PANAMA
Noriega critically ill
Former dictator Manuel Noriega, 83, is in critical condition after undergoing two brain surgeries at a Panama City hospital. Noriega underwent the first procedure on Tuesday morning to remove a benign tumor, but a second surgery was needed after a hemorrhage that afternoon, his daughters and lawyer said. While the tumor was detected several years ago, it grew unexpectedly recently, threatening Noriega’s life, his doctors said. Noriega is serving a long prison term for corruption and the killings of political opponents during his administration in the 1980s. He was transferred from prison to house arrest on Jan. 29 to prepare for the surgery, which was originally scheduled for the middle of last month.
UNITED STATES
Statue of Liberty goes dark
For several hours on Tuesday night, Lady Liberty did not shine so brightly, after what a spokesman called an “unplanned outage.” WCBS-TV reported that the statue was dark except for the crown and torch. The lights returned shortly before midnight. The outage triggered rumors on social media that perhaps it was done deliberately for yesterday’s “A Day Without Women” protest, but National Park Service spokesman Jerry Willis said the outage was probably related to a project for a new emergency backup generator.
NIGERIA
Ready for airport’s closure
Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi on Tuesday said that “everything is ready” for the closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, despite worries about limited capacity at the alternative hub and security for passengers forced to go by road between Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna. However, all international airlines serving Abuja, except Ethiopian Airlines, have refused to go along with the plan to shut the airport for six weeks to allow for runway repairs, and canceled their flights instead. Amaechi said there was no cause for concern. “We have set up the roads, the railway, the buses and everything is ready,” he said.
GUAM
Church sets up fund
The Roman Catholic Church on the island has established a US$1 million settlement fund for victims of child sexual abuse. Archbishop Michael Byrnes yesterday announced the fund at a news conference with his nine-member archdiocese finance council, and said that the church is seeking an administrator and an independent third party to operate the fund. Once those are in place, victims can contact the administrator directly, he said. The US$1 million is a start and shows the archdiocese’s “serous intent” to aid victims whether they file a lawsuit or not, he said. To date, 24 people have filed a lawsuit for clergy child sexual abuse against the archdiocese.
GERMANY
Hunt for alleged murderer
Police on Tuesday launched a manhunt for 19-year-old Marcel Hesse, who is suspected of stabbing a nine-year-old neighbor to death and bragging about the murder in an online video. Police said they were alerted on Monday by people who had viewed the clip on the Darknet, a hidden online arena notoriously used by criminals to trade weapons, drugs and child pornography. A child’s corpse was found at about 7:30pm on Monday in the basement of Hesse’s house in Herne. Based on another conversation Hesse had on the Internet, investigators said they could not rule out that he had also killed a woman. Police said they did not have a motive for the boy’s killing.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in