’s “victory, global politics, and the status of Brexit,” according to a UKIP statement. Farage later tweeted a photograph of himself with Trump, both men standing in front of a pair of golden doors and smiling broadly, Trump giving the camera a thumbs-up sign.
MOLDOVA
Polls open for runoff
Moldovans yesterday went to the polls to choose between pro-Moscow and pro-European candidates in a runoff vote for president. It marks the first time in 16 years that the nation, wracked by corruption scandals in recent years, is electing its leader by national vote instead of having parliament select the head of state. A preliminary result is to be announced early today.
UNITED STATES
Bikers help Springsteen
Coming across Bruce Springsteen on a broken down motorcycle on the side of the road could probably be a lyric from one of his songs, but it really happened for a group of guys from New Jersey. A group from the Freehold American Legion was riding after a Veterans Day event on Friday when Dan Barkalow says he saw a stranded motorcyclist near Allaire State Park in Wall Township. “I stopped to see if he needed help, and it was Bruce,” Barkalow said. The group tried to help get his bike running, but when they could not, Springsteen hopped on the back of Ryan Bailey’s bike and they headed to a bar. “We sat there and shot the breeze for a half hour, 45 minutes till his ride showed up,’’ Barkalow said. “Nice guy, real down to earth. Just talked about motorcycles and his old Freehold days.”
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