SUDAN
UN officials deported
The government on Friday said it ordered two top UN officials to leave Khartoum for “insulting” the country and being “prejudiced” against its government. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ali Zaatari and UN Development Program Country Director Yvonne Helle were told to leave. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it ordered Zaatari, a Jordanian national, to leave for “insulting the Sudanese people and its political leadership in an interview with a Norwegian newspaper.” Early this month, a Web site close to Sudan’s security apparatus said that Zaatari had criticized President Omar al-Bashir’s government in an interview published by the Norwegian publication Bistandsaktuelt. The Sudan Media Centre quoted Zaatari as saying that the Sudanese “rely on humanitarian aid that we give them” and that he was “forced” to work with Bashir. Zaatari confirmed he had been interviewed by Bistandsaktuelt, but denied he had made the comments attributed to him.
SWEDEN
Mosque attack injures five
Police say a suspected arson attack at a mosque has injured at least five people, while a second mosque in the same town was vandalized. Police on Friday said the two attacks in the central town of Eskilstuna took place within hours of each other on Thursday and early on Friday. They said 20 people were inside the mosque when the blaze broke out. Two of the injured people were treated for smoke inhalation, while the others had minor injuries. Police spokesman Lars Franzell said a witness had seen someone throwing an object through the first mosque’s window.
DR CONGO
Journalist shot dead
A journalist for state media was shot dead on Friday in Goma in the vast country’s restive east, officials said. Robert Chamwami Shalubuto’s body was found in a grocery store close to his home after having been shot in the chest, said Celestin Sibomana, spokesman for North Kivu Province, of which Goma is the capital. North Kivu Deputy Governor Feller Lutaichirwa also confirmed the killing of the journalist for Congolese National Radio and Television (RTNC) “Investigations have been initiated,” he said, adding: “For some time, journalists have become people to kill in the city. We believe that a front has been opened against journalists.”
UNITED STATES
Baby born on subway
A woman in Philadelphia got an unexpected holiday surprise on the subway when she went into labor, delivering a healthy child dubbed the “Christmas baby.” The woman was on a train on Thursday in central Philadelphia when her water broke. Two transit police officers were urgently called to the train as the woman went into labor. The officers helped the woman deliver as fellow passengers looked on, and one transit worker was photographed leaving the train with the baby wrapped in clothes. Sargent Daniel Caban said he was hoping for a quiet day on the job, but the delivery was a “pleasant” surprise. “This was just a blessing, during the holidays, a Christmas baby,” he told an NBC station. The mother and child were immediately taken to hospital and were doing well. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority chief Thomas Nestel said the child, the subway’s newest rider, was not charged a fare.
PAKISTAN
Military kills 39 militants
Warplanes and ground forces killed 39 militants as part of an ongoing operation in a volatile tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said. The airstrikes were carried out on Friday evening in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal region, an army statement said yesterday, adding that an underground tunnel system and a large underground cache of weapons and ammunition were also destroyed. The military claimed several important militant commanders were among the dead, but did not provide further details on the identities of the slain militants. Also late on Friday night, Pakistani troops ambushed a large assembly of militants on the border between the Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions, the statement said. It said an intense battle took place in which 16 militants were killed and another 20 injured.
AFGHANISTAN
Airstrike kills three civilians
The NATO-led foreign force mistakenly killed three civilians in an air strike, officials said yesterday, less than a week before most foreign troops are due to pull out at the end of a 13-year mission. The mistaken killing of civilians in air strikes has been a source of anger throughout the force’s mission, frequently straining ties between the NATO force and the government. The latest incident took place in Logar Province just south of Kabul on Friday, and involved nomads who had clashed in a dispute over land, provincial officials said. Authorities in the area were negotiating a ceasefire, but NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) apparently mistook the nomads for insurgents preparing an attack, officials said. “ISAF launched an air strike which killed three people and wounded two,” Logar police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS