EGYPT
Seven killed in bombings
Security forces were on Friday hit by two roadside bombings in a single day that killed seven people and wounded six in the capital, Cairo, and the north of the country, security sources and officials said. The attacks come as the government of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi faces an insurgency waged by extremist groups. In the first incident, a recently emerged militant group claimed responsibility for a bomb in Cairo that the Ministry of the Interior said killed six police officers and wounded three others at a checkpoint on a main road leading to the Pyramids. The second attack came in the evening in the Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate in the Nile Delta, where a roadside bomb killed a civilian and injured three police officers, security sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
TURKEY
Jets hit Kurdish militants
Turkish jets on Friday carried out airstrikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq and killed 19 militants, Turkish military sources said yesterday. The warplanes took off from an air base in Diyarbakir in response to threats that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants were preparing an attack on military units at the border, the sources said.
GAMBIA
President refuses to bow out
The nation’s president of about 22 years, Yahya Jammeh, late on Friday announced that he would no longer accept defeat in recent elections, plunging the West African country into turmoil with a demand for fresh polls. Investigations into Thursday last week’s vote have revealed a string of “unacceptable errors” on the part of electoral authorities, Jammeh said in a speech broadcast on state television, adding that he would no longer concede to opponent Adama Barrow. “In the same way that I accepted the results faithfully believing that the Independent Electoral Commission was independent and honest and reliable, I hereby reject the results in totality,” he said.
CHINA
Slaughter of turtle probed
Authorities have opened an investigation into the slaughter and sale of a protected leatherback sea turtle by local fishermen, media reported yesterday. The case grew to national prominence after a mobile phone video circulated showing the 200kg turtle being sliced into pieces and sold to eager villagers in a fishing village in Guangdong Province. The meat sold for about 70 yuan (US$10) per kilogram, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Xinhua said that six villagers have been referred to investigators. It said residents were told by fishermen that the turtle was dead at the time it was caught.
JAPAN
Russia rejects gift puppy
Russia appears to have snubbed a Japanese attempt at puppy-love diplomacy by declining a gift of a dog for Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit next week with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The government had planned to present Putin, widely known to be a dog lover, with a male Akita as a companion to Yume, a female of the same breed that Japan gave him in 2012. However, a legislator said Russia had turned down the offer. “Unfortunately, we heard from our counterparts and our hope to present a bridegroom was dashed,” House of Representatives member Koichi Hagiuda said in a blog post on Friday, without giving a reason for the rejection.
ITALY
Chinese student found dead
The body of a Chinese student living in Rome was discovered on Friday, days after she was attacked in the street and disappeared, reports said, sparking outrage from Italy’s Chinese community. “Our community is angry,” said Lucia King, spokeswoman for the 20,000-strong community in Rome. “It is absurd that a person can be attacked in broad daylight, near a police station. How is this possible?” she told the Adnkronos news agency. The victim, 20-year-old Zhang Yao, had been studying at Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts. She disappeared on Monday near the Department of Immigration in the east of the city, where she had gone to renew her visa.
UNITED STATES
Infowars admits story invalid
The Infowars Web site acknowledges its story about a homeless woman claiming the president-elect has allowed her to stay at his New York hotel free of charge for nine years is “unconfirmed.” Infowars used a video of the woman as the basis for a story that has been heavily shared on Facebook since it was posted this week. However, the Trump Organization said there is “no validity” to the video being circulated online. The woman in the video talks to a camera by a window overlooking Central Park. She describes herself as a squatter who went to the hotel and started living in an empty room. She says the president-elect has allowed her to live there since. Hotel spokeswoman Jennifer Rodstrom said the woman depicted in the video is not a guest.
NETHERLANDS
Man held over suspected plot
Rotterdam police have arrested a man found with a loaded AK-47 rifle and illegal fireworks who is “suspected of preparing a terrorist crime,” prosecutors said on Friday. The 30-year-old was detained on Wednesday after police raided his apartment following a tip-off from the General Intelligence and Security Service, also seizing a painting with a picture of the flag used by the Islamic State group, mobile phones and about 1,600 euros (US$1,690) in cash.
UNITED STATES
Giuliani dumps Trump offer
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Friday said he had removed his name from consideration for a position in Donald Trump’s new administration as the president-elect narrows the field of people he is considering for secretary of state. Giuliani’s withdrawal from consideration came after Trump made clear that he was broadening his search for a secretary of state beyond the four finalists transition aides had identified: Giuliani, former governor Mitt Romney, former CIA head David Petraeus and Senator Bob Corker. In recent days, Trump has expanded his search for a secretary of state to include additional lawmakers and corporate executives.
UNITED STATES
Four car fire deaths probed
Authorities are investigating the deaths of four people whose bodies were found in suburban Houston in a car that had been set on fire. Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland said firefighters in the Houston suburb of Channelview discovered two bodies in the trunk after responding to a call about a car fire on Friday morning. Investigators were called and they discovered two more bodies in the backseat. Gilliland said the victims have been identified only as two black males and two black females. A cause of death has not yet been determined. Gilliland said the deaths are being investigated as a homicide.
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