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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
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
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘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
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