SWITZERLAND
WHO downgrades Zika risk
The WHO on Friday announced that the Zika virus outbreak, linked to deformations in babies’ heads and brains, no longer poses a world public health emergency, though it warned the epidemic remains a challenge. Brazil, the epicenter of the outbreak, has refused to downgrade the risk, while experts swiftly lashed out against the WHO decision. “The Zika virus remains a highly significant and long-term problem, but it is not any more a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Emergency Committee chairman David Heymann said.
UNITED STATES
Four charged over beating
Chicago police said four people have been charged in the videotaped beating of a man as bystanders yelled “Don’t vote Trump.” Authorities said 26-year-old Julian Christian, 21-year-old Rajane Lewis, 20-year-old Dejuan Collins and a 17-year-old girl who was not identified were each charged with vehicular hijacking in the Nov. 9 incident. Christian is from Broadview, Illinois, and Lewis and Collins are from Chicago. Forty-nine-year-old David Wilcox said he was attacked after another car scraped his. He said he was beaten after parking and asking the other driver if he had insurance. Someone drove off with Wilcox’s car during the attack on Chicago’s West Side. Wilcox acknowledges he supports president-elect Donald Trump, but said he told no one in the crowd that.
KIRIBATI
Shark sanctuary launched
Kiribati has established a large shark sanctuary that would help ensure the creatures are protected across much of the central Pacific ocean. I-Kiribati Vice President Kourabi Nenem said at the sanctuary’s launch on Friday that the nation was committed to protecting sharks from exploitation and overfishing. Kiribati has banned commercial shark fishing in the sanctuary, which is about the size of India. Palau established the first shark sanctuary in the region in 2009 and has been followed by the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia and other nations. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates 100 million sharks are killed each year by commercial fisheries. It says sharks are vulnerable to overfishing because they are slow to mature and reproduce. Sharks are prized for their fins, which are used in shark fin soup.
UNITED STATES
Man arrested over road tolls
Authorities said a New Jersey man was arrested after racking up more than 300 toll violations and failing to pay more than US$20,000 in tolls and fees. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement that James Clicerio, of Old Bridge, New Jersey, was arrested on Thursday after failing to pay a toll at the Outerbridge Crossing connecting Staten Island and Pert Amboy. The fees and violations totaled US$20,869. Clicerio faces larceny and obstructing governmental administration charges.
UNITED STATES
Letter sells for US$30k
An angry letter from John Lennon to Paul and Linda McCartney written shortly after the Beatles’ breakup has been sold at auction for nearly US$30,000. The two-page typed draft, with handwritten annotations by Lennon, was sold on Thursday by Boston-based RR Auction. RR said the letter is believed to have been written in 1971 in response to criticism Lennon received from Linda McCartney about his decision to not publicly announce his departure from the band. The letter is profanity-filled and sometimes rambling.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of