BAHAMAS
Storm death toll rises to 43
The death toll from Hurricane Dorian has risen to 43, media reported late on Friday, and was expected to grow “significantly.” US network CNN and local newspaper the Tribune cited Minister of Health Duane Sands as confirming the new toll, up from 30. “Forty-three is the official count, many missing and this number is expected to grow significantly,” Erica Wells Cox, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, told NBC News. Dorian was a Category 5 hurricane — the highest on the five-level wind scale — when it slammed into northern areas on Sunday last week, leaving a trail of immense destruction. UN relief officials said that more than 70,000 people are in need of assistance after the storm reduced homes to matchsticks and destroyed people’s livelihoods. Hundreds are missing and officials have said that the final toll could be “staggering.”
CANADA
People protest Chick-fil-A
Dozens of protesters on Friday crowded a Toronto sidewalk to voice their opposition to the opening of the first franchised Chick-fil-A restaurant in the nation because of the owner’s record on LGBTQ issues. The company has funded anti-LGBTQ initiatives, while CEO Dan Cathy has voiced his opposition to same-sex marriage, the protesters said. The company promotes hate and is not welcome in Toronto, protester Justin Khan said. Chick-fil-A operator Wilson Yang said in an e-mailed statement that everyone is welcome at the restaurant. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company has faced opposition in the US as well, but disputes the characterization of the 2017 donations, saying that it donated US$1.6 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a group that is overtly against gay marriage, for sports camps for inner-city youth.
PHILIPPINES
Market blast wounds seven
An explosion at a public market in the south early yesterday wounded at least seven people, the fourth blast in that area in 13 months, the military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but a militant group operating in the mostly Christian city of Isulan in Sultan Kudarat Province was among the suspects, military said. The latest blast came amid heightened tensions in the volatile region after three incidents in the past year that authorities said were suicide bombings by militants linked to the Islamic State. Video footage showed that yesterday’s blast occurred in a parking space for motorcycles. A suspected improvised explosive device was placed beside a parked motorcycle, regional military spokesman Major Arvin Encinas told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Lombard could be tolled
Thousands of tourists could soon be forced to make reservations and pay to drive famed, crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco. California lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill granting San Francisco the power to establish a toll and reservation system for Lombard Street. The bill still needs California Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority has recommended US$5 per vehicle on weekdays and US$10 on weekends and holidays. Residents have said that the scenic street has become more like an overcrowded amusement park than a neighborhood street. They have been calling for years for officials to address traffic jams, trash and trespassing. Tourism officials have estimated that 6,000 people daily visit the 183m-long street in the summer, creating lines of vehicles stretching for blocks.
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
SHOW OF SUPPORT: The move showed that aggression toward Greenland is a question for Europe and Canada, and the consequences are global, not just Danish, experts said Canada and France, which adamantly oppose US President Donald Trump’s wish to control Greenland, were to open consulates in the Danish autonomous territory’s capital yesterday, in a strong show of support for the local government. Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needs to control the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island for security reasons. Trump last month backed off his threats to seize Greenland after saying he had struck a “framework” deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte to ensure greater US influence. A US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss ways to meet Washington’s security concerns
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
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