EGYPT
Beer-maker’s tomb found
The government on Friday said a Japanese archeological team has discovered the tomb of a leading beer producer from the pharaonic period in the country’s famed temple city of Luxor. The tomb of Khonso Em Heb, who lived 3,200 years ago, was “one of the most important discoveries made in the city of Luxor... at the Thebes necropolis,” Minister of Antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim said. The tomb has on its walls and ceilings landscapes and diverse sculptures. One piece of artwork shows Khonso Em Heb, who also headed the royal storehouses during the pharaonic Ramesside period, making offerings to the gods along with his wife and daughter. The archeologists discovered the site while cleaning the courtyard of “another tomb belonging to a top official from the reign of King Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty,” said Jiro Kondo, head of the Japanese team from Waseda University.
ITALY
Navy saves 1,000 migrants
The navy on Friday said it had rescued in 24 hours more than 1,000 migrants attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean by boat in rough winter seas. A total of 823 migrants were picked up on Thursday and another 233 were rescued on Wednesday as part of a major ongoing search and rescue operation to save the lives of thousands of immigrants heading for Europe in overcrowded and rickety boats, the navy said. The immigrants, including 30 women and 42 minors, mainly hail from Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan and Tunisia. Six military vessels and several helicopters were involved in picking them up and transferring them to the coastal town of Augusta in Sicily. The immigrants were rescued as part of the Italian government’s “Mare Nostrum” operation, which mobilizes warships, amphibious vessels and aircraft to try and prevent further tragedies like the two shipwrecks in October last year, in which more than 400 immigrants died.
SPAIN
Cocaine carried under wigs
Police on Friday said they caught two women flying in from Brazil with 1.2kg of cocaine each hidden under their wigs. The two women, who were Portuguese and aged 18 and 28, arrived at Madrid’s Barajas airport on different days from Sao Paulo, police said in a statement. They hid the drugs in six packages, which were held in place by a black sock and tape under their long curly-hair wigs, the police said. “This new method of smuggling narcotics is very elaborate and difficult to detect due to the realism of the fake hair,” said the statement issued jointly by Guardia Civil police and the Ministry of the Interior. “The packages were perfectly adhered and did not stick out from under the wigs, which made the narcotics imperceptible.”
GERMANY
World War II bomb kills man
The driver of an excavator was killed and 13 other people injured when a World War II-era bomb blew up during earthworks on Friday, police said. The blast wave from the sleeper bomb blew out nearby house and car windows, ripped off roof tiles and could be felt several kilometers away. The accident, in which two of the wounded suffered serious injuries, shook an industrial area in the town of Euskirchen near Bonn. The ground below many Germany cities still contains unexploded ordnance dropped by Allied and Soviet forces in the Second World War, but most is safely defused when found.
UNITED STATES
Phil Everly dies at 74
Phil Everly, whose high, close-harmony singing with his elder brother, Don, made the Everly Brothers one of the biggest rock and country acts of the 1950s and early 1960s, died on Friday at the age of 74, the Los Angeles Times reported. Everly died in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Patti, told the Times for a story on the paper’s Web site. The Everly Brothers profoundly influenced 1960s-era groups and singer-songwriters ranging from Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who early in their careers called themselves the Foreverly Brothers, to Simon and Garfunkel, the Byrds, the Hollies and the Beach Boys. “Perhaps even more powerfully than Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers melded country with the emerging sound of Fifties rock & roll,” Rolling Stone magazine said in placing the brothers at No. 33 on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists.”
UNITED STATES
Politician resigns in Klingon
On Thursday, David Waddell used the Klingon language to write his letter of resignation from a town council in North Carolina. Waddell said he chose to use Klingon, the language of a warrior race in the Star Trek TV shows and movies, as an inside joke. Mayor Michael Alvarez called the letter unprofessional. Waddell said he is resigning at the end of this month. His four-year term expires in December next year. Waddell said he needs to devote time to mounting a write-in campaign on the Constitution Party’s platform against US Senator Kay Hagan.
CANADA
H1N1 flu outbreak kills 5
An H1N1 flu outbreak in Alberta has sickened nearly 1,000 people and killed five, the province’s health minister said on Friday, urging everyone to get vaccinated. “Over the past few weeks, we have seen a surge in the number of influenza cases across Alberta. Many of those affected are healthy young adults,” Health Minister Fred Horne said in a statement. In total, 965 cases of the flu have been confirmed by health authorities in the province, with just more than 250 requiring hospitalization, he said. “Sadly, five Albertans admitted to the ICU have died,” Horne said, emphasizing that the age and health of the patients was unusual. “It is concerning that we are seeing younger, working-age adults being hospitalized,” he said. So far, only about one in five residents have gotten flu shots, which are needed to protect “you, your friends, family, co-workers and everyone you come into contact with,” he said. To encourage vaccination efforts, the province has increased the number of centers offering the shot and extended the hours.
BRAZIL
Heat sets off sprinklers
Soaring temperatures in Rio de Janeiro set off the fire sprinklers on Friday in a downtown shopping mall as the thermometer topped 40°C. In the sunshine, temperatures rose to 50°C, leaving residents of the metropolis gasping. However, customers taking refuge indoor at Shopping Leblon gained unexpected relief when the sprinklers came on. “Owing to the high temperature registered in the city we had the sprinklers come on automatically. Things got back to normal in 20 minutes and the mall has been cleaned up,” the center said on its Twitter feed. The Meteorological Office recorded temperatures soaring from a low of 24°C to beyond 40°C at some points of the city, sending residents and New Year tourists alike streaming to the beaches to seek respite in the sea.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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