UNITED STATES
Northeast in deep freeze
Low temperatures and high winds have put northeastern states in a deep freeze and more frigid temperatures are expected. “You are talking about 30 degrees [Fahrenheit] below normal highs. That is pretty darn cold,” National Weather Service meteorologist James Brown said in Maine. “This is pretty much a piece of Arctic air that came off the North Pole and came into New England.” Forecasters said a storm will follow the frigid weather, bringing chances for snow, sleet and freezing rain across much of the nation.
UNITED STATES
Trump picks envoy to Israel
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he would nominate bankruptcy attorney David Friedman as ambassador to Israel, and Friedman said he looked forward to taking up his post in Jerusalem, implying a move from Tel Aviv that would mark a break in longstanding foreign policy. During the campaign, Trump pledged to switch the embassy from Tel Aviv, where it has been for 68 years, to Jerusalem, even though the US and other world powers do not regard Jerusalem, captured during the 1968 war, as Israel’s capital.
UNITED STATES
Harlem deer pardoned
A beloved buck that had taken up residence in a park in Harlem was granted a last-minute reprieve from death row late on Thursday. The buck had been captured on the grounds of a public-housing complex on West 155th Street at about 4am on Thursday after he wandered out of Jackie Robinson Park, where he had been drawing crowds for two weeks. Earlier in the day, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said the deer would be killed because officials at the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said he would have to be released near where he was caught and could not be relocated elsewhere. At 7pm, the East Harlem animal shelter where the buck had been taken said it had just received orders from the city to put the animal to death. However, at 8pm, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released a statement saying that Cuomo “has directed DEC to offer assistance to the city to transport and find a new habitat for it immediately.”
UNITED STATES
Border Patrol agent charged
A Border Patrol agent in San Diego, California, was charged on Thursday with bribery for allegedly accepting US$10,000 to deliver backpacks of what he believed to be smuggled methamphetamine and cocaine that were dropped along the border fence with Mexico. Noe Lopez, 36, allegedly collected US$3,000 from a confidential government source last week for picking up 2.7kg of methamphetamine while on duty and accepted US$7,000 two days later for retrieving 7kg of phony cocaine. The Border Patrol said Lopez has been put on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the case. He is also charged with drug-related crimes.
UNITED STATES
Texas city’s water ban eased
Officials in Corpus Christi have told residents in parts of the city that they can safely drink tap water again, nearly 24 hours after warning against using the water because of an asphalt emulsifier that was released into the system. Officials believe between 11 and 91 liters of the emulsifier contaminated the system. The city has described it as a “back-flow incident in the industrial district.” Officials said they would not identify the firm that leaked the chemicals because they do not want it to stop cooperating.
RUSSIA
Aleppo evacuation continues
An operation to evacuate civilians and rebels from eastern Aleppo in Syria continued yesterday, the RIA news agency quoted the Russian Ministry of Defense as saying. More than 6,400 people, including more than 3,000 rebels, have been evacuated over the past 24 hours under a ceasefire deal, the ministry was quoted as saying. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he and the Turkish president are trying to broker a new round of Syria peace talks.
JAPAN
Russia treaty discussed
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said he and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed the possibility of a peace treaty and that economic cooperation would help establish full ties. The two leaders have been meeting in Japan to seek progress on ending the dispute over four remote islands. Abe has pledged to resolve it in the hope of leaving a diplomatic legacy that eluded his father, a former foreign minister, of building better ties with Russia to counter a rising China.
JAPAN
Emperor cancels duties
Emperor Akihito, 82, has a cold and fever and has canceled morning duties, an official at the Imperial Household Agency said yesterday. The emperor had no planned duties yesterday afternoon and is to rest at the Imperial Palace this weekend, the official said. In August, Akihito said he worried that age might make it difficult for him to fully carry out his duties, remarks widely seen as suggesting he wants to abdicate, a step unprecedented in modern Japan and not possible under law.
AUSTRALIA
Nurse jailed for 36 years
A nurse at a nursing home who gave lethal insulin injections to two elderly residents who had complained about her was yesterday sentenced to 36 years in prison. Megan Haines, 49, was sentenced in the New South Wales State Supreme Court for murdering Marie Darragh, 82, and Isabella Spencer, 77, at St Andrew’s Village at Ballina in May 2014. Haines had previously been suspended from working as a nurse after complaints about her conduct in Victoria State.
CHINA
Cities on red alert for smog
Environmental authorities yesterday advised 23 northern cities to issue “red” alerts, the highest possible air pollution warning against the “worst” smog the country has experienced since autumn, state media said. Officials in Beijing issued a red alert on Thursday after the Ministry of Environmental Protection warned of a smog build-up across China’s north, saying the alert was expected to run until Wednesday next week. The ministry has also advised 22 more cities to issue the red alert warning, the China Daily said yesterday.
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
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