GUATEMALA
Bus crash kills at least 20
A trailer truck early on Saturday collided with a passenger bus in the country’s east, killing at least 20 people and leaving a dozen wounded, the national disaster agency said. Nine of the dead were children, it said. Volunteer firefighters told reporters that the truck appeared to have hit bus from behind in the municipality of Gualan, about 150km east of Guatemala City. Photographs of the scene showed the truck toppled on its side along a curve on the two-lane highway, with the bus a little further ahead, its rear section destroyed. The bus had been traveling from the northeastern Peten region to the capital, the agency said. The injured were taken to several hospitals in the region, it said.
UNITED STATES
Native tribe recognized
A Native American tribe whose members were scattered after being denied a homeland more than a century ago has been formally recognized by the government. Recognition of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians was included in a defense spending bill signed into law on Friday night by President Donald Trump. That ended a campaign for recognition as a sovereign nation that tribal leaders trace back to the 1860s, when chief Little Shell and his band in North Dakota refused to sign what they considered an unfair treaty. They ended up landless, and most eventually settled in Montana.
CROATIA
Presidential vote begins
The country yesterday went to the polls for a presidential vote that could weaken the ruling conservatives just as the country takes the helm of the EU’s rotating presidency. The election, likely to be decided in a Jan. 5 runoff, has evolved into a tight race between conservative President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and front-running rivals on the right and the left. Voters braved heavy rain in the capital, Zagreb, to reach polling stations that opened at 7am, with voting set to finish 12 hours later. Grabar-Kitarovic has been president since 2015 with backing from the center-right Croatian Democratic Union, which has led the country for most of its independence since 1991.
AFGHANISTAN
President wins second term
President Ashraf Gani has won a second term, earning 50.6 percent of a preliminary vote count, but his opponents can still challenge result, the election commission announced yesterday. Results for the Sept. 28 presidential polls have been repeatedly delayed amid accusations of misconduct and technical problems with counting ballots. Ghani appears to have beaten out his main challenger, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who serves in a fragile national unity government. Hawa Alam Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, made the announcement at a news conference in the capital, Kabul.
FRANCE
Strike hits holiday travel
Travelers and tourists were struggling on Saturday to reach their destinations as the Christmas season ramped up amid continuing strikes against the government’s plans to raise the retirement age to 64. Train travel problems were slightly eased on Saturday with a plan from rail authority SNCF to inform passengers several days in advance and propose ticket exchanges. Still, only half of the high-speed trains were running and regional trains, including in the Paris region, remained severely disrupted.
Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights calling for the release of his critics as “blatant interference.” The EU Parliament resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority the day before, called for the release of lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison on Thursday, but remained under judicial supervision. “The European Parliament [resolution] is a blatant interference in our affairs,” Saied said. “They can learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms.” Saied’s condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU’s ambassador for “failing to respect diplomatic rules.” He also
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
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