■PAKISTAN
US drone kills four
Missiles fired from a US drone aircraft killed at least four militants yesterday in the northwest tribal belt near the border, security officials said. The drone struck at about 10:30am in the Khushali Toorkhel area of North Waziristan, a tribal district and known stronghold for Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militant groups. “The target was a militant compound belonging to followers of a local rebel commander, Haleem Khan, and the US drone fired three missiles,” a senior Pakistani security official said. “Four militants were killed while several others were wounded in the strike. The death toll may rise.”
■AFGHANISTAN
Kandahar blast kills two
Two explosions struck downtown Kandahar within a minute of each other yesterday, killing two civilians in the key southern city where the US is planning an offensive to clear out the Taliban. The blasts were caused by a roadside bomb and a motorbike packed with explosives about 10m away, Kandahar deputy provincial police chief Fazel Ahmad Sherzad said. “The explosions happened while a convoy of police vehicles was passing by,” the interior ministry said in a statement. One of the blasts detonated near Sherzad’s car, but he was not inside it at the time. Afghan and international troops immediately cordoned off the road to collect evidence.
■PHILIPPINES
Fire destroys 600 homes
A huge fire that swept through a shantytown in Quezon City destroyed about 600 houses and left more than 10,000 people homeless. Metropolitan Manila Fire Marshal Pablito Cordeta said about 200 firetrucks battled Sunday’s fire, which also injured five people, including three firefighters. It spread rapidly in the slum because of strong winds and the scorching summer heat. Firefighters struggled to penetrate alleys, which were clogged by people trying to save their belongings. Residents wept as they watched their burning houses. A weeping resident, Glen Sardon, said “We failed to save anything except our clothes.”
■MALAYSIA
Police detain 75 migrants
Police said yesterday they had detained 75 Sri Lankan migrants who refused to get off a fishing trawler, after three days of talks to persuade them to leave the vessel broke down. The trawler was intercepted off northern Perak state on Friday but the group, including six women and eight children, refused to leave the boat, northern region marine police chief Zainal Abidin Hasan said. “We towed the fishing trawler into our police base jetty as the vessel had at least five leaks and it was damaged and could sink but they still refused to get off,” he said. Zainal said the group wanted a guarantee that they would get asylum in a third country such as Australia, Canada or New Zealand.
■AUSTRALIA
Bieber’s concert canceled
Police yesterday shut down a concert by teenage Canadian singer Justin Bieber over crowd safety fears after young fans were injured in surges hours before the free event was due to start. Bieber, 16, had been scheduled to sing three songs from the Sydney Harbour foreshore venue early yesterday, but the event was canceled after thousands of fans, many of whom had been camping out overnight, began pushing. Bieber, who later sang one song live on local television, apologized to those who had waited to see him perform at his only Australian gig.
■ISRAEL
Hamas official killed
Security forces killed a wanted Hamas official who had holed up in a house in the southern West Bank yesterday, police and witnesses said. A team comprised of border police, soldiers and members of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence “eliminated Ali Suweiti, a senior terrorist leader,” a border police spokesman said. Security forces had been searching for Suweiti for the past six years, he said.
■YEMEN
UK envoy’s convoy attacked
The British ambassador to Sanaa escaped a bombing believed triggered by a suicide attacker yesterday, but the blast killed an unidentified person, a security official said. “The ambassador was not hurt” in the attack that targeted his convoy as it headed toward the embassy, the official said. He said that the attack was “believed to be a suicide attack,” adding that one person, whose identity has not been determined, was killed. Witnesses insisted that the bombing was a suicide attack, saying the bomber was a bit slow in targeting the diplomat’s vehicle and that the attacker’s body was torn to pieces.
■KYRGYZSTAN
Former minister arrested
Russia has extradited a former Kyrgyz minister who vanished amid the unrest that swept the former administration from power, the interim government said yesterday. Former interior minister Moldomus Kongantiyev was in police custody, first deputy head Almazbek Atambayev said. “With the help of Russian law enforcement agencies, we were able to detain former interior minister Kongantiyev in Moscow,” Atambayev said during a government meeting in Bishkek. “We confirm the fact of Kongantiyev’s detention and that he is located in one of our jails,” he said. There was no immediate confirmation of the detention from Russian officials.
■SPAIN
Navy captures ‘pirates’
The navy captured eight suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia on Sunday as part of Europe’s anti-piracy mission in the area, the defense ministry said. The Spanish frigate Victoria captured a whaleboat and various skiffs, on which the ministry said arms and other materials suitable for use in pirate attacks were discovered. The navy destroyed the whaler and took its eight crew on a skiff toward the Somali coast, the ministry said in a statement.
■SOMALIA
Militants execute man
Witnesses say militants from the nation’s most hardline insurgent group have executed a man they convicted of murder and cut off the hands of an accused thief. Hundreds of Mogadishu residents gathered to watch the firing squad execution yesterday, which was carried out by three masked men from the al-Shabab militia. Resident Abdulle Lugey said the militants also chopped off the hand of a thief after two nurses injected him with anesthesia.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Call for climate change pact
Four influential developing nations say the world must work for a strong climate change agreement this year. Summing up strategy talks Cape Town on Sunday, Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and her counterparts from Brazil, China and India said they wanted year-end talks in Mexico to produce a binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and help poor countries cope with climate change. But they added that success could still come from a round of talks scheduled for next year.
■BRAZIL
Drunk driver lynched
A housewife celebrating her 24th birthday was lynched after running over a pregnant woman and her daughter while driving drunk, local media reported on Sunday, citing police. Pamela de Souza Costa was shot five times after being caught by a group of residents in the town of Macae, 160km northeast of Rio de Janeiro, immediately after the accident on Friday, the O Globo newspaper said. The woman she ran into, Silmara Rodrigues, was badly hurt and lost her unborn baby. She may also have to have a leg amputated. Rodrigues’ eight-year-old daughter Raissa was killed. Costa had been driving home after drinking at her birthday party when she lost control of her car and ran into Rodrigues and her daughter, who were slammed against a wall. She tried to leave the scene of the accident but collided with a post.
■BRAZIL
Shootout leaves one dead
A shootout between rival drug gangs in a Rio de Janeiro slum area on Sunday left one member dead and five wounded, reports said, citing police. The clash occurred in the Mare slum complex in Rio’s north. Police have been deployed and calmed the violence, the news Web sites Terra and G1 reported. Such confrontations occur from time to time in Rio’s notoriously lawless slums, posing a serious challenge to authorities trying to repair the city’s reputation for crime ahead of the 2016 Olympics to be hosted there.
■UNITED STATES
Girl ends solo voyage
A 16-year-old girl from Southern California attempting to sail solo around the world has ended her quest to become the youngest to make the trip nonstop and will head to South Africa for boat repairs. Abby Sunderland wrote on her blog on Saturday that it would be “foolish and irresponsible” to keep going after losing use of her boat’s main autopilot. She expects to land in Cape Town in about two weeks. Even with her nonstop attempt over, Sunderland intends to complete the voyage. Sunderland embarked Jan. 23 after brother Zac completed a westerly solo circumnavigation at the age of 17.
■UNITED STATES
Man with gun arrested
An man was charged on Sunday after authorities spotted him with a gun in a North Carolina airport parking lot as President Barack Obama’s plane was departing. Joseph McVey, 23, was charged with going armed in terror of the public, a misdemeanor, airport police Captain Kevan Smith said. He was taken into custody immediately and was being held at the county jail. Security was heightened at the airport because Obama was leaving after vacationing in the state, headed to the memorial service for the 29 West Virginia coal miners killed in an explosion. The suspect was nowhere near the president’s plane and was in a public area.
■UNITED STATES
Protesters pan illegals law
Thousands of people marched peacefully in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday to express their opposition to a controversial immigration law signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. Television images showed the protesters converging on the State Capitol, where they held a rally to denounce the legislation. The law, signed by Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer on Friday, allows police to question and detain anyone in the southwestern border state they believe may be an illegal immigrant, even if they are not suspected of committing another crime.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
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