SOUTH AFRICA
Mandela out of hospital
Former president Nelson Mandela was released on Wednesday from the hospital after being treated for a lung infection and having gallstones removed, a government spokesman said. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon will continue to receive medical care at home. Mandela had been in the hospital since Dec. 8. In recent days, officials have said he was improving and in good spirits, but doctors have taken extraordinary care with his health because of his age. Mandela was released on Wednesday evening and will receive “home-based high care” at his residence in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton until he fully recovers, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said.
NIGERIA
Fireworks factory explodes
A massive explosion ripped through a warehouse full of fireworks in Lagos on Wednesday, sparking a fire that threatened surrounding city blocks and sending a plume of thick smoke high into the sky. At least one person died and 15 others were wounded, emergency officials said. The blast occurred around 9am in the Jankara area of Lagos Island. The force of the explosion echoed kilometers away and shook windows. A journalist saw members of the Nigerian Red Cross treating people with minor cuts and bruises a few blocks from the site. Later, rescuers pulled out a badly charred corpse from the still-smoldering structure. Many people were injured when they stampeded through the area’s narrow alleyways, National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib said. A half-dozen firefighters arrived at the scene with two trucks and locals also ran fire hoses from the trucks to nearby buildings to try to beat back the flames. The trucks quickly ran out of water. One man even scooped up water from a puddle with a bowl in an attempt to fight the blaze.
JAPAN
Hiroshima survivors honored
Hiroshima University yeterday said it would bestow honorary doctorates on three former students from Southeast Asia who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of the city. The degrees will be given to former Brunei prime minister Pengiran Yusuf, 91; Hasan Rahaya, 91, a former Indonesian parliamentarian; and Abdul Razak, 87, who taught Japanese in Malaysia, the university said. The three were among a group of students from Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia studying in the country during World War II under a program designed to provide young foreigners with pro-Japanese education. According to the university, they were forced to stop their studies after Hiroshima was hit by the atomic bomb dropped by US forces, killing an estimated 140,000 people instantly. They were among nine foreign students at the university who were exposed to radiation from the bomb, a university official said.
THE PHILIPPINES
Latecomer storm kills six
A late season storm has left at least six people dead in separate incidents in the central part of the country, but has spared a southern region that was devastated by a typhoon that killed more than 1,000 people weeks earlier. The national disaster agency said in a report yesterday that three people died when a tree fell on their house in Eastern Samar province, where Tropical Storm Wukong made landfall on Christmas Day. Another person was killed in a landslide in Iloilo province. Officials say heavy rain on mountains surrounding Kalibo, the capital of Aklan province, triggered a flash flood late on Wednesday. It was the 17th storm to hit the country this year.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Thunderbirds’ creator dies
Gerry Anderson, the creator of television show Thunderbirds, died on Wednesday at age 83 after a long battle with mixed dementia, his son said on his blog. The puppeteer started his career in the 1950s, creating a string of popular British shows including 1964’s Stingray. His company, AP Films, pioneered the “supermarionation” puppetry technique with the fusion of marionette figures and small-scale models to create live action-style shows. Anderson’s most notable production was 1965 series Thunderbirds, about a secret organization that performs rescue missions using high-tech tools and vehicles. The show became a cult favorite and was adapted for the big screen, most recently in the 2004 film Thunderbirds.
VENEZUELA
Chavez delegates duties
Ailing President Hugo Chavez, who is still in Cuba recovering from his latest cancer surgery, has delegated several economic duties to Vice President Nicolas Maduro. According to a decree signed by Chavez and published on Wednesday in the country’s government gazette, Maduro is now responsible for making certain decisions related to the national budget and expropriations. Chavez, 58, is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 10, but his health has raised concerns over the future of his leftist movement. Officials have never disclosed the type or severity of Chavez’s cancer and he only designated a successor — Maduro — earlier this month.
UNITED STATES
Storm grounds planes
A powerful winter storm forced the cancelation of about 200 flights yesterday, as heavy snow and high winds pummeled the northeastern US. The National Weather Service forecast 30.5cm to 46cm of snow for northern New England as the storm moved northeast out of the lower Great Lakes, where it dumped more than 30.5cm of snow in Michigan. The storm front was accompanied by freezing rain and sleet. The Ohio River Valley and the Northeast were under blizzard and winter storm warnings. Snow will fall in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire at up to 5cm an hour, the weather agency said.
FRANCE
EU mission head appointed
Authorities have named the general who will lead a EU mission to the Sahel region, a move seen as intended to speed up military intervention against al-Qaeda-linked forces occupying northern Mali. The European Training Mission will be headed by General Francois Lecointre, 50, a marine infantryman who has served in Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Gabon and Bosnia. The announcement came after al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Christmas Day issued a four-minute video in which one of the group’s leaders, Abou Zeid, criticized France for “not deigning to respond to our offer of dialogue” over four Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger in September 2010.
UNITED STATES
Bush’s health deteriorates
After more than a month in a Texas hospital battling bronchitis, former US president George H.W. Bush has taken a turn for the worse and was transferred to intensive care on Sunday with a “stubborn fever,” spokesman Jim McGrath said on Wednesday. The 88-year-old was first admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston on Nov. 7 for bronchitis and released on Nov. 19, but then readmitted four days later. McGrath said doctors were “cautiously optimistic,” but that there was no talk yet of a discharge date.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia