JAPAN
Eighty hurt in ferry accident
A ferry collided with what apparently was a marine animal off an island, injuring more than 80 people, local media reported. The accident happened just after noon on Saturday off Sado Island, Kyodo news agency reported, citing Japan’s coast guard. Five of the injuries were serious and a 15-centimeter crack was found at the ferry’s stern. Ferry operator Sado Steam Ship Co said the jetfoil ferry still reached its destination on the island, located off the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu. Coast guard officials said the ferry might have struck a whale or some other sea animal.
NIGER
Forty-five dead in attack
Seven soldiers and 38 militants died in an assault by the militant group Boko Haram in the southeast of the nation, the Ministry of Defence ministry said on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks that have shattered months of relative calm near the Lake Chad basin. “Armed forces ... strongly repelled an attack by the terrorist group Boko Haram on the outskirts of Gueskerou,” the ministry said in a statement read on state television.
PAKISTAN
Climbers found dead
Two European mountain climbers who went missing on the Pakistani mountain Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-tallest, were confirmed dead on Saturday by Italian Ambassador to Pakistan Stefano Pontecorvo. Pontecorvo tweeted that the search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard ended after a team confirmed that telescopic pictures of two silhouettes spotted at a height of about 5,900m were the bodies of the two climbers missing since Feb. 24. Ballard’s disappearance hit his homeland particularly hard because he is the son of Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone. She died at age 33 descending the summit of K2.
UNITED STATES
Thirty injured in turbulence
A Turkish Airlines passenger jet traveling from Istanbul to New York hit severe turbulence on Saturday as it approached its destination, with 30 people suffering injuries before it landed safely, officials said. The injured were taken from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to local hospitals, mainly for treatment of bumps, cuts and bruises. One flight attendant had a broken leg, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman said. The Boeing 777 was over the Atlantic Ocean, about 45 minutes from landing, when it struck the turbulence, Coleman said.
UNITED STATES
R. Kelly released from jail
R. Kelly on Saturday walked out of a Chicago jail after someone, who officials say did not want to be publicly identified, paid US$161,633 that the R&B singer owed in child support. Kelly, who was on Wednesday taken into custody after he said he did not have the entire amount he owed, briefly spoke with reporters, telling them: “I promise you, we’re going to straighten all this stuff out.’”
UNITED STATES
J-Lo engaged to A-Rod
Jennifer Lopez has said yes to Alex Rodriguez’s proposal. The couple late on Saturday posted an Instagram photograph of their hands with a massive engagement ring on Lopez’s ring finger. The former Yankees shortstop captioned his photo with “she said yes” and a heart emoji. The couple has been dating since early 2017. It will be Lopez’s fourth marriage and Rodriguez’s second.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
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