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.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
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