UNITED KINGDOM
Officer hangs on, saves life
A police officer has been praised for grabbing hold of a van as it dangled on an icy bridge over a highway with the driver trapped inside. The West Yorkshire Police force said Constable Martin Willis on Friday arrived at the scene of an accident that had left the large van teetering on the edge of the bridge. He grabbed the rear axle and held it until a fire department crew arrived. Willis on Saturday said he told the driver not to panic and “whatever you do, don’t move.” The fire service says the driver is recovering in a hospital.
BRAZIL
Ex-senator eyes presidency
Former senator and environmental minister Marina Silva on Saturday said that she would seek her party’s nomination to run for president next year. Silva announced her plans at a meeting of her Sustainability Network Party (REDE), which would officially nominate her at its national convention in April. The 59-year-old environmentalist has run in the previous two presidential elections, but never made it to a second-round vote.
VENEZUELA
‘Advances made’ in talks
The government and opposition made “significant advances” in the latest talks aimed at resolving the nation’s crushing economic and political crisis, they said on Saturday after two days of meetings in the Dominican Republic. However, there was no agreement and negotiations will continue in Santo Domingo on Dec. 15, the two sides said in a statement read by Dominican President Danilo Medina, who hosted the talks with former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The main demand of the opposition coalition, Democratic Union Roundtable, is the opening of a “humanitarian corridor” to allow the import of desperately needed food and medicines — along with a guarantee of free and fair presidential elections next year.
SPAIN
No return yet for Puigdemont
Deposed Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont is to remain in Belgium until after the Dec. 21 elections in his province, as he is fighting extradition to Spain, his lawyer said on Saturday. Madrid sacked Puigdemont for holding a banned independence referendum and declaring on Oct. 27 that Catalans want to become an independent state. It has charged him with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. Puigdemont is running for re-election at the head of the Junts per Catalunya (“All for Catalonia” in Catalan) grouping.
UNITED STATES
Monty Python out, Hitler in
The Color Purple, Freakonomics, a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets and Monty Python’s Big Red Book are among the titles banned in Texas state prisons, but Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and two books by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke are not. The Dallas Morning News reported the choices made by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on behalf of thousands of inmates. Also among the forbidden are Where’s Waldo? Santa Spectacular and Homer Simpson’s Little Book of Laziness. Satan’s Sorcery Volume I and 100 Great Poems of Love and Lust are allowed, as is James Battersby’s The Holy Book of Adolf Hitler. What is or is not permissible is largely decided by mailroom staff, the newspaper found. Many books are banned because their bindings or covers could be used to smuggle contraband. “Mein Kampf is on the approved list because it does not violate our rules,” department deputy chief of staff Jason Clark said.
SOUTH KOREA
Boat crash kills 13
Thirteen people were killed and two were missing after a fishing boat collided with a tanker off the west coast and capsized early yesterday, the coast guard said. The Seonchang-1 fishing boat was carrying 20 passengers on a fishing tour, as well as two sailors, when it crashed with the 336-tonne fuel tanker at about 6am at sea near Incheon. Thirteen people were found dead or died after being sent to hospitals. Seven others were being treated at hospitals while two remained missing, the coast guard said.
YEMEN
Coalition jets bomb Sana’a
Aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition yesterday bombed Houthi positions in Sana’a, residents and local media said, aiming to shore up supporters of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh as they battle the Iran-aligned Houthi group. Saleh on Saturday announced he was ready to turn a “new page” in ties with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen if it stopped attacks on Yemeni citizens, in a move that could pave the way to end nearly three years of war. The apparent shift in position came as Saleh’s supporters battled Houthi fighters in Hadda, a district in southern Sana’a where members of Saleh’s family, including his nephew Tareq, live.
PHILIPPINES
Vaccine causes alarm
The nation is prepared for a “worst-case scenario” following warnings that an anti-dengue vaccine administered to thousands of children might worsen the disease in some cases, a health official said on Saturday. Department of Health spokesman Eric Tayag said the country had already taken precautions against potential mishaps when it became the first country to use the landmark vaccine last year. French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which developed the vaccine, earlier this week revealed that it could trigger more severe symptoms in people who had not been previously infected with dengue.
INDIA
Stinky socks cause ruckus
Police arrested a man whose stinky socks caused a showdown on a bus as his fellow passengers protested the pungent odor, an officer said on Saturday. The man removed his shoes and socks on a bus going from the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh to New Delhi and put them near the aisle, police said. Other passengers protested and asked the man to put away the offending socks or throw them out. The man refused, sparking a heated confrontation that forced the bus driver to stop at a police station in Una District of Himachal Pradesh.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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