UNITED KINGDOM
Astronaut misdials
Anyone can dial a wrong number, but it is not often done from outer space. British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted an apology on Christmas Day from the International Space Station after calling a wrong number. “I’d like to apologize to the lady I just called by mistake saying: ‘Hello, is this planet Earth?’ — not a prank call — just a wrong number,” he wrote. The 43-year-old former army helicopter pilot did not say who he was calling. Since he is Britain’s first publicly funded astronaut and the first Briton to visit the space station, millions of Britons have been following his mission closely. Peake has also used Twitter to send Christmas greetings.
IRAN
Jason Rezaian allowed visit
Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent who has been incarcerated in Iran since July last year, was permitted an extended visit with his wife and mother on Friday in what appeared to be a Christmas gesture by Iranian authorities. Rezaian, 39, a California native, has been accused of espionage and other hostile acts, charges that he and his supporters say are unfounded. His mother, Mary Rezaian, and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, shared a home-cooked meal with him at Evin Prison in Tehran, according to an account Mary Rezaian relayed to her other son, Ali Rezaian, in the US. “It was the longest meeting with him since she arrived last December,” Ali Rezaian said in an e-mail. Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor, said in a statement that he welcomed the gesture, but said Iran should release Rezaian “and allow him a return to life as a free man who can spend time with his family where and whenever he pleases.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Medics top Justin Bieber
A choir of doctors and nurses beat Justin Bieber to the Christmas No. 1 spot in Britain’s pop music chart on Friday after the heartthrob urged his fans to buy their song. The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir’s charity single, A Bridge Over You, outsold Bieber’s Love Yourself to snatch the coveted festive top spot. That came after Bieber wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: “So for 1 week it’s ok not to be #1. Let’s do the right thing & help them win. It’s Christmas. @Choir_NHS good luck.” The southeast London-based choir is made up of staff who work for the state-funded National Health Service. Their song is a mash-up of Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel and Coldplay’s Fix You. Harriet Nerva, a junior doctor in the choir, decided to start a social media campaign to get the song to No. 1 after a tough day at work. “A patient with cancer that I had been looking after for quite a number of weeks died,” she told the Guardian newspaper. “I was listening to the song and it dawned on me that a great way of translating how I was feeling and how proud I was to work for the NHS would be getting [the song] to No. 1.”
HAWAII
‘Hokulea’ to cross Atlantic
The Polynesian voyaging canoe that is in the middle of its round-the-world journey has left South Africa for Brazil. Hawaii News Now reports (http://bit.ly/1RKkrxr) that the crew of the Hokulea set sail on Thursday from Cape Town. The crew plans to stop at the island of St Helena, located in a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean about midway between Africa and South America. This is to be the first time the Hokulea will cross the Atlantic Ocean. The double-hulled canoe left Hawaii last year, and its crew members are sailing without modern navigation equipment.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
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