UNITED KINGDOM
Officer hangs on, saves life
A police officer has been praised for grabbing hold of a van as it dangled on an icy bridge over a highway with the driver trapped inside. The West Yorkshire Police force said Constable Martin Willis on Friday arrived at the scene of an accident that had left the large van teetering on the edge of the bridge. He grabbed the rear axle and held it until a fire department crew arrived. Willis on Saturday said he told the driver not to panic and “whatever you do, don’t move.” The fire service says the driver is recovering in a hospital.
BRAZIL
Ex-senator eyes presidency
Former senator and environmental minister Marina Silva on Saturday said that she would seek her party’s nomination to run for president next year. Silva announced her plans at a meeting of her Sustainability Network Party (REDE), which would officially nominate her at its national convention in April. The 59-year-old environmentalist has run in the previous two presidential elections, but never made it to a second-round vote.
VENEZUELA
‘Advances made’ in talks
The government and opposition made “significant advances” in the latest talks aimed at resolving the nation’s crushing economic and political crisis, they said on Saturday after two days of meetings in the Dominican Republic. However, there was no agreement and negotiations will continue in Santo Domingo on Dec. 15, the two sides said in a statement read by Dominican President Danilo Medina, who hosted the talks with former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The main demand of the opposition coalition, Democratic Union Roundtable, is the opening of a “humanitarian corridor” to allow the import of desperately needed food and medicines — along with a guarantee of free and fair presidential elections next year.
SPAIN
No return yet for Puigdemont
Deposed Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont is to remain in Belgium until after the Dec. 21 elections in his province, as he is fighting extradition to Spain, his lawyer said on Saturday. Madrid sacked Puigdemont for holding a banned independence referendum and declaring on Oct. 27 that Catalans want to become an independent state. It has charged him with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. Puigdemont is running for re-election at the head of the Junts per Catalunya (“All for Catalonia” in Catalan) grouping.
UNITED STATES
Monty Python out, Hitler in
The Color Purple, Freakonomics, a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets and Monty Python’s Big Red Book are among the titles banned in Texas state prisons, but Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and two books by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke are not. The Dallas Morning News reported the choices made by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on behalf of thousands of inmates. Also among the forbidden are Where’s Waldo? Santa Spectacular and Homer Simpson’s Little Book of Laziness. Satan’s Sorcery Volume I and 100 Great Poems of Love and Lust are allowed, as is James Battersby’s The Holy Book of Adolf Hitler. What is or is not permissible is largely decided by mailroom staff, the newspaper found. Many books are banned because their bindings or covers could be used to smuggle contraband. “Mein Kampf is on the approved list because it does not violate our rules,” department deputy chief of staff Jason Clark said.
SOUTH KOREA
Boat crash kills 13
Thirteen people were killed and two were missing after a fishing boat collided with a tanker off the west coast and capsized early yesterday, the coast guard said. The Seonchang-1 fishing boat was carrying 20 passengers on a fishing tour, as well as two sailors, when it crashed with the 336-tonne fuel tanker at about 6am at sea near Incheon. Thirteen people were found dead or died after being sent to hospitals. Seven others were being treated at hospitals while two remained missing, the coast guard said.
YEMEN
Coalition jets bomb Sana’a
Aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition yesterday bombed Houthi positions in Sana’a, residents and local media said, aiming to shore up supporters of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh as they battle the Iran-aligned Houthi group. Saleh on Saturday announced he was ready to turn a “new page” in ties with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen if it stopped attacks on Yemeni citizens, in a move that could pave the way to end nearly three years of war. The apparent shift in position came as Saleh’s supporters battled Houthi fighters in Hadda, a district in southern Sana’a where members of Saleh’s family, including his nephew Tareq, live.
PHILIPPINES
Vaccine causes alarm
The nation is prepared for a “worst-case scenario” following warnings that an anti-dengue vaccine administered to thousands of children might worsen the disease in some cases, a health official said on Saturday. Department of Health spokesman Eric Tayag said the country had already taken precautions against potential mishaps when it became the first country to use the landmark vaccine last year. French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which developed the vaccine, earlier this week revealed that it could trigger more severe symptoms in people who had not been previously infected with dengue.
INDIA
Stinky socks cause ruckus
Police arrested a man whose stinky socks caused a showdown on a bus as his fellow passengers protested the pungent odor, an officer said on Saturday. The man removed his shoes and socks on a bus going from the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh to New Delhi and put them near the aisle, police said. Other passengers protested and asked the man to put away the offending socks or throw them out. The man refused, sparking a heated confrontation that forced the bus driver to stop at a police station in Una District of Himachal Pradesh.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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