INDIA
Police arrest 12 at film fest
Twelve people have been arrested for not standing while the national anthem was being played at an international film festival, police said yesterday. The arrests on Monday follow a ruling by the Supreme Court last month that said the anthem must be played before every film screening in the country, accompanied by a visual of the national flag, and that audiences must stand. The court said the rule was aimed at instilling a sense of patriotism. The 12 people were arrested in two separate incidents at the film festival, said Anil Kumar, inspector of police in Thiruvananthapuram, state capital of Kerala, where the festival is being held. They were released on bail. Volunteers at the International Film Festival of Kerala complained to police that the 12 refused to stand, despite repeated requests, Kumar said.
AUSTRALIA
Davis gets 40-year sentence
A staff member at a nursing home was yesterday sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering two residents and attempting to murder a third with insulin injections. Garry Steven Davis, 29, was in September convicted by the New South Wales Supreme Court of injecting Gwen Fowler, 83; Ryan Kelly, 80; and Audrey Manuel, 91, at the SummitCare nursing home in Wallsend in October 2013. Manuel survived the injection, but died later of unrelated causes. Justice Robert Allan Hulme yesterday ordered Davis to serve at least 30 years of the 40-year sentence before he can be considered for parole. Hulme said there was no reasonable doubt that Davis injected each victim with an intention to kill, but that his motive remained a mystery. Davis had told police his victims were “not problem residents” and that they were “easy to look after.” Davis’ lawyer, Mark Ramsland, said his client would appeal the convictions.
VENEZUELA
Colombian border sealed
President Nicolas Maduro on Monday ordered the border with Colombia sealed for 72 hours, accusing US-backed “mafias” of conspiring to destabilize his nation’s economy by hoarding bank notes. “I have taken the decision to close the border with Colombia for 72 hours,” he said in a nationally televised address, calling it a “hard,” but “inevitable” choice. The closure came a day after Maduro signed an emergency decree removing Venezuela’s largest bank note, the 100 bolivar bill, from circulation because of what he called a Washington-sponsored plot against his nation’s troubled economy. Maduro said an investigation had found that billions of bolivars, in bills of 100, were stashed away by international mafias, mainly in Colombian cities, but also in Brazil. He said the nation was the victim of a plot to “destabilize” the economy led by a group “contracted by the US Department of the Treasury.” Maduro said authorities had seized 64 million bolivars (US$96,000) from people trying to sneak them back into the nation.
UNITED STATES
Shot UAE man unarmed
Authorities say a United Arab Emirates citizen who fled after causing a crash on the Ohio Turnpike and was fatally shot by police was unarmed. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation confirmed on Monday that the only weapon found at the scene was the Hudson police officer’s gun. Authorities say Officer Ryan Doran shot 26-year-old Saif Nasser Mubarak Alameri in the head during a struggle in a wooded area near the turnpike on Dec. 4. Alameri was a law student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. His death has been ruled a homicide and Doran has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
BRAZIL
Da Silva faces more charges
Federal police have asked prosecutors to charge former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for more crimes in the nation’s widest-ever corruption probe, Globo’s G1 news site reported on Monday. Lula, president from 2003 to 2010 and a possible candidate in the 2018 election, is already a defendant in three criminal probes linked to the so-called Car Wash investigation into large-scale corruption at state-controlled oil company Petrobras. Federal police said he should also be charged for corruption in the acquisition of land for his foundation and the rental of an apartment in the same building where he lives. They allege the expenses were paid by Brazilian engineering firm Odebrecht, G1 said.
GERMANY
Pair really love Christmas
For one couple, putting up the Christmas decorations takes eight long weeks. With about 16,000 baubles needed to be placed on more than 100 Christmas trees, Thomas and Susanne Jeromin’s annual winter wonderland at their house in the small town of Rinteln has become a seasonal labor of love. “We started off with a normal Christmas tree in the living room as you’d expect and then we thought we could put one in the hallway, one in the kitchen, and over the last five years it’s exploded,” Thomas Jeromin said. The Christmas-obsessed couple began decorating the 105m2 of space in their home, 60km southwest of Hannover, in early October, with lights, ornaments and Father Christmas decorations dotted throughout. The Jeromins’ bedroom is the only festive-free zone. “It’s our retreat for when we’ve had enough of Christmas,” Susanne Jeromin said.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
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