SYRIA
IS said to use chemicals
Twenty-two Turkey-backed Syrian rebels were hit by a chemical gas attack from Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria, the Turkish army said yesterday. “After a rocket was fired by Daesh [IS], 22 opposition members were observed to have been exposed in their eyes and bodies to chemical gas,” the Turkish general staff said in a statement, quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency. It said the attack happened in the area of the village of Khaliliya, east of al-Rai in northern Syria. Turkish media said that the affected Syrian fighters were brought over the frontier to the Turkish border town of Kilis by teams from Turkey’s AFAD emergencies agency.
IRAN
Helicopter crash kills five
Five people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed into the Caspian Sea yesterday, state television reported. The bodies of four crew and a civilian, plus the helicopter, had been found, a security official told state television Web site. The helicopter, owned by the National Iranian Drilling Company, was carrying an emergency patient from Amir Kabir offshore oil platform when it “disappeared half a kilometer from the oil rig on its way back,” ISNA news agency quoted Behshahr Governor Khalegh Sajadi as saying. “The reason of the crash will not be known until the black box is found,” he added.
IRAQ
Shiite militias legalized
Iraq’s parliament on Saturday voted to fully legalize state-sanctioned Shiite militias long accused of abuses against minority Sunnis, adopting a legislation that promoted them to a government force empowered to “deter” security and terror threats facing the country, like the IS group. The legislation, supported by 208 of the chamber’s 327 members, was quickly rejected by Sunni Arab politicians and lawmakers as proof of the “dictatorship” of the country’s Shiite majority and evidence of its failure to honor promises of inclusion.
LIBYA
Eight loyalist troops killed
At least eight members of pro-government forces were killed on Saturday during a fresh offensive on IS group holdouts in the militants’ stronghold of Sirte, a medical source said. Forces supporting the Government of National Accord launched a bid to retake the city from IS six months ago. They quickly seized large chunks of the city, but the offensive slowed amid an effort to avoid losses and to protect civilians still trapped by the militants. The loyalist forces’ press center said on Facebook that IS had carried out two suicide attacks. It added that a woman had opened fire as troops tried to secure an escape for her from a house retaken from the militants.
PUERTO RICO
Pot screenings scrapped
Government agencies would not screen for marijuana on employee drug tests following an executive order by Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla. Applicants seeking public employment would continue to face screening for some drugs. The order targets agencies where current employees are screened for illegal substance use at the discretion of agency directors. The order was signed on Nov. 19, but announced Saturday. In a statement, the Office of the Governor said the move is part of a broader push by the administration to decriminalize personal marijuana use and possession. The governor last year changed Health Department rules to authorize the medical use of marijuana derivatives.
UNITED STATES
Google maps ‘Dump Tower’
Someone has renamed president-elect Donald Trump’s midtown Manhattan building on Google Maps, and the new moniker is not very flattering. Instead of Trump Tower, it is Dump Tower. WPIX-TV reports that users of the mapping service began noticing the new name for the Fifth Avenue building on Saturday and some took to social media to report it. Trump has not yet commented on it. He has been using Trump Tower as his transition headquarters. Google could not be immediately reached for comment.
UNITED STATES
Letters threaten genocide
A civil rights group has called for more police protection of mosques after several in California received letters that praised president-elect Donald Trump and threatened Muslim genocide. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the same handwritten, photocopied letter was last week sent to the Islamic Center of Long Beach, the Islamic Center of Claremont and the Evergreen Islamic Center in San Jose, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. The letter was addressed to “the children of Satan” and it was signed by “American for A Better Way.” “There’s a new sheriff in town — president Donald Trump. He’s going to cleanse America and make it shine again. And, he’s going to start with you Muslims,” the letter says, according to CAIR. “And, he’s going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the jews [sic].”
UNITED KINGDOM
Punk rock mementos burned
Piles of punk music memorabilia went up in flames on Saturday on a river barge in London in a protest against the way the once rebellious genre has been subsumed into mainstream culture. Joe Corre, son of former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and designer Vivienne Westwood, set fire to clothes and paraphernalia he valued at between £5 million and £10 million (US$6.2 million and US$12.5 million), on the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut single, Anarchy in the UK. Standing in front of flags bearing the names of global corporations, Corre also burnt fireworks-stuffed effigies of British Prime Minister Theresa May and her predecessors David Cameron and Tony Blair, dressed in Sex Pistols clothes.
AUSTRALIA
Rare asthma storm kills six
Six people have died and five remain on life support after a rare condition known as thunderstorm asthma struck Melbourne. The Department of Health says the sixth victim died in a hospital on Saturday night from medical complications stemming from a wild thunderstorm that struck Melbourne on Monday night last week. The statement says five patients remain in intensive care units and three of those are in critical condition.
ITALY
Torrential rains kill two
Heavy rains over the past three days have left at least two people dead and two others are reported missing, media reports said on Saturday. A 73-year-old fisherman died near Genoa in northern Italy while in the neighboring Piemont region rescuers on Saturday found the body of a 70-year-old man who had gone to look for his horses and had been missing since Friday. Two elderly men were also reported missing in the south on the island of Sicily. One of them is a farmer in his sixties in the Agrigente region, where the local union has warned that the storms could lead to the loss of half of the citrus crop.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia