NORTH KOREA
Kim’s uncle returns home
Kim Jong-un’s uncle has returned to Pyongyang after quitting his job as ambassador to the Czech Republic, Yonhap News reported, citing lawmakers in Seoul. Kim Pyong-il is the half-brother of Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il. Lawmakers were briefed on the move by the head of the National Intelligence Service on Friday, the news agency said. Kim Pyong-il was once considered a potential successor of his brother, but he has been distant from power since moving out of the country in 1988 to take an ambassador job in Hungary, the report said.
WEST BANK
Israeli troops kill teenager
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Israeli troops have shot and killed a teenager near Hebron. The ministry on Saturday identified the youth as Badawi Masalmeh, 18, adding that Israeli soldiers took his body. The Israeli military said its forces spotted three people hurling Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles on a nearby route and fired at them. The two others were arrested.
IRAN
Official suggests opening
A senior official has suggested in an interview that authorities might be more open than in the past in approving candidates for a looming parliamentary election. “We don’t consider ourselves immune from criticism. We may also accept that mistakes have been made in the past,” Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaee said. “But for the next legislative elections we are trying to reduce our mistakes and respect the rights of candidates.” Kadkhodaee was speaking on the eve of the opening yesterday of the registration of candidates for the parliamentary election to be held on Feb. 21. The council is responsible for organizing and monitoring elections, including vetting candidates.
NAMIBIA
President re-elected
President Hage Geingob has won the presidential election with 56.3 percent of the vote, the Electoral Commission said on Saturday, surviving the country’s biggest corruption scandal, an economic recession and a fractured ruling party. Geingob was seeking a second and final term in the Nov. 27 election. First elected in 2014 with 87 percent of the vote, Geingob avoided a potential runoff against a member of his own party, Panduleni Itula, who was running as an independent. Itula trailed with 29.4 percent of the vote and leader of the opposition Popular Democratic Movement McHenry Venaani was third with 5.3 percent.
CHINA
Police beat protesters
Riot police on Friday fired tear gas and beat residents in Wenlou — a township in Guangdong Province about 100km from Hong Kong after they took to the streets to protest against a large crematorium project. Hundreds of residents protested over the plan for a site they had been previously told by officials that would become an “ecological park.” Footage recorded by residents appeared to show riot police firing tear gas, throwing rocks and beating protesters. Videos also showed residents throwing firecrackers at the police and tipping over a vehicle. “The whole town is protesting. The government has violently deployed people to suppress it,” said one resident, who asked not to be named, adding that police had beaten elderly residents and young students. “Now police are like crazy dogs, beating whoever they see. Where is the law? Where is morality?” he said.
MEXICO
Shootout with police kills 14
A shootout in a town near the US border between suspected drug traffickers and police left at least 14 dead, including four officers, officials said on Saturday. The confrontation in Villa Union erupted when officers detected several vehicles and heavily armed passengers touring the small community. Coahuila State Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme said six officers were also wounded, but their injuries were not serious. An unspecified number of people — including a child — were also missing, officials added.
UNITED STATES
Plane crash kills nine
Nine people were killed and three were injured in an airplane crash in South Dakota late on Saturday. The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-12, carrying 12 people, was bound for Idaho from South Dakota before it crashed about noon, a National Transportation Safety Board official said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
SWEDEN
Prop plane crash kills pilot
The pilot of a propeller plane died on Saturday after it crashed into the garden of a house in Ronneby, police said. The plane caught fire, sending heavy smoke billowing over the neighborhood. However, firefighters were able to extinguish the fire fairly quickly and no one on the ground was hurt, the police said. The plane was a DA20, a light single propeller aircraft popular with flight schools and private pilots.
UNITED STATES
Sewage floods homes
A blocked sewer main on Saturday flooded basements with brown filth and left residents in the New York City borough of Queens near Kennedy International Airport feeling sickened by the stench. A water condition caused the backup, pushing human waste into about 300 homes in Jamaica, Queens, officials said. Mayor Bill de Blasio said crews were making repairs and bringing in pumping equipment to clear up the mess. However, he advised residents to reduce usage to cut down on water going into the blocked main. Officials believe the practice of pouring cooking grease down the drain led to the blockage.
POLAND
Tigers head to Spain
Five of nine tigers that narrowly survived a grueling journey across Europe set off on Saturday for their new home at the Primadomus Wildlife Refuge in southern Spain after weeks of recovery at a zoo in Poznan. Ten emaciated and dehydrated tigers were found in late October in the back of a truck taking them from Italy to a zoo in Russia’s Dagestan Republic. The truck became stuck at the Koroszczyn crossing, where one tiger died. The survivors were divided between two zoos. “The tigers have left. We’re very happy that in just 24 to 30 hours they will arrive,” Poznan zoo spokeswoman Malgorzata Chodyla said.
UNITED STATES
‘Day O’ composer dies
Irving Burgie, who helped popularize Caribbean music and cowrote the enduring Harry Belafonte hit Day-O (The Banana Boat Song), has died at the age of 95. At the Bahamian Independence Day Parade on Saturday, Bahamian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced Burgie died on Friday. His mother was from the Bahamas. The Songwriters Hall of Fame said Burgie’s songs have sold more than 100 million records around the world. Born in Brooklyn, he served in World War II and used the GI Bill to pay for music studies. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music and two universities.
URGENT CALL: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency pleaded to gain access to the plant, saying ‘every principle of nuclear safety has been violated The UN’s nuclear chief on Tuesday warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control,” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said in an interview that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. “Every principle of nuclear safety has been
On a beach in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, just a few kilometers from Taiwan’s Kinmen, life is carefree, despite some of the worst cross-strait tensions in decades. Ignoring warnings from Beijing, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit the nation in 25 years — sparking a diplomatic firestorm. China yesterday launched some of its largest-ever military drills — exercises set to disrupt one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. However, on Xiamen’s palm-fringed beach, there was little concern. “A war? No, I don’t care,” a young IT worker surnamed
According to Forrest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates because “you never know what you’re going to get.” Now, an Indian remake of the movie has been hit by boycott calls over years-old comments by its Muslim star, Aamir Khan. It is the latest example of how Bollywood actors, particularly minority Muslims such as Khan, are feeling increased pressure under Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Modi. Laal Singh Chaddha, an Indian spin on the 1994 Hollywood hit with Tom Hanks, is expected to be one of India’s biggest films of the year. This is due in large part to its
ACROPORA REVIVAL: A marine science official said that the results of recent studies showed that the reef can still recover in periods that are free of intense disturbances Parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover in decades, an Australian government report said yesterday. Portions of the UNESCO heritage site showed a marked increase in coral cover in the past year, reaching levels not seen in 36 years of monitoring, the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. Scientists surveying 87 sites said that northern and central parts of the reef had bounced back from damage more quickly than some had expected, thanks mainly to fast-growing Acropora — a branching coral that supports thousands of marine species. “These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover
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