SWITZERLAND
Trains derail in strong winds
Fifteen people were injured on Friday when two trains derailed as stormy winds lashed the country’s northwest, police said. The incidents, on regional passenger rail lines, took place within 20 minutes of each other and about 30km apart, north of the capital, Bern. Three people were injured in the first derailment, including the driver, and 12 were hurt in the second, including one person with serious injuries. Wind speeds of 136kph were recorded nearby.
NORWAY
Avalanches leave four dead
Four people, including foreign tourists, were killed on Friday as multiple avalanches hit the far north, police said. A group of tourists were caught in an avalanche in the Kvalvikdalen valley on Friday afternoon, police said. “We can confirm that one person is deceased,” police spokesman Morten Pettersen said. He added that two others were hurt, one critically and one with “moderate injuries.” About half an hour after the first report, police received notice of another avalanche on the nearby island of Reinoya “where a house and a barn were caught in the snow mass and carried into the sea,” Pettersen said, adding that two people had been confirmed dead. Later in the evening, police said that a fourth person had been killed in another avalanche by the Tverrelva river in the Nordreisa area.
ITALY
Pope Francis leaves hospital
Pope Francis yesterday left hospital after a three-night stay for a bronchitis infection, joking with well-wishers and journalists waiting for him outside that he was “still alive.” The 86-year-old, who was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Wednesday with breathing difficulties, got out of the vehicle transporting him and smiled and joked with the crowd, before heading off to the Vatican to begin preparations for the most important week in the Christian calendar, which culminates in Easter. He is expected to preside over Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square.
UNITED STATES
Trump in court Tuesday
Former president Donald Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, in the indictment handed down by a Manhattan grand jury, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday. He is to be formally arrested and arraigned on Tuesday in his hush-money case. The indictment remained sealed and the specific charges were not immediately known, but details were confirmed by people who spoke on condition of anonymity. When Trump turns himself in, he is to be booked mostly like anyone else facing charges, mug shot, fingerprinting and all, but he is not expected to be put in handcuffs.
UNITED STATES
Judge orders Fox News trial
A US judge on Friday ordered a jury trial in the US$1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News over the 2020 presidential election. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, in a blow to the Rupert Murdoch-owned television network, denied a bid by Fox News to get the suit dismissed. Instead, the judge said Dominion, a voting technology company, had proven some elements of its defamation claim, and the case should be heard by a jury. A trial is expected to begin in April. Judge Davis said the evidence presented at a two-day hearing between the parties demonstrated that it is “crystal clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
Tanzanian politicians are in shock over the massacre of hundreds of young protesters during its recent election, insiders told Agence France-Presse, but are too afraid to speak out as a tiny cabal around the president takes control. Gruesome images of dead Tanzanians have flooded the Internet in the wake of the Oct. 29 elections that triggered widespread protests over government repression. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan officially won with 98 percent of the vote, but key opposition leaders were jailed or disqualified. The opposition said that more than 1,000 people were killed as security forces crushed the protests under cover of a five-day
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