GABON
Nigerien stabs two Danes
Two Danes were on Saturday wounded in a knife attack in Gabon’s capital apparently committed in retribution for “US attacks against Muslims,” a rare assault in a Central African nation that has escaped extremist violence. The two men, who were working for the National Geographic channel, were stabbed while shopping in a market popular with tourists, Minister of Defense Etienne Massard said, adding that the attack appeared to be politically motivated. “According to the first testimonies at the scene, the assailant, a 53-year-old Nigerien man, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ [Arabic for ‘God is great’] during the attack. He was arrested on the spot,” Massard said.
CHILE
Mudslide kills at least five
A mudslide fueled by heavy rains on Saturday swept over a village in the south, leaving at least five people dead and 15 missing, officials said. Rain caused a river to overflow and the side of a hill to collapse, burying 20 of the 200 houses in Villa Santa Lucia in the Los Lagos region, 1,272km south of the capital, Santiago. President Michelle Bachelet declared the region a catastrophe zone and confirmed the number of dead and missing. She met with her team of ministers to coordinate rescue and assistance efforts. Earlier on Saturday, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Madmud Aleuy said there were three people dead, including an unidentified tourist, and 15 others missing.
PHILIPPINES
Thousands stranded by storm
Thousands of people heading home for Christmas were yesterday stranded by Tropical Depression Kai-Tak, a day after the storm killed three people as it pounded the nation’s eastern islands. The storm has weakened, with gusts of up to 90kph, after cutting off power and triggering landslides in a region devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan four years ago, state weather forecasters said. Disaster officials yesterday said that more floods and landslides were possible and that 15,500 passengers were stranded because ferry services remained suspended in parts of the country.
LIBYA
Refugees rescued at sea
The coast guard rescued at least 270 refugees off the country’s shores, a navy official said on Saturday, bringing to more than 450 the total number of refugees they have rescued in less than a week. El-Hadi Kheil said that the Arab and African refugees, who included women and children, were found at sea in an area between the coastal towns of Garabulli and Zliten, east of the capital, Tripoli, where they were taken to a naval base. “We were lost and didn’t know where to direct our boat,” Omar Yusef, a Sudanese refugee, told reporters. “We called the coast guard and a helicopter came and guided us.”
UNITED STATES
Burros caught in wildfire
Nine burros that are a favorite of visitors to South Dakota’s Custer State Park have been burned in a wildfire and it is not known if all of them would survive, a park official said on Saturday. The park reported that all nine burros had been found — a day after three of them were reported missing and feared dead in the wildfire that has consumed more than 218km2, but all nine were burned and are being treated by a veterinarian. Some were not injured as badly as others, but their chances of survival and the severity of their injuries might not be known for some time, park visitor services program manager Kobee Stalder said.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
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
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
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
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