NORTH KOREA
Kim’s uncle returns home
Kim Jong-un’s uncle has returned to Pyongyang after quitting his job as ambassador to the Czech Republic, Yonhap News reported, citing lawmakers in Seoul. Kim Pyong-il is the half-brother of Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il. Lawmakers were briefed on the move by the head of the National Intelligence Service on Friday, the news agency said. Kim Pyong-il was once considered a potential successor of his brother, but he has been distant from power since moving out of the country in 1988 to take an ambassador job in Hungary, the report said.
WEST BANK
Israeli troops kill teenager
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Israeli troops have shot and killed a teenager near Hebron. The ministry on Saturday identified the youth as Badawi Masalmeh, 18, adding that Israeli soldiers took his body. The Israeli military said its forces spotted three people hurling Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles on a nearby route and fired at them. The two others were arrested.
IRAN
Official suggests opening
A senior official has suggested in an interview that authorities might be more open than in the past in approving candidates for a looming parliamentary election. “We don’t consider ourselves immune from criticism. We may also accept that mistakes have been made in the past,” Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaee said. “But for the next legislative elections we are trying to reduce our mistakes and respect the rights of candidates.” Kadkhodaee was speaking on the eve of the opening yesterday of the registration of candidates for the parliamentary election to be held on Feb. 21. The council is responsible for organizing and monitoring elections, including vetting candidates.
NAMIBIA
President re-elected
President Hage Geingob has won the presidential election with 56.3 percent of the vote, the Electoral Commission said on Saturday, surviving the country’s biggest corruption scandal, an economic recession and a fractured ruling party. Geingob was seeking a second and final term in the Nov. 27 election. First elected in 2014 with 87 percent of the vote, Geingob avoided a potential runoff against a member of his own party, Panduleni Itula, who was running as an independent. Itula trailed with 29.4 percent of the vote and leader of the opposition Popular Democratic Movement McHenry Venaani was third with 5.3 percent.
CHINA
Police beat protesters
Riot police on Friday fired tear gas and beat residents in Wenlou — a township in Guangdong Province about 100km from Hong Kong after they took to the streets to protest against a large crematorium project. Hundreds of residents protested over the plan for a site they had been previously told by officials that would become an “ecological park.” Footage recorded by residents appeared to show riot police firing tear gas, throwing rocks and beating protesters. Videos also showed residents throwing firecrackers at the police and tipping over a vehicle. “The whole town is protesting. The government has violently deployed people to suppress it,” said one resident, who asked not to be named, adding that police had beaten elderly residents and young students. “Now police are like crazy dogs, beating whoever they see. Where is the law? Where is morality?” he said.
MEXICO
Shootout with police kills 14
A shootout in a town near the US border between suspected drug traffickers and police left at least 14 dead, including four officers, officials said on Saturday. The confrontation in Villa Union erupted when officers detected several vehicles and heavily armed passengers touring the small community. Coahuila State Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme said six officers were also wounded, but their injuries were not serious. An unspecified number of people — including a child — were also missing, officials added.
UNITED STATES
Plane crash kills nine
Nine people were killed and three were injured in an airplane crash in South Dakota late on Saturday. The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-12, carrying 12 people, was bound for Idaho from South Dakota before it crashed about noon, a National Transportation Safety Board official said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
SWEDEN
Prop plane crash kills pilot
The pilot of a propeller plane died on Saturday after it crashed into the garden of a house in Ronneby, police said. The plane caught fire, sending heavy smoke billowing over the neighborhood. However, firefighters were able to extinguish the fire fairly quickly and no one on the ground was hurt, the police said. The plane was a DA20, a light single propeller aircraft popular with flight schools and private pilots.
UNITED STATES
Sewage floods homes
A blocked sewer main on Saturday flooded basements with brown filth and left residents in the New York City borough of Queens near Kennedy International Airport feeling sickened by the stench. A water condition caused the backup, pushing human waste into about 300 homes in Jamaica, Queens, officials said. Mayor Bill de Blasio said crews were making repairs and bringing in pumping equipment to clear up the mess. However, he advised residents to reduce usage to cut down on water going into the blocked main. Officials believe the practice of pouring cooking grease down the drain led to the blockage.
POLAND
Tigers head to Spain
Five of nine tigers that narrowly survived a grueling journey across Europe set off on Saturday for their new home at the Primadomus Wildlife Refuge in southern Spain after weeks of recovery at a zoo in Poznan. Ten emaciated and dehydrated tigers were found in late October in the back of a truck taking them from Italy to a zoo in Russia’s Dagestan Republic. The truck became stuck at the Koroszczyn crossing, where one tiger died. The survivors were divided between two zoos. “The tigers have left. We’re very happy that in just 24 to 30 hours they will arrive,” Poznan zoo spokeswoman Malgorzata Chodyla said.
UNITED STATES
‘Day O’ composer dies
Irving Burgie, who helped popularize Caribbean music and cowrote the enduring Harry Belafonte hit Day-O (The Banana Boat Song), has died at the age of 95. At the Bahamian Independence Day Parade on Saturday, Bahamian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced Burgie died on Friday. His mother was from the Bahamas. The Songwriters Hall of Fame said Burgie’s songs have sold more than 100 million records around the world. Born in Brooklyn, he served in World War II and used the GI Bill to pay for music studies. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music and two universities.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
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