MOROCCO
Slain female tourists found
The bodies of two Scandinavian women with cuts to their necks were found in a village in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains on Monday, the interior ministry said. The tourists, a Danish woman and another from Norway, were found with “signs of violence” on their necks caused by a cutting device, the ministry said in a statement. It said an investigation had been launched into the “criminal act,” without providing more details. The women’s bodies were found in an isolated mountainous area 10km from the village of Imlil in the High Atlas range. Imlil serves as a starting point for trekking and climbing tours of Mount Toukbal, the highest summit in North Africa.
UNITED KINGDOM
May sets vote for Jan. 14
Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday said the postponed vote in parliament on the country’s Brexit agreement with the EU would be held the week of Jan. 14 — more than a month after it was originally scheduled and just 10 weeks before the country leaves the EU. However, even as May insisted that she could salvage her unpopular divorce deal, pressure was mounting for dramatic action — a new referendum or a vote among lawmakers. “I know this is not everyone’s perfect deal,” May said. “But if we let the perfect be the enemy of the good, then we risk leaving the EU with no deal.”
EL SALVADOR
Infanticide suspect freed
A woman accused of the attempted murder of her newborn baby under the country’s strict abortion laws after she was raped by her stepfather was on Monday freed by a court after more than 18 months in jail. Imelda Cortez, 20, gave birth in a latrine in April last year and left the baby there. When Cortez was treated at a hospital afterward, doctors suspected that she had tried to perform an abortion. The court determined that Cortez, who had not known she was pregnant, did not try to kill her infant daughter. The child survived. As she left court, Cortez was greeted by cheering relatives and human rights activists holding signs demanding her freedom.
UNITED STATES
Diner finds pearl in oyster
A lucky diner says he happened upon a pearl while eating an oyster dish at a famous New York City restaurant. Rick Antosh was out to lunch with a friend and ordered his usual at the Grand Central Oyster Bar on Dec. 5: the US$14.75 pan roast, a stew-like dish that includes six oysters. The 66-year-old told the New York Post that he felt a small object rolling around his mouth after diving into the dish. “For a fraction of a second, there was terror,” Antosh told the Post. “Is it a tooth? Is it a filling?” Antosh said it turned out to be a pea-sized pearl. He has not had the prize appraised.
UNITED STATES
Scientists spot farthest object
Astronomers have spotted the farthest known object in our solar system — and they have nicknamed the pink cosmic body “Farout.” The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery on Monday. “Farout” is about 120 astronomical units away — that is 120 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 18 billion kilometers. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units. “I actually uttered ‘far out’ when I first found this object, because I immediately noticed from its slow movement that it must be far out there,” Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution wrote in an e-mail. “It is the slowest moving object I have ever seen and is really out there.”
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