■ CHINA
Fog disrupts transport
Thick fog blanketed Beijing yesterday, delaying flights out of the city and reducing visibility. Most flights out of Beijing's airport were delayed, said an official, who declined to give her name, at the Beijing Capital International Airport. All flights scheduled before 9am were postponed by one hour. Other flights were delayed by up to three hours as planes had to wait to be defrosted, CCTV reported. Flights later returned to normal, it said. Cars were forced to use headlights on inner city roads, and office buildings in Beijing's central business district were shrouded in fog. Visibility on roads was reduced to less than 500m in some urban areas
■ PHILIPPINES
Carolers banned from streets
At the risk of being called the Grinch, Manila administrators said yesterday that they were banning Christmas carolers from the capital's streets because they disrupt traffic. "The plan, controversial as it might be, is not done out of whim but rather for the safety of the children and the motorists," Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chief Bayani Fernando said, citing an incident last year in which a child caroler was run over by a speeding vehicle. He said that the ban applies to carolers and beggars in the streets, who often stop cars, beat their drums and tin cans and ask for money.
■ AUSTRALIA
US influence unwelcome
Australians believe that the hamburger and US slang are infringing on their culture and they are "not at all pleased" about it, a survey released yesterday said. The telephone poll of 1,213 people by the government-funded US Studies Center at the University of Sydney measured peoples' attitudes about their closest ally, the US. Asked to judge the influence of US culture on Australia, 67 percent of respondents said they were "not at all pleased" about the prevalence of US-style fast food in their country. They ranked fast food second only behind US foreign policy as an issue they were "very worried" about.
■ GAZA STRIP
Confiscated drugs burned
Hamas Islamists burned sacks of confiscated marijuana and cocaine on Sunday and said they had arrested dozens of dealers in a drugs crackdown. Police in Hamas-run Gaza said they had netted drugs -- including hashish and cocaine, heroin and ecstasy -- worth some US$4 million and arrested 115 dealers. Hamas said security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction allowed drug abuse to flourish before the Islamist group violently seized the coastal enclave in June. Senior West Bank-based Fatah official Ziad Abu Ain rebuffed the accusation.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Zeppelin tickets go on sale
Led Zeppelin fans queued for hours on Sunday to get tickets for the iconic band's one-off comeback gig, amid tight security to prevent touts from cashing in on the eve of the concert. Amid growing anticipation ahead of yesterday evening's concert, Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant meanwhile fueled speculation that there could be further reunions with comments to a British newspaper. Only 20,000 lucky names were pulled out of a secret ballot to attend the band's first show in 19 years.
■ RUSSIA
Putin endorses Medvedev
President Vladimir Putin has backed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as presidential candidate to replace him after he leaves office next year, Russian news agencies reported yesterday. "I fully support this candidacy," Putin was quoted as saying by Interfax after four parties, headed by the ruling United Russia, named Medvedev. "I have been very closely acquainted with [Medvedev] for 17 years and I completely and fully support this candidacy," Putin was quoted as saying.
■ UNITED STATES
Car hits `Santa' train
A car crashed into a train that was carrying mostly children to a visit with Santa Claus, killing two people in the car. No one was injured among the 67 passengers on the "Santa Express" train, authorities said. The crash happened on Saturday afternoon at a railroad crossing. Authorities said the crossing has a stop sign and a railroad crossing sign to warn drivers, but no warning lights. The Isabella County sheriff's department said the woman driving the car and one of her passengers were killed.
■ UNITED STATES
Storm cuts power
An ice storm slickened roads and sidewalks, grounded hundreds of flights and cut power to tens of thousands in a swath across the central US as even colder weather threatened. The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek, and ice storm warnings stretched from Texas to Pennsylvania. Six traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma. More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport canceled more than 400 flights. The airports in Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis also canceled several flights.
■ UNITED STATES
Cursing nun shocks school
The principal of St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic School had students stay after a Mass last month and informed the fifth through eighth-graders that she has a zero-tolerance policy for cursing. Just in case anyone was not sure what she was talking about, Sister Kathy Avery read off a list of the very words and phrases that she was banning. "It got a little quiet in church" during her talk, she told the Detroit Free Press. Some parents were shocked, but others applauded, the paper said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
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