Timeline 2016 October - December
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2016 Oct 1,
Los Angeles police shot and killed Carnell Snell Jr. (18), a black
man, following a chase when a vehicle did not comply with a traffic
stop. Two black males got out of the car at a traffic stop and fled
on foot. Officers followed one of them to a residence, where he was
shot and killed. Police said a handgun was found at the scene.
Surveillance video released on October 4 showed Snell running from
police while holding a gun.
(Reuters, 10/2/16)(SFC, 10/3/16, p.A6)(SFC,
10/5/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 1, Afghan officials
said Taliban fighters have advanced closer to Lashkar Gah, capital
of the strategic southern province of Helmand, pushing into a
farming district on the other side of the river from the town.
(Reuters, 10/1/16)
2016 Oct 1, China’s revisions
to foreign investment laws came into effect.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.62)
2016 Oct 1, China shut down a
website called Consensus Net, a publisher of articles on economic,
social and political reform since its founding in 2009.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9o9vr4n)(Econ, 2/18/17,
p.37)
2016 Oct 1, The IMF's basket of
reserve currencies included China’s renminbi, also known as the
yuan. The other currencies in the basket are the US dollar, the
Japanese yen, the British pound and Europe's common currency, the
euro. The last change to the basket was the addition of the euro in
1999.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Oct 1, Hurricane Matthew
drenched coastal Colombia and moved on a course that threatened
Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 1, Ethiopian police
arrested Seyoum Teshome, an outspoken university lecturer and
blogger who criticized the government, especially its handling of
the ongoing protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 1, India started its
biggest ever telecoms airwaves auction, receiving 535.31 billion
rupees ($8.04 billion) worth of bids on the first day of the sale.
(Reuters, 10/1/16)
2016 Oct 1, It was reported
that four people died in eastern India when police opened fire
during clashes with villagers who allege state-run NTPC Ltd violate
forestry rights and does not offer enough compensation when
acquiring land for a coal mining site.
(Reuters, 10/1/16)
2016 Oct 1, Iranian media
reported that its Revolutionary Guard has built a new attack drone
similar to the US RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone captured five years ago.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 1, South Korean
President Park Geun-Hye called on North Koreans to abandon their
country and defect, just a day after a soldier walked across the
heavily fortified border into the South.
(AFP, 10/1/16)
2016 Oct 1, In Spain Pedro
Sanchez, head of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE),
resigned following a vote of 132 to 107 for him to step down. He was
replaced by a caretaker committee.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.47)
2016 Oct 1, Syrian troops
pushed ahead in their offensive in Aleppo capturing the strategic Um
al-Shuqeef hill near the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat that
government forces captured earlier this week.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A8)
2016 Oct 1, Ukraine's army and
pro-Russian separatists both announced the pull back of their troops
from a small eastern city as agreed in a demilitarization accord
signed last month.
(AFP, 10/1/16)
2016 Oct 2, In southern
California Los Angeles police shot and killed Daniel Enrique Perez
(16) as he point a fake gun at them. Police later said the boy had
used his cell phone to report a man with a gun matching his own
description.
(SFC, 10/7/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 2, The World Bank
reported that 767 million people live in extreme poverty, subsisting
on less than $1.90 per day. Data used was already two years out of
date.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.69)
2016 Oct 2, Brazilians furious
at recession and corruption voted in nationwide municipal elections
expected to deal a drubbing to the long-dominant left. The
first-round balloting ended in humiliation for the nation's former
governing Workers' Party.
(AFP, 10/2/16)(AFP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 2, Colombians voted in
a referendum on whether to ratify a historic peace accord to end a
52-year war between the state and the communist FARC rebels. With
more than 99.9 percent of votes counted Colombians voted 50.21
percent to 49.78 percent against the accord.
(AFP, 10/2/16)(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 2, In Ethiopia police
in the Oromiya region fired teargas and warning shots to disperse
anti-government protesters at a religious festival, triggering a
stampede that killed 52 people. The clashes between security forces
and protesters continued into the next day in the towns of Bishoftu
and Ambo.
(Reuters, 10/2/16)(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 2, Hungary held a
referendum on refugee quotas. Only 40% of the electorate cast valid
votes. Low turnout invalidated the referendum against EU refugee
quotas but showed nearly unanimous support for the government
position among its supporters.
(AP, 10/3/16)(Econ, 10/8/16, p.50)
2016 Oct 2, India ratified the
Paris climate change agreement at the UN in New York.
(SFC, 10/3/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 2, In Iraq a
booby-trapped drone launched by Islamic State militants killed two
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and wounded two French soldiers north of
the IS-controlled city of Mosul. French soldiers had been training
Kurdish fighters near the site of the drone crash near the town of
Dohuk.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 2, Italian
investigative journalist Claudio Gatti claimed to have identified
Elena Ferrante, the world’s most famous pseudonymous novelist. He
identified her as Anita Raja, the wife of novelist Domenico
Starnone. “My Brilliant Friend,” the first of her four “Neapolitan
Novels,” was published in 2011.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.75)
2016 Oct 2, Syrian government
and allied forces advanced north of Aleppo, pressing their week-old
offensive to take the insurgent-held, eastern part of the city after
dozens of overnight air strikes.
(Reuters, 10/2/16)
2016 Oct 2, In northern Syria
at least 21 Syrian rebels fighting alongside Turkish troops against
the Islamic State were killed by landmines laid by the jihadist
group.
(AFP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 2, In Vietnam
thousands of protesters surrounded a Taiwanese steel plant, some
scaling walls and holding signs demanding its closure, as anger
flares against the firm for dumping toxic waste into the ocean
killing tons of fish last April.
(AFP, 10/2/16)
2016 Oct 3, In northern
Afghanistan at least 6 people were killed and 35 wounded, when an
improvised explosive device tore into a crowded marketplace in
Jawzjan province. Taliban fighters pushed into the center of the
northern city of Kunduz, taking control of the central intersection
where they raised their flag a year ago in their biggest success of
the 15-year-old conflict.
(Reuters, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, In France armed
robbers early today forced their way into a private Paris residence
where Kim Kardashian West was staying, tied her up and locked her in
a bathroom before making off with more than $10 million worth of
jewelry. On Jan 13, 2017, six more suspects were charged in the
robbery raising the number of people facing preliminary charges to
10.
(AP, 10/3/16)(SFC, 1/14/17, p.A2)
2016 Oct 3, Two Haitian
fishermen died in rough water churned up by the approaching Category
4 Hurricane Matthew.
(AP, 10/3/16)(SFC, 10/4/16, p.A3)
2016 Oct 3, Indian and
Pakistani troops fired at each other in disputed Kashmir, as Indian
troops searched an army camp elsewhere in the region where suspected
militants killed an Indian paramilitary soldier.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, In India Aradhana
Samdhariya (13), died due to cardiac arrest, a day after her family
held a procession in the southern city of Hyderabad in which she
rode in a chariot with her parents to celebrate the end of a 68-day
fast. Family members publicly denied forcing the girl to fast during
the holy period of Chaumasa, observed by the Jain community from
July.
(Reuters, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 3, Germany's Siemens
signed a contract to upgrade Iran's railway network, one of several
deals agreed by German firms during a two-day visit to Tehran by
Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
(Reuters, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, In Iraq suicide
bombers attacked two Shi'ite Muslim processions in Baghdad, killing
at least 16 people and wounding more than 40. The Islamic State
claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(Reuters, 10/3/16)(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, Some 6,055 migrants
bound for Europe were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea off North
Africa and 22 found dead, one of the highest numbers in a single day
according to Italian and Libyan officials.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 3, Japan's Yoshinori
Ohsumi (71) won the 2016 Nobel prize for medicine for
ground-breaking experiments with yeast which exposed a key mechanism
in the body's defenses where cells degrade and recycle their
components.
(Reuters, 10/3/16)(SFC, 10/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 3, Moroccan
authorities dismantled a 10-member terror cell comprised entirely of
women with alleged ties to IS. The cell planned to carry out attacks
on the Oct 7 election day. Seven of the 10 members were underage.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 3, Russia’s Pres.
Vladimir Putin withdrew his country from a plutonium disposal treaty
that was signed with the US in 2000.
(SFC, 10/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 3, In Syria two
suicide bombings struck the central city of Hama killing two people
and wounding at least 12. The Islamic State claimed responsibility
for the attacks.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, Turkish military
officials said 15 Syrian opposition fighters were killed and about
35 wounded over the last 24 hours in fighting to capture seven
residential districts south of the town of al-Rai.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 4, Oklahoma’s Supreme
Court threw out another state law that would put new restrictions on
abortion providers.
(SFC, 10/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 4, Reuters reported
that Yahoo had written customized software to scan all incoming
e-mail for certain keywords, complying with a request either from
America’s National Security Agency of the FBI.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.59)
2016 Oct 4, In Afghanistan
fierce gunbattles raged for a second day in the northern city of
Kunduz. In the country's south, insurgents killed 12 policemen at
checkpoints around the Helmand provincial capital and seized another
district they had attacked a day earlier. An improvised explosive
device in Nangarhar Province killed a US service member and three
Afghan soldiers. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(AP, 10/4/16)(Reuters, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 4, British home
secretary Amer Rudd announced new restrictions on foreign students
in an effort to reduce the number of migrants.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.52)
2016 Oct 4, Three British-born
scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries about
strange states of matter that could result in improved materials for
electronics or quantum computers. David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and
Michael Kosterlitz, now affiliated with universities in the United
States, were honored for breakthroughs they made in the 1970s and
'80s.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 4, Officials in the
Dominican Republic reported that at least four people died when
heavy rains linked to Hurricane Matthew damaged their homes.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 4, Egypt's security
forces killed Mohammed Kama (61), a senior Muslim Brotherhood
leader, and another member of the outlawed Islamist group in an
overnight shootout at a Cairo apartment. Kamal, a physician by
profession, was killed along with Yasser Shahata Ali Ragab in an
exchange of gunfire as police tried to arrest them.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 4, In Ethiopia a US
citizen was killed on the outskirts of Addis Ababa when the vehicle
she was in was struck by rocks thrown by people in the area.
(Reuters, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 4, Haiti's
southwestern peninsula early with 145 mile-per-hour (230 kph) winds
and storm surges. Tens of thousands were left homeless and outbreaks
of cholera soon claimed more lives. By Oct 10 the confirmed death
toll reached 372, but an official with the Civil Protection Agency
said at least 522 deaths were confirmed just in the Grand-Anse
Department. The official toll was later put at 546 dead and 128
missing.
(Reuters, 10/4/16)(AP, 10/6/16)(AFP,
10/10/16)(SFC, 10/10/16, p.A2)(SFC, 10/21/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 4, In India police
detained more than 700 detained in a raid on makeshift call centers
in the Mumbai suburb of Thane. 70 people arrested. An estimated
$36.5 million was extorted from US residents in an alleged tax scam
that was run for about a year from call centers on the outskirts of
Mumbai.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 4,
A Myanmar lawmaker said parliament has abolished the Emergency
Provisions Act. The law was introduced in 1950 as newly independent
Myanmar struggled with nascent ethnic insurgencies but was then
frequently used against activists after the military seized power in
a 1962 coup.
(Reuters, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 4, South African
police fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas at student
protesters in Johannesburg as authorities tried to re-open the
prestigious Wits University after weeks of demonstrations.
(AFP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 4, Rebels said they
had repelled a Syrian army offensive in southern Aleppo as Russian
and Syrian warplanes continued to pound residential areas in
besieged parts of the city where thousands of civilians are trapped.
25 deaths in government-held west Aleppo were documented as a result
of rebel shelling.
(Reuters, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 4, The United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights warned Russia over use of
incendiary weapons in air strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo,
where he said attacks on civilian targets may amount to crimes
against humanity.
(Reuters, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 5, In southern
California Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Steven Owen (53) was
shot and killed while answering a burglary report. The suspected
gunman was arrested after commandeering Owen’s patrol car in
Lancaster.
(SFC, 10/6/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 5, In Iowa Mo Hailong
(aka Robert Mo), a businessman from China, was sentenced to three
years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets
from US seed corn companies DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto. In December
a federal judge ordered Hailong to pay $425,000 to DuPont and
Monsanto.
(AP, 10/6/16)(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 5, Afghan forces
battled the Taliban in the northern city of Kunduz for the third
straight day with American helicopters providing air support. Afghan
leaders and officials from over 70 nations gathered in Brussels,
seeking to drum up billions of dollars for the cash-strapped
government as it battles the Taliban insurgency and rampant
corruption.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, Afghanistan’s Pres.
Ashraf Ghani convinced Int’l. donors to pledge $15.2 billion to help
keep his government afloat for the next four years.
(SFC, 10/6/16, p.A4)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.48)
2016 Oct 5, Czech police
arrested a Russian hacker in a Prague hotel. He was suspected of
cyberattacks in the United States. After the arrest suspect Yevgeniy
Nikulin collapsed, received first aid treatment and was
hospitalized. LinkedIn had confirmed a breach in May and cooperated
with the FBI to track the suspect down.
(AP, 10/19/16)(SFC, 10/20/16, p.C4)
2016 Oct 5, The Czech
government said it has approved a plan to send medical personnel and
additional military instructors to Iraq. The deployment still
requires parliamentary approval.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, Ethiopia launched a
railway linking the country with a major port on the Gulf of Aden in
Djibouti. The line ran through the restive region of Oromia.
(SFC, 10/6/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 5, A trio of European
scientists has won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing
molecular machines that could one day be injected to fight cancer or
used to make new types of materials and energy storage devices.
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Scotland's J. Fraser Stoddart and
Dutchman Bernard Feringa developed molecules that produce mechanical
motion in response to a stimulus, allowing them to perform specific
tasks.
(Reuters, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, Rescue workers in
Haiti struggled to reach cutoff towns and learn the full extent of
the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew as the storm
began battering the Bahamas and triggered evacuations along the US
East Coast.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, In Iraq around 19
pro-government Sunni tribal fighters south of Mosul were killed in
an air strike east of the town of Qayyarah most likely conducted by
the US-led coalition in a case of mistaken identity.
(AFP, 10/5/16)(SFC, 10/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 5, Israel's military
struck several Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip after a rocket
launched from the Palestinian enclave hit a nearby Israeli city,
with no casualties reported on either side.
(AFP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle, a fugitive top mob boss who escaped from a
hospital in 2011 — finding him at home in a bunker built between the
bathroom and his son's bedroom.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, Syria’s military
said it would scale back its bombardment of Aleppo to allow
civilians to evacuate besieged rebel-held neighborhoods.
(SFC, 10/6/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 5, Thailand stopped
Hong Kong teen pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong from entering the
country to give a talk and sent him home, raising questions about
whether it acted at China's behest.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 6, Pentagon officials
said forty-four Afghan troops visiting the United States for
military training have gone missing in less than two years,
presumably in an effort to live and work illegally in America.
(AP, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, Some three million
people on the US southeast coast faced an urgent evacuation order as
Hurricane Matthew bore down for a direct hit on Florida.
(AFP, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, Officials said
fighting in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz has led to a "rapidly
deteriorating" humanitarian situation, leaving thousands of people
with limited access to food, water, or medical care. The UN said
that as many as 10,000 refugees had arrived in Kabul and northern
towns including Taloqan and Mazar-i-Sharif as Kunduz fell to the
Taliban.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)(Reuters, 10/8/16)
2016 Oct 6, Aid agencies said
fighting between rival armed groups and a string of attacks on
humanitarians in northern Central African Republic has hindered the
delivery of aid to about 120,000 people in need of food.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, Indian soldiers
shot dead seven suspected militants who tried to attack two army
bases in northern Kashmir, prompting anger from Pakistan as a crisis
between the two neighbors over the disputed region grows.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, A Myanmar court
sentenced Dutch citizen Klaas Haytema (30) to three months in prison
for interfering with a religious observance by unplugging an
amplifier blasting a late-night Buddhist sermon near his hotel in
Mandalay. He had been arrested in late September after a crowd
gathered around his hotel in protest when the loudspeakers at a
nearby religious hall were turned off.
(AP, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, Pakistan passed
long-awaited legislation closing a loophole that allowed people who
killed for "honor" to walk free, three months after the murder of a
social media star by her brother sparked international revulsion.
(AFP, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, In Sudan doctors at
government hospitals held a nationwide strike to demand better
facilities, higher wages and protection from security forces.
(AFP, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 6, Syria’s President
Bashar al-Assad said his forces would recapture all of Syria,
including Aleppo, in a television interview with Denmark's TV 2, but
added he would prefer to do so using local deals and amnesties that
would allow rebels to leave for other areas.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 7, It was reported
that President Barack Obama has issued waivers that continue
millions of dollars in US military assistance for troubled South
Sudan and six other nations where child soldiers have been used,
disappointing advocates who say his administration hasn't made
curbing the use of children in combat a higher priority. Waivers
also have been granted to Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Iraq and
Myanmar.
(AP, 10/7/16) (SFC, 10/8/16,
p.A2)
2016 Oct 7, It was reported
that President Barack Obama has issued waivers that continue
millions of dollars in US military assistance for troubled South
Sudan and six other nations where child soldiers have been used,
disappointing advocates who say his administration hasn't made
curbing the use of children in combat a higher priority. Waivers
also have been granted to Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Iraq and
Myanmar.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, It was reported
that Vietnam has declared a United States-based activist group a
terrorist organization and warned that any Vietnamese found to be
involved with the group would be regarded as co-conspirators and
punished. The government said the California-based Viet Tan, or
Vietnam Reform Party, had recruited and trained operatives to use
weapons and explosives.
(Reuters, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, Hurricane Matthew
was downgraded to a category 3 storm. About 600,000 Florida homes
were without power due to Hurricane Matthew and more outages were
likely.
(Reuters, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, The Associate Press
said it has identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would
export a synthetic opioid known as carfentanil to the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia
for as little as $2,750 a kilogram (2.2 pounds), no questions asked.
Carfentanil burst into view this summer, the latest scourge in an
epidemic of opioid abuse that has killed tens of thousands of people
in the United States alone.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, Colombian President
Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts
to help end the long-running conflict in his country. The Colombian
government and FARC rebels said they have agreed to discuss
"adjustments" to a contested peace deal and continue a bilateral
ceasefire.
(AP, 10/7/16)(AFP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, Estonia said a
Russian jet violated its airspace, hours after neighboring Finland
said two similar planes passed over its territory as it prepared to
sign a defense pact with the United States.
(Reuters, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, Ethiopia’s
government said that 11 factories and dozens of vehicles had been
damaged in attacks by what it called “antipeace forces.”
(SFC, 10/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 7, Morocco held
elections to choose which party will lead their next government. The
moderate Islamist Party of Justice and Development won the national
elections. The PJD won 125 of the 395 seats in the Chamber of
Representatives. The Party of Authenticity and Modernity, founded by
an adviser to the king, won 102 seats, and several other parties
shared the rest of the seats. Turnout was only 43%.
(AP, 10/7/16)(AP, 10/8/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.47)
2016 Oct 7, In Pakistan a
freight train rammed into a bus on an unmanned railroad crossing in
eastern Punjab province, killing at least three people. Two bombs
struck a passenger train minutes apart near the village of Mach in
Baluchistan province, killing at least six people and wounding 19.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, Russia's lower
house of parliament ratified a treaty with Syria that allows the
Russian military to stay indefinitely in the Mideast country.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, Venezuela's
socialist President Nicolas Maduro said he is establishing a peace
prize in honor of the late Hugo Chavez and that his pick for the
initial award would be Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 7, It was reported
that Vietnam has declared a United States-based activist group a
terrorist organization and warned that any Vietnamese found to be
involved with the group would be regarded as co-conspirators and
punished. The government said the California-based Viet Tan, or
Vietnam Reform Party, had recruited and trained operatives to use
weapons and explosives.
(Reuters, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 8, In southern
California police Officers Gilbert Vega and Lesley Zerebny (27) were
fatally shot in Palm Springs while trying to resolve a family
dispute. Gang member John Hernandez Felix (26) was arrested early
the next day after police shot a chemical agent into the home where
he was holed up. On Oct 12 Felix was charged with first-degree
murder.
(SSFC, 10/9/16, p.A13)(SFC, 10/10/16, p.A9)(SFC,
10/13/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 8, Hurricane Matthew
weakened to a Category 1, nearing the end of a four-day rampage that
left a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean and up
the Atlantic coast of Florida where at least five people died in
hurricane-related incidents. Almost 1.4 million homes and businesses
were without power as the hurricane crashed north along the Atlantic
coast of Florida to Georgia and South Carolina.
(AFP, 10/8/16)(Reuters, 10/8/16)
2016 Oct 8, In eastern
Afghanistan Qari Ajmal, a Pakistani militant linked to a number of
high-profile attacks, was killed in a joint Afghan-US special forces
operation in Paktika province.
(AP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 8, In Argentina Lucia
Perez (16) was forced to consume cocaine, before being raped and
impaled in Mar La Plata. On Oct 19 thousands of protesters rallied
across the country to support women’s rights and against her brutal
killing.
(SSFC, 10/23/16, p.A10)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.30)
2016 Oct 8, In Egypt gunmen
shot Gamal al-Deeb, a policeman working with the Homeland Security
agency, eight times outside his home shortly after midnight in
northern Beheira province. The Hasam Movement claimed responsibility
for the killing. Hasam, the Arabic word for decisiveness, has
claimed five other attacks since July.
(Reuters, 10/8/16)
2016 Oct 8, The ruling
Ethiopian people’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRFD) announced
a 6-month state of emergency following months of violent
anti-government protests, its biggest anti-government unrest in a
decade, from the majority Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups which feel
marginalized by a minority-led government and recent unrest over the
tragedy at Bishoftu.
(AFP, 10/9/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.43)
2016 Oct 8, Indian forces fired
shotgun pellets and tear gas as thousands of people carried the body
of a 12-year-old boy killed overnight during an anti-India protest
in the main city of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
(AP, 10/8/16)
2016 Oct 8, Syrian government
forces recaptured territory from insurgents in several western areas
as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on rival French and
Russian draft resolutions urging an immediate ceasefire. Islamic
State militants captured several villages from Syrian rebels in a
counter-attack near the Turkish border that forced the
foreign-backed insurgents to retreat.
(Reuters, 10/8/16)
2016 Oct 8, In Yemen more than
140 people were killed and at least 525 others were wounded in Saudi
coalition air raids on a funeral hall in Sanaa.
(AFP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 9, Almost 2.2 million
homes and businesses were without power morning after Hurricane
Matthew pummeled Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina with
heavy rain and wind.
(Reuters, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 9, Eight Afghan
soldiers were killed early today when a military helicopter crashed
in northern Baghlan province.
(AP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 9, In China former
provincial Communist Party boss Bai Enpei was sentenced to death
with a two-year reprieve as part of the country's ongoing crackdown
on corruption. Bai had been a senior lawmaker with the national
legislature and formerly served as the top-ranking official in the
western provinces of Qinghai and Yunnan.
(AP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 9, In Iraq three bomb
attacks killed 10 people and wounded at least 37 across Baghdad.
(AP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 9, In Jordan riots
erupted in Quweismeh, a suburb of Amman, after a series of police
raids.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.40)
2016 Oct 9, In northwestern
Myanmar men wielding guns, machetes, and homemade weapons stormed
the Kyikanpyin border post and two others in Rakhine state. Nine
police were reported killed. Police captured two attackers, killed
eight, and said they were Rohingyas. The military locked down
the area and said at least 26 civilians died in ensuing clashes.
(AFP, 10/15/16)(Reuters, 12/26/16)(Econ,
10/15/16, p.37)
2016 Oct 9, A Palestinian
motorist launched a shooting spree near the Israeli police
headquarters in Jerusalem, killing 2 people and wounding five others
before being shot dead.
(AP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 9, Polish filmmaker
Andrzej Wajda (90) died in a Warsaw hospital, just months after
finishing "Afterimage," Poland's entry for a foreign language
Academy Award. In 2000 he received an honorary lifetime achievement
Oscar. The film focused on the life of art theorist Wladyslaw
Strzeminski and the years 1949-1952.
(AP, 10/19/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.81)(Econ,
10/29/16, p.82)
2016 Oct 9, The Russian
government announced that Rosneft’s 330 billion ruble ($5.3 billion)
bid for Bashneft, a state-controlled oil firm. Igor Sechin, head of
Rosneft, orchestrated the deal which had been rejected by Bashneft’s
former owner Vladimir Yevtushenko.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.45)
2016 Oct 10, US-based academics
Oliver Hart of Harvard, a British-American economist and MIT’s Bengt
Holmstrom of Finland, won the Nobel Economics Prize for
groundbreaking research on contract theory that has helped design
insurance policies, executive pay and even prison management.
(AFP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, In Afghanistan a
suspected car bomb killed 14 people including 10 police officers
amid increased Taliban attacks on Lashkar Gah, the besieged capital
of Helmand province.
(AP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, A Cambodian court
sentenced opposition lawmaker Um Sam An, who has been a strong
critic of the government's handling of demarcating the border with
neighboring Vietnam, to 2 1/2 years in prison for online postings he
made.
(AP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, Chinese
authorities unveiled plans to let companies give equity in
themselves to banks to pay down soaring debt levels that economists
warn might hamper the country's already slowing growth.
(AP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, In eastern China
22 people were killed in the collapse of a group of decrepit homes
on the outskirts of the city of Wenzhou.
(AP, 10/10/16)(AP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 10, Iraq's federal
court ruled that PM Haider al-Abadi's move to abolish the largely
ceremonial posts of the country's vice president and deputy prime
minister is unconstitutional.
(AP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, Royal Dutch Shell
confirmed that it had signed an initial deal with Iran's National
Petrochemical Company, paving the way for its return to the Islamic
republic.
(AFP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, In Russia the
Basmanny District Court ruled that the Novaya Gazeta report linking
Rosneft Chairman Igor Sechin to the St. Princess Olga yacht was
untrue. The newspaper used social media and ship tracking data to
allege that Sechin was the yacht's possible owner. Novaya Gazeta
says it will appeal the court's ruling.
(AP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, Russia's defence
ministry said that the country was poised to transform its naval
facility in the Syrian port city of Tartus into a permanent base.
(AFP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, South African
police clashed with student protesters demanding free education at
the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) which had reopened after
demonstrations forced its closure last week.
(Reuters, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, In Turkey Russia’s
President Vladimir Putin met counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in
Istanbul, pushing forward ambitious joint energy projects on his
first visit to Turkey since a crisis in ties. Erdogan and Putin
reached a deal to proceed on the Turkish Stream project to carry
Russian natural gas to Turkey and on to the EU.
(AFP, 10/10/16)(SFC, 10/11/16,
p.A2)
2016 Oct 10, In Vietnam blogger
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (37), known as "Me Nam" (Mother Mushroom), was
held in her home city of Nha Trang in the central province of Khanh
Hoa for running "propaganda" against the state. Her reports included
one about civilians dying in police custody.
(Reuters, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 10, Yemen's Houthi
movement launched a ballistic missile deep into Saudi Arabia. Two
missiles were also fired from Houthi-held territory at the USS
Mason. The Houthis denied firing at the US ship. On Oct 12 two more
missiles were fired at the USS Mason but neither got near the ship.
(Reuters, 10/10/16)(SFC, 10/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 11, The US death toll
from Hurricane Matthew rose to 34 with half the deaths in North
Carolina. Thousands more people in the state were urged to evacuate
as high waters from the hurricane pushed downstream. Damages in
North Carolina from Matthew were later estimated at $1.5 billion.
(SFC, 10/12/16, p.A5)(SFC, 10/17/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 11, Afghan officials
said hundreds of commandos have been deployed backed by NATO air
strikes in Lashkar Gah to drive Taliban insurgents from the southern
city after the militants killed 14 people a day earlier in a
coordinated attack. A mass shooting killed at least 18 worshippers
at a shrine in Kabul, raising fears of sectarian violence after a
string of attacks on the country's Shi'ite minority. The Islamic
State soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/11/16)(Reuters, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 11, In China police in
Beijing blocked off streets near a major military building, as
hundreds of people wearing green camouflage uniforms chanted and
waved national flags to protest against the loss of their posts.
(Reuters, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, Ethiopian PM
Hailemariam Desalegn said his government wants to reform an
electoral system which has excluded the opposition, in response to
months of bloody protests.
(AFP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, South African riot
police fought stone-throwing students for a second consecutive day
at the University of the Witwatersrand amid national calls by
demonstrators for free higher education. It was reported that
President Jacob Zuma has formed a ministerial team to help bring an
end the weeks of clashes.
(AP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, Shares in South
Korea-based Samsung Electronics tumbled after the company junked its
Note 7 smartphone. Samsung told customers to stop using their Galaxy
Note 7 devices and called a halt to worldwide sales as US officials
warned the handsets could blow up.
(AFP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, In Switzerland the
annual Martin Ennals Award was bestowed to imprisoned Chinese Muslim
minority economics professor Ilham Tohti (46), shining new attention
on a case that has brought strong international condemnation. Tohti
was jailed for life two years ago for campaigning for the rights of
the Muslim Uighur people. The award, founded in 1994, is bestowed by
10 rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch.
(AP, 10/11/16)(Reuters, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, In Syria regime
ally Russia carried out its heaviest strikes in days on Aleppo. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people, among them four
children, were killed in raids in the Bustan al-Qasr and Fardos
neighborhoods. At least five children were killed in rebel fire on a
school in the southern city of Daraa.
(AFP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 12, Wells Fargo &
Co. announced that CEO John Stumpf (63) has retired effective
immediately. He will be succeeded by Tim Sloan, the banks president
and chief operating officer.
(SFC, 10/13/16, p.A1)
2016 Oct 12, Egypt's military
announced it will host Russian troops for war games along the
Mediterranean coast, the latest step in the two countries'
rapprochement and another sign of Moscow flexing its muscles in the
Middle East.
(AP, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 12, Hong Kong held a
swearing-in ceremony for recently chosen legislators. Three were
declared unqualified to take their posts as they snubbed China
during the chaotic ceremony.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.41)
2016 Oct 12, The Indian army
said a three-day standoff with suspected rebels in Kashmir has ended
after government forces killed two militants inside a building in
Pampore town. The building was extensively damaged in the fighting.
(AP, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 12, In Syria rebels
supported by Turkish tanks and US-led coalition air strikes pushed
toward the Islamic State stronghold of Dabiq. Turkey’s military said
clashes and air strikes over the past 24 hours have killed 47
jihadists. An airstrike hit the biggest market on the rebel-held
side of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people and leveling buildings.
Shelling on government-held parts of Aleppo killed 8 people.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)(AP, 10/12/16)(Reuters,
10/13/16)
2016 Oct 13, Bob Dylan was
awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for "having created new poetic
expressions within the great American song tradition."
(AP, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 13, The US death toll
from Hurricane Matthew rose to 38 with 22 of the deaths in North
Carolina. The NC town of Princeville became submerged in as much as
ten feet of water.
(SFC, 10/14/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 13, In the Central
African Republic fighters from the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group
attacked the northern town of Kaga-Bandoro overnight killing at
least 13 civilians. Int’l. forces repelled that attackers killing
10-15 fighters.
(SFC, 10/14/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 13, Chinese President
Xi Jinping arrived in Cambodia for a two-day visit, praising the
close ties that have seen Cambodia side with Beijing on the South
China Sea, and signed dozens of economic agreements.
(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 13, In Hungary tax
investigators raided the offices of environmental group Energia
Klub, seizing hundreds of documents and computer files as part of
what they said was a "criminal investigation into budgetary fraud".
(Reuters, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 13, In Italy Dario Fo
(90), playwright and 1997 Nobel Prize laureate, died. His plays
included “The Accidental Death of an Anarchist” (1970).
(SFC, 10/14/16, p.D10)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.82)
2016 Oct 13, The Maldives
government said it has decided to leave the 53-member British
Commonwealth because the grouping of former British colonies has
treated it "unjustly and unfairly" and sought to interfere in its
politics.
(AP, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 13, South African
President Jacob Zuma (74) moved to block a watchdog's potentially
explosive report into graft allegations against him, in his latest
legal bid to protect his battered reputation.
(AFP, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 13, In Syria air
strikes killed 13 people, when warplanes hit several rebel-held
districts, including al-Kalaseh, Bustan al-Qasr and al-Sakhour.
(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 14, In San Diego a
former federal agent was sentenced to 12 years in prison for tipping
off a defense contractor who was under investigation for overbilling
the Navy by at least $35 million. Former Naval Criminal
Investigative Service investigator John Beliveau II (47) was also
ordered to pay $20 million in restitution.
(AP, 10/15/16)
2016 Oct 14, Afghan officials
said more than two hundred of members of security forces have been
killed recently fighting insurgent attacks in and around Lashkar
Gah, Helmand province. 45 civilians had also been killed in the
fighting, which saw Taliban militants launch attacks on at least two
areas of the city earlier this week. Helmand's poppy crop yields
opium that makes most of the world's heroin.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a visit to Bangladesh during which the two
countries signed loan agreements for $20 billion for Chinese
investment in infrastructure and energy and coordinating efforts in
tackling terrorism and climate change.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, In southwestern
China a gas explosion inside a coal mine killed seven people and
injured two more.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, In Egypt suspected
Islamic State gunmen killed 12 members of the military in North
Sinai province and wounded six more in an attack on a checkpoint. 15
militants were reported killed in return.
(Reuters, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, The US-led
coalition said it is increasing airstrikes in and around the
militant-held city of Mosul as Iraqi ground forces build up ahead of
a planned operation to retake the city.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, Israel suspended
cooperation with UNESCO, a day after the UN cultural agency adopted
a draft resolution that Israel says denies the deep, historic Jewish
connection to holy sites in Jerusalem.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, In southwestern
Pakistan gunmen riding on motorcycles shot and killed three
paramilitary officers in the city of Quetta before fleeing.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, The Russian city
of Orel unveiled the country’s first monument to Czar Ivan the
Terrible, who reigned from 1547-1584.
(SFC, 10/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 14, Russian President
Vladimir Putin ratified an agreement with the Syrian government that
allows Russia to use the Hmeimim air base in Syria indefinitely.
(Reuters, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, A Saudi soldier
was killed when Yemen's Houthi group attacked across the border into
the kingdom's southern Jizan province.
(Reuters, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, South Korea-based
Samsung Electronics said that discontinuing the Galaxy Note 7
smartphone, which is prone to overheat and catch fire, will cost it
about $3 billion in the current and coming quarters, raising total
costs from the recalls to at least $5.3 billion.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said Russian
and Syrian warplanes again pounded Aleppo’s opposition-controlled
eastern districts, though it did not have any immediate information
on casualties.
(AFP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, At the Vatican a
gathering of Jesuit priests from around the world elected the Rev.
Arturo Sosa of Venezuela to replace the retiring Rev. Adolfo Nicolas
of Spain as father general.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro issued the government's 2017 budget by
decree, bypassing the opposition-held legislature in a move that
could deepen the country's economic crisis.
(AFP, 10/15/16)
2016 Oct 15, In southern
California 4 people were killed after an out-of-control pickup truck
driven by Richard Anthony Sepolio (25) plunged off the San
Diego-Coronado Bridge and plowed into a car gathered at a festival
underneath. Sepolio, a member of the US Navy, was hospitalized with
severe injuries and later arrested on suspicion of driving under the
influence of alcohol or drugs.
(SSFC, 10/16/16, p.A6)(SFC, 10/17/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 15, In southern
California a hit-and-run driver caused a crash that left four people
dead and four hospitalized on State Route 60 near Pomona.
(SFC, 10/17/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 15, In northern
California John Jessie Mariana (28) of Guerneville and Nathan Proto
(36) were killed in Sebastopol during a marijuana deal. In 2018
fugitives Robert Lee Randolph Jr. and Maria Teresa Lebron were
arrested in Texas on suspicion of murder.
(http://gunmemorial.org/2016/10/15/john-jessie-mariana)(SFC,
12/25/18, p.C1)
2016 Oct 15, Shareholders of
Italy’s Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare de Milano approved their
merger. The new bank will be called Banco BPM.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.62)
2016 Oct 15, In Myanmar a ferry
sank about 85 miles (137 km) northwest of Mandalay, as it traveled
between the towns of Homalin and Monywa. 73 bodies, among them 54
women, 14 men and 5 whose gender had yet to be identified, were
later found, in addition to the 159 passengers rescued alive.
(Reuters, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 16, Afghan authorities
burned around five tons of heroin, hashish, drug-making chemicals
and alcohol in a show of their commitment to curbing drug
trafficking.
(AFP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, In Brazil a prison
riot in the far northern state of Roraima left 25 inmates killed and
women visitors taken hostage. Seven of the dead were beheaded and
six burned to death.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 16, The European Space
Agency dispatched an experimental probe on the final leg of its
quest to land on Mars, part of a mission aimed at exploring the red
planet's atmosphere and searching for signs of life. The ExoMars
mission was a joint endeavor by Europe’s and Russia’s space
agencies.
(AP, 10/16/16)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.71)
2016 Oct 16, In Indonesia more
than 100 multi-colored paragliders filled the sky over Bali island,
as they set a new world record for the largest number of gliders
flying at the same time.
(AFP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, The Iraqi army
dropped tens of thousands of leaflets over Mosul before dawn,
warning residents an offensive to recapture the city from Islamic
State was in its final stages of preparation. A suicide bomber
struck a gathering of Shiite mourners in Baghdad, killing at least 4
people and wounding another 12.
(Reuters, 10/16/16)(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, Lebanon's largest
Christian party rallied thousands of its supporters to push for the
election of its leader, former Army Gen. Michel Aoun, as president.
(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, In Montenegro a
coup attempt included plans to assassinate the pro-Western PM Milo
Djukanovic because of his government's bid to join NATO.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2016 Oct 16, South African
police raided a university student residence in Johannesburg early
today, arresting Mcebo Dlamini, a leader of sometimes violent
protests for free education who caused an outcry last year when he
declared admiration for Adolf Hitler.
(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, In Spain about
3,500 dogs of all breeds and sizes ran through the streets Madrid
with their owners in the fifth edition of the "Perroton," or
Dogathon, a yearly event that seeks to raise awareness about animal
cruelty and encourage dog adoptions.
(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, In Syria
Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces captured the town of Dabiq
from the Islamic State group as government forces reversed recent
rebel advances in the center of the country.
(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 16, In eastern Ukraine
Arseny Pavlov (33), a prominent Russian separatist commander known
as “Motorola,” was assassinated in Donetsk. His allies accused the
Ukrainian government forces of murdering him to try to destabilize
an already fragile ceasefire. Four armed masked men claimed
responsibility for the killing in a video uploaded to the Internet.
They appeared alongside a flag belonging to a pro-Ukrainian neo-Nazi
group.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In Washington, DC.
retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright (67) pleaded guilty to making
false statements during an investigation into a leak of classified
information about a covert cyber-attack on Iran’s nuclear
facilities. He faced up to six months in prison.
(SFC, 10/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 17, In Brazil 8
inmates were killed and burned in a fresh prison riot. Police
believed the riot was related to clashes a day earlier between rival
factions in another jail that left 25 detainees dead.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Two Chinese
astronauts began the country's longest crewed space mission yet,
blasting off on a spacecraft for a 30-day stay on the Tiangong 2
experimental space station as China steadfastly navigates its way to
becoming a space superpower.
(AP, 10/17/16)(SFC, 10/20/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 17, Egypt passed
legislation to crack down on people traffickers linked to a major
surge in the numbers of migrants departing from the country's
Mediterranean coast on often disastrous sea journeys to Europe.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In eastern India a
fire broke out late today at the private Sum Hospital in the city of
Bhubaneswar, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 17, An Indonesian
official said three men were arrested over the weekend for allegedly
trading in protected species, with police seizing animal parts
including a tiger skin, deer genitalia and pangolin scales.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Iraqi government
forces launched a US-backed offensive to drive Islamic State from
the northern city of Mosul. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR
said up to 100,000 Iraqis may flee to Syria and Turkey to escape the
assault.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Italian PM Matteo
Renzi flew to the United States for a high-profile visit that he
hopes will boost his flagging campaign for a referendum on
constitutional reform.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, A Lithuanian court
called former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to testify in a mass
trial related to the 1991 crackdown on the country's independence
movement.
(AP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In central
Pakistan two passenger buses collided in Khanpur town killing 25
people and leaving 69 injured.
(SFC, 10/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 17, The
editor-in-chief of Kremlin-funded television network RT said that
all its bank accounts in Britain have been closed down.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, South African
protesters demanding free university education broke windows, forced
open doors and threw human excrement in an effort to disrupt the
resumption of classes.
(AP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In Syria
airstrikes by Russian warplanes on rebel-held areas in the northern
province of Aleppo killed at least 36 people, including children.
(AP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Vietnam officials
said that floods in four central provinces have killed 24 people and
displaced thousands, with tropical storm Sarika in the South China
Sea approaching the central coast.
(SFC, 10/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 18, Pres. Obama threw
his support behind efforts that Italian PM Matteo Renzi is taking to
overhaul the country’s political system and enhance its economy.
Obama hosted Renzi for the final official visit and state dinner of
his presidency.
(SFC, 10/19/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 18, In NYC police Sgt.
Hugh Barry shot and killed Deborah Danner, a mentally ill black
woman, in her apartment after she brandished scissors and a bat. In
2018 a judge acquitted Barry murder charges. On Dec. 13, 2018, NYC
agreed to a $2 million settlement with Danner's family.
(http://tinyurl.com/ydh9er25)(SFC, 2/16/18,
p.A7)(SFC, 12/15/18, p.A6)
2016 Oct 18, Typhoon Sarika
lashed China's southern resort island of Hainan, with torrential
rain and winds of up to 162 kilometers per hour (100 mph) forcing
authorities to evacuate almost half a million people and halt
transport services.
(Reuters, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 19, The European Court
of Justice ruled that internet-protocol addresses are subject to
Europe’s data protection laws.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.59)
2016 Oct 18, India's National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) accused the western state of
Maharashtra of negligence over the "shocking and painful" deaths in
the past decade of more than 700 indigenous children in schools run
by the authorities.
(Reuters, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 18, In India the Delhi
Zoo was closed to the public after autopsies confirmed at least
three birds had died from H5N1 avian influenza. Days later city
authorities closed Hauz Khas Deer Park after eight birds died of
suspected bird flu.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 18, Iranian state news
said Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father
Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF representative, have been sentenced
to 10 years in prison for cooperating with the hostile American
government. Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident from Lebanon,
Farhad Abd-Saleh, Kamran Ghaderi, and Alireza Omidvar also received
a 10-year prison sentences for espionage and collaboration with the
American government.
(AFP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, In Iraq residents
of Mosul said Islamic State was using civilians as human shields as
Iraqi and Kurdish forces captured outlying villages in their advance
on the jihadists' stronghold.
(Reuters, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, Lithuanian
President Dalia Grybauskaite said Russia's transfer of
nuclear-capable missiles to its western outpost of Kaliningrad this
month was an aggressive move against the whole of Europe.
(Reuters, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, In the Gaza Strip
a Hamas-run court sentenced a man to death for allegedly
collaborating with Israel.
(SFC, 10/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 18, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in China to improve ties and
restore trust between the sides following recent tensions over their
South China Sea territorial dispute.
(AP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, Russian Defense
Minister Sergei Shoigu said airstrikes in Syria were to be suspended
starting from 10 a.m. today. He said the suspension is intended to
prepare for the opening of humanitarian corridors for the rebels to
leave Aleppo.
(AP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, Saudi Arabia
executed Prince Turki bin Saud bin Turki bin Saud Al-Kabeer for
shooting another man in a melee.
(http://tinyurl.com/jgnykqz)(SFC, 10/20/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 18, Turkey’s PM Binali
Yildirim said Turkish air force jets will join in the air operation
backing Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga to retake Iraq's second
city of Mosul from jihadists.
(AFP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, UNESCO, the UN
cultural agency, adopted a controversial Arab-sponsored resolution
condemning Israel's actions at a flashpoint holy site in east
Jerusalem that has sparked fury in the Jewish state.
(AFP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 19, In northern
California Jack Lee Breiner fatally shot Deputy Jack Hopkins (31) as
he responded to a domestic disturbance call in Alturas.
(SSFC, 10/30/16, p.A8)
2016 Oct 19, In Afghanistan a
gunman in an Afghan army uniform shot dead at least two American
advisers and wounded three more near a base in Kabul before being
killed himself. Army Sgt. Douglas J. Riney (26) of Fairview,
Illinois, and Michael G. Sauro (40) of McAlester, Oklahoma, died of
wounds received in the attack.
(http://tinyurl.com/hoccyxp)(Reuters, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, Egypt's highest
court quashed death sentences imposed on 14 Islamists over an attack
on a police station in protest at the military's overthrow in 2013
of then-President Mohamed Mursi. Eight more defendants in the case
were sentenced to death in absentia.
(Reuters, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, Indonesia, one of
the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters, ratified a landmark
climate rescue pact but environmentalists expressed skepticism about
the government's plans to limit global warming.
(AFP, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, A senior Iraqi
general called on Iraqis fighting for the Islamic State group in
Mosul to surrender as a wide-scale operation to retake the
militant-held city entered its third day. Residents began returning
to the village of Sheikh Amir on the road to Mosul, recaptured
overnight by advancing Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 10/19/16)(Reuters, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, In Kashmir firing
by Indian troops along the Line of Control, a ceasefire violation,
killed one Pakistani and wounded 12.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 19, In Kazakhstan two
Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut soared into orbit in a Soyuz
spacecraft at the start of a two-day journey to the International
Space Station.
(AFP, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, Palestinian woman
Raheeq Shajeyeh Youssef (19) approached Israeli border police with a
knife in a tense area of the West Bank and was shot dead by
officers. Video later emerged appearing to show officers open fire
on the woman after she was already on the ground.
(AP, 10/19/16)(AFP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 19, In Syria a pause
in Russian and Syrian strikes on Aleppo held into a second day,
ahead of a brief ceasefire aimed at allowing civilians and rebels to
quit the devastated city. Around 620 rebels and their families began
evacuating the besieged town of Moadamiyat al-Sham, southwest of
Damascus, under a deal with the government.
(AFP, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, In Yemen Saudi-led
air strikes hit military bases in Sanaa and rival militias battled
near the country's border with the kingdom, hours before a
UN-mediated truce took effect. Houthi militia reportedly violated
the truce 43 times and shelled the strategic city of Taiz.
(Reuters, 10/19/16)(Reuters, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, The US Treasury
moved to disrupt the fundraising and operation of the Iranian-backed
Hezbollah group, imposing sanctions on commander Haytham Ali
Tabatabai, a number of others and a firm that assisted the
organization, long seen as a terrorist outfit by Washington.
Hezbollah enjoys strong support among Lebanon's Shi'ite community
and wields enormous political influence in that country. Its
military wing plays a major role in the Syrian conflict.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)(SFC, 10/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 20, China scored a
major diplomatic victory, wielding its economic might and political
clout to coax the Philippines into resuming a bilateral dialogue on
their South China Sea territorial dispute following months of
acrimony. That was followed with an announcement by Philippine Trade
Secretary Ramon Lopez at a bilateral economic forum that his country
and China will sign $13.5 billion of deals this week. The
Philippines Presidential Communications Office said Xi committed
more than $9 billion in low-interest loans to the country.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 19, Members of the
ExoMars team announced the arrival of the project’s craft at Mars.
However, their landing craft, called Schiaparelli, went silent on
its way to the surface of the planet.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.71)
2016 Oct 20, Ethiopian
authorities said they had detained 1,645 people since declaring a
state of emergency less than two weeks ago in a bid to quell mass
protests and violence.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, In India the
celebration of Bollywood and international film kicked off amid the
sober announcement that at least one screening was canceled. The
Pakistani classic "Jago Hua Savera," or "Awake, It's Dawn," was
dropped from the Mumbai Film Festival schedule after a local
organization claimed it would cause public outrage.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 20, India reported
that a Dalit man has died in a fresh protest over land, as a
campaign for land rights for the low-caste community widened across
the country. He was one of three Dalit men who had been protesting
over a lack of land titles in Junagadh in Gujarat state, and had
consumed poison earlier this week.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, Indonesia’s police
said Sultan Azianzah (21), a suspected militant who attacked police
on the outskirts of Jakarta, has died from gunshot wounds. Azianzah
was unemployed and a member of Daulah Islam, a hardline group in
Ciamis, West java province.
(SFC, 10/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 20, Iraqi special
forces charged into the Mosul battle with a pre-dawn advance on a
nearby town held by the Islamic State group, a key part of a
multi-pronged assault on eastern approaches to the besieged city.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, In Iraq Islamic
State set a sulfur plant ablaze during fighting around al-Mishraq,
south of Mosul.
(Reuters, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 20, In Italy the Milan
city council bestowed honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama over
the objections of Chinese Embassy, which said the gesture would have
a negative impact on bilateral relations and regional cooperation.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, Nepal said it will
allow its nationals to go to war-torn Afghanistan for work, ending
an almost four-month ban imposed after 13 Nepali security guards
were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in the Afghan capital.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, Pakistan's Supreme
Court paved the way for execution of a mentally ill death-row
prisoner by ruling that schizophrenia does not qualify as a mental
disorder. Imdad Ali has been on death row since he was convicted in
2001 in a murder case.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 20, Spain's
Constitutional Court cancelled a bullfighting ban in Catalonia in
what is likely to exacerbate tensions between Madrid and the
separatist region, and drew an outcry from animal activists.
(AFP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, A Saudi-led
military coalition said missiles fired from Yemen injured civilians
in southern Saudi Arabia, and Houthi fighters said an air strike by
the alliance killed three people. Warplanes from the Saudi-led
coalition hit rebel positions outside Sanaa late today, after the
alliance accused insurgents of breaching a shaky ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)(AFP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 20, The Syrian
military said a unilateral ceasefire backed by Russia had come into
force to allow people to leave eastern Aleppo, a move rejected by
rebels who say they are preparing a counter-offensive to break the
blockade. Russia has told the United Nations it will stop bombing
eastern Aleppo for 11 hours a day for four days.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, In Venezuela
elections officials issued an order suspending a recall signature
drive a week before it was to start.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 21, Former California
state Sen. Ron Calderon was sentenced to 3½ years in prison in a
corruption scandal in which he acknowledged taking bribes in
exchange for his influence in Sacramento.
(SFC, 10/21/16, p.A7)
2016 Oct 21, Reports of online
disruption cropped up across the East Coast of the United States
after a key internet firm was hit by a cyberattack. Manchester, New
Hampshire-based Dyn, Inc. said its server infrastructure was hit by
a distributed denial-of-service attack, which works by overwhelming
targeted machines with junk traffic.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, CIA operatives
Brian Ray Hoke (b.1974) and Nathaniel Patrick Delemarre died
in Afghanistan after a firefight with Islamic State militants in
Jalalabad.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybnawbdb)(SFC, 9/7/17 p.A12)
2016 Oct 21, Prosecutors from
Belgium, France, Morocco and Spain called for the ability to unlock
phones and computers and to gain access to encrypted communications
to aid in the fight against terrorism following a 2-day meeting in
Paris.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, British American
Tobacco offered to buy Reynolds American Inc. in a $47 billion deal
that would create the world's largest publicly traded tobacco
company and attempt to make up for a decline in smoking in the US
and Europe.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, In Cameroon an
overloaded train derailed killing at least 79 people. More than 600
were injured.
(AP, 10/22/16)(AFP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 21, Police in China's
central city of Wuhan detained a person, surnamed Rong, for
spreading rumors in what a state-run newspaper said was a video
purportedly showing a demonstration involving workers at Wuhan Iron
and Steel (Wugang).
(Reuters, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 21, Typhoon Haima
barreled into southern China after hammering the northern
Philippines with ferocious wind and rain, triggering flooding,
landslides and power outages and killing at least 13 people.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, Indian banks
scrambled to contain the damage after finding that more than 3.2
million debit cards may have been hacked.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, In India a
smartphone application was launched that allows residents to report
the presence of construction dust or the burning of leaves and
garbage in New Delhi's public parks to authorities. The phone app
was launched by the Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control)
Authority, a monitoring group set up on the order of India's Supreme
Court in April.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 21, Islamic State
militants armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked targets
in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, in an assault that
appeared aimed at diverting Iraqi security forces from a massive
offensive against the IS-held city of Mosul. At least 13 workers,
including four Iranians, were killed. IS militants stormed a power
plant north of Kirkuk and then blew themselves up. A local TV
reporter was killed by a sniper while covering the clashes.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, The UN said
Islamic State militants have taken 550 families from villages around
Mosul and are holding them close to Islamic State locations in the
city, probably as human shields.
(Reuters, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, In Russia 3 crew
members and 16 passengers died when the Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter
came down late today in adverse weather conditions in northwest
Siberia.
(Reuters, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 21, Singapore posted
new public speaking rules, clarifying that foreign companies and
individuals need a permit to sponsor or take part in certain events,
in an amendment that will restrict foreign support for an annual
gay-rights gathering.
(Reuters, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 21, South Africa
announced that it would withdraw from the International Criminal
Court (ICC), dealing a major blow to a troubled institution set up
to try the world's worst crimes.
(AFP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 22, AT&T unveiled
a mega-deal for Time Warner that would transform the telecom giant
into a media-entertainment powerhouse positioned for a sector facing
major technology changes. The stock-and-cash deal was valued at
$108.7 billion including debt, and gives a value of $84.5 billion to
Time Warner.
(AFP, 10/23/16)(Econ, 10/29/16, p.55)
2016 Oct 22, An Egyptian court
confirmed a 20-year prison sentence against former president Mohamed
Mursi. The sentence was for a conviction arising from the killings
of protesters during demonstrations in 2012. Twenty-year jail
sentences were also confirmed against other senior figures from the
then-ruling Muslim Brotherhood, including Mohamed el-Beltagy and
Essam el-Erian.
(Reuters, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 22, In Egypt Suspected
Islamic militants gunned down Brig-Gen. Adel Ragai, commander of the
army's 9th armored division based in the sprawling military base of
Dahshour west of Cairo.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 22, Iraqi forces
advanced to 5 km (3 miles) from Mosul in an offensive against
Islamic State's last major Iraq stronghold. Iraqi cameraman Ali
Raysan was killed covering the military offensive. Iraqi security
forces battled for a second day with Islamic State group gunmen who
infiltrated Kirkuk. The Kirkuk police chief said 48 jihadist
attackers had been killed so far and several others wounded.
(Reuters, 10/22/16)(AFP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 22, Iraq's parliament
passed a law late today forbidding the import, production or selling
of alcoholic beverages in a surprise move that angered many in the
country's Christian community who rely on the business. Some
lawmakers planned to submit an appeal at the High Federal Court.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 22, Police in Spain
said they have arrested 21 people and freed four women while
breaking up an alleged human trafficking ring.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 22, Turkey's Pres.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will be expanding its
operations in north Syria, including entering the cities of al-Bab,
Manbij and Raqqa.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 22, In Venezuela
thousands of women marched in Caracas against leftist Pres. Nicolas
Maduro's decision to block opposition-led efforts for a recall
referendum.
(AFP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 22, In Yemen
Saudi-backed government forces and Iran-allied Houthis accused each
other of violating a ceasefire as the UN tried to extend a 3-day
truce.
(Reuters, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 23, In southern
California a tour bus plowed into a big-rig on I-10 near Palm
Springs killing 13 people and injuring 31 others. On Oct 19, 2017,
big rig driver Bruce Guilford (51) was arrested in Georgia a day
after being charged in Riverside County with 13 counts of vehicular
manslaughter.
(SFC, 10/24/16, p.A4)(SFC, 10/20/17, p.A5)
2016 Oct 23, Tom Hayden
(b.1939), American social and political activist, author and
politician, died in Santa Monica, Ca., following a lengthy illness.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hayden)
2016 Oct 23, In southern
California a tour bus plowed into a big-rig on I-10 near Palm
Springs killing 13 people and injuring 31 others. On Oct 19, 2017,
big rig driver Bruce Guilford (51) was arrested in Georgia a day
after being charged with 13 counts of vehicular manslaughter.
(SFC, 10/24/16, p.A4)(SFC, 10/20/17, p.A5)
2016 Oct 23, In Oklahoma
Michael Vance (38) shot two police officers, stole a patrol car,
carjacked another car and then killed his aunt and uncle in Luther.
On Oct 30 Vance was shot and killed in a gunbattle with state
troopers near Leedey.
(SFC, 10/25/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/1/16, p.A10)
2016 Oct 23, The Afghan
government and UN released a new joint survey that saw an increase
of 10 percent in opium poppy cultivation and 91 percent decrease in
eradication across the country.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, In Afghanistan a
precision strike conducted by the US military in Kunar province
killed Farouq al-Qahtani, Al-Qaeda's emir for northeastern
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/4/16)
2016 Oct 23, Police in
Argentina found the body of Claudia Arias (31) in Mendoza, alongside
the corpses of her aunt and grandmother. The women had been beaten
and stabbed to death. Two of Claudia’s three children were wounded.
Ex-partner Daniel Zalazar was soon arrested on suspicion of murder.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.30)
2016 Oct 23, In India police
opened fire in Saiko in the district of Khunti, Jharkhand state,
after protesters blocked the road, assaulted police and took several
policemen hostage. One man was killed.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 23, Italian officials
said that 14 bodies have been recovered in a two-day period on
smugglers' boats packed with migrants. In all 5,700 migrants were
rescued from dozens of small boats and rubber dinghies over the
previous two days.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, In Kashmir
shelling across the border between India and Pakistan killed two
Pakistani civilians, an Indian soldier and a boy.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 23, Kurdish fighters
said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic
State as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the
jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq.
(Reuters, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, In Russia 3 people
were killed and 13 others injured after an explosion, believed to
have been caused by gas, hit a high-rise apartment building in
Ryazan.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, Russian police
killed two suspected terrorists in a shootout in in Nizhny Novgorod.
A bomb was found in the suspects' car.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, Spain's embattled
Socialists voted to lift a long-standing veto that has prevented the
conservatives from forming a minority government, in what should
finally end a ten-month political impasse.
(AFP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, A leading northern
Syrian rebel coalition warned civilians in Aleppo to stay away from
government positions around the contested city as rebels and
pro-government forces clashed along the city's outskirts. Clashes
and air strikes shook Aleppo, as heavy fighting resumed after the
end of a 3-day ceasefire.
(AP, 10/23/16)(AFP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 23, Venezuela's
opposition-majority legislature declared that President Nicolas
Maduro's government had committed a coup d'etat by blocking a
referendum on removing him from power, vowing mass protests and
international pressure.
(AP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 23, In Yemen warplanes
from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn, hours
after a three-day truce expired.
(Reuters, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 24, Robert Thomas
Velline b.1943, known professionally as Bobby Vee, died from
complications of Alzheimer's disease in Rogers, Minnesota. He
was an American pop singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s.
He had thirty-eight Hot 100 chart hits, ten of which reached the Top
20 and six gold singles in his career.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Vee)
2016 Oct 24, A leak prompted
the Seaway Crude Pipeline Company LLC to shut one of the largest
pipeline systems feeding crude from the US oil storage hub in
Cushing, Oklahoma to Gulf coast refineries. Enterprise said much of
it was contained in a retention pond at Enbridge's facility.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In the Central
African Republic UN troops fired warning shots as angry protesters
marched through Bangui, demanding that "passive" UN peacekeepers be
sent home for failing to do their job. A coalition of civil society
groups had called for a one-day strike in the city of one million to
press demands for a pullout of the UN's 12,000-strong MINUSCA force.
(AFP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In northwestern
China a powerful blast at a prefabricated house killed at least
seven people and injured 94 in the town of Xinmin, Shaanxi province.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, It was announced
that HNA Group is snapping up a 25 percent ownership stake of the
Hilton hotel chain for about $6.5 billion, the latest attempt by a
Chinese interest to acquire real estate in the US.
(AP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In eastern India
police killed 24 rebels in a shoot-out near the border of Odisha and
Andhra Pradesh states, one of the heaviest casualties inflicted in
recent years on the Maoists who are waging a long-running
insurgency.
(AFP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In India Ratan
Tata orchestrated the firing of Cyrus Mistry from the Tata Holding
Group holding company. Mistry continued to have support from some of
the operating companies.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.12)
2016 Oct 24, In Pakistan two
gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire killing officer Akbar Ali in the
Charsadda district of Khayber Pakhtunkhwa province. The attackers
fled the scene.
(AP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In southwest
Pakistan militant fighters attacked a police training college in
Quetta late today in a raid that killed 61 people and wounded more
than 100. Pakistani authorities blamed militant group,
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
(Reuters, 10/25/16)(AP, 10/25/16)
2016 Oct 24, Syrian government
forces and their allies captured strategic high ground in embattled
Aleppo as Russia — a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad —
said it was not planning more "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting
in the city's eastern, rebel-held districts. 16 civilians, including
three children, were killed in heavy bombardment across rebel-held
Idlib province.
(AP, 10/24/16)(AFP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, Venezuela’s Pres.
Maduro made a surprise visit to the pope, who has been trying to
arrange a meeting between the government and the opposition.
(SFC, 3/6/17, p.29)
2016 Oct 25, A US Coast Guard
search plane located the 97-foot sailboat of Chinese sailor Guo
Chuan (51) 600 miles northwest of Oahu. He had departed San
Francisco on October 18 in an effort to break a world record and
reach Shanghai in 18 days. Rescuers boarded the boat a day later and
found Chuan missing.
(SFC, 10/28/16, p.D2)
2016 Oct 25, New York novelist
Paul Beatty (b.1962) became the first American to win the Man Booker
Prize for Fiction for “Sellout,” his 4th novel.
(SFC, 10/26/16, p.A6)(Econ, 10/29/16, p.74)
2016 Oct 25, In Afghanistan
battles were underway between the Taliban and Afghan security forces
that saw two militant commanders killed. Taliban insurgents abducted
a group of 33 people near the Ghor province capital of Ferozkoh.
(AP, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 25, Iraqi forces
backed by US-led coalition airstrikes battled Islamic State
militants for a third day in Ruba, Anbar province, hundreds of km to
the south of the operation to retake the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 10/25/16)
2016 Oct 25, An Israeli man
reportedly working on a border fence between Israel and Egypt was
shot and killed when gunmen in Egypt opened fire at him. A senior
Egyptian security official said that human traffickers shot at
Israelis working on the barrier.
(AP, 10/25/16)
2016 Oct 25, In Saudi Arabia
gunmen shot dead two security officers in the eastern city of
Dammam. The Interior Ministry later said the gunmen were connected
to previous militant attacks in the region and had been trained
abroad.
(Reuters, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 25, The Saudi-led
coalition denied it had imposed a "blockade" on Yemen, saying
instead that it was controlling access to the country to prevent
pro-Iran rebels from obtaining arms.
(AFP, 10/25/16)
2016 Oct 25, In Venezuela
opposition supporters headed to rallies around the country against
unpopular socialist President Nicolas Maduro, whom they accuse of
turning into a dictator by preventing a plebiscite to remove him.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, US Defense
Secretary Ash Carter ordered the Pentagon to stop seeking repayments
of enlistment bonuses given to California National Guard members who
served overseas.
(AP, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, In Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents killed 26 Afghan civilians after abducting them
in the remote central province of Ghor the previous day.
(AP, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, In Hong Kong newly
elected pro-democracy lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (25) and Sixtus Leung
(30) defied an order barring them from taking their oaths after
being disqualified earlier for insulting China, sparking more unruly
scenes in Hong Kong's legislature. The session was adjourned until
next week.
(AP, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, A Hungarian
policeman (46) was shot dead with a machine gun early today when
police tried to search the home of a man (76) suspected of illegal
possession of firearms in bony.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, Iraq's army said
it had regained full control of the western town of Rutba, three
days after Islamic State attacked it.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, Israeli
archaeologists made public a fragment of an ancient text which they
say is the earliest Hebrew reference to Jerusalem outside the Bible.
The piece of papyrus, dated by the Israel Antiquities Authority to
the 7th century B.C., was presented at a news conference in
Jerusalem shortly after Paris-based UNESCO adopted a resolution that
Israel said denied Judaism's link to the ancient city.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, In central Italy a
pair of strong earthquakes struck late today in the same region hit
by a deadly quake in August. The only death in the aftermath was
attributed to a heart attack in a 73-year-old man.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 26, Pakistani
authorities arrested Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman immortalized on a
1985 National Geographic magazine cover, for living in the country
on fraudulent identity papers. On Oct 30 a government minister said
she would be freed on bail days. On Nov 2 a Peshawar court denied
the bail request.
(AFP, 10/30/16)(AP, 11/2/16)
2016 Oct 26, Pakistan's
military said Indian troops have killed two civilians and wounded
eight others in what it called an incident of "unprovoked firing" in
a remote village bordering Indian-controlled Kashmir, while a third
villager died in hospital of gunshot wounds sustained in a similar
incident the previous day.
(AP, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, South African
police fired stun grenades, water cannon and tear gas to disperse
students protesting outside parliament over the cost of university
tuition fees. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said students at
universities and higher education institutions will receive an extra
17 billion rand ($1.2 billion) over the next three years.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 26, In Syria
airstrikes killed 28 people, including 22 children, when warplanes
struck a residential area housing the Haas village school complex in
the rebel-held province of Idlib. Human Rights Watch said improvised
land mines planted by the Islamic State group have killed and
wounded hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, in
Manbij, a town recently freed of the militants.
(AP, 10/26/16)(Reuters, 10/27/16)(SFC, 10/28/16,
p.A6)(SFC, 3/15/17, p.A2)
2016 Oct 27, The US Justice
Department charged 61 defendants at home and abroad in connection
with a call center operation that officials say is based in India.
Authorities served nine warrants in eight states and arrested 20
people in the international fraud and money laundering scheme
investigation on five call center groups.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, The US Coast Guard
delivered more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine to San Diego that were
confiscated in 25 separate busts off the coasts of Central and South
America over the past fiscal year.
(SFC, 10/29/16, p.A6)
2016 Oct 27, Senior officials
from the United States, Japan and South Korea agreed to step up
pressure on North Korea as they stick to their goal of persuading
the communist state to abandon its nuclear weapons.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, In the Central
African Republic clashes between elements of the anti-Balaka and
ex-Seleka caused 15 deaths and a number of wounded in Bambari.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)(SSFC, 10/30/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 27, ZTO Express, a
China-based delivery company, raised $1.4 billion in an IPO on the
New York Stock Exchange, the largest offering this year. The stock
closed down 15% at $16.75.
(SSFC, 10/30/16, p.D2)
2016 Oct 27, China's Communist
Party elevated President Xi Jinping to the position of "core"
leader, underscoring his clout and strengthening his dominance ahead
of a reshuffle in the top ranks next year.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, EU governments put
10 more people under sanctions over the crisis in Syria, targeting
high-ranking military officials and senior figures linked to
President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, In Indonesia a
Jakarta court sentenced Jessica Kumala Wongso (28), accused of
killing former classmate Wayan Mirna Salihin last January with
cyanide-laced coffee, to 20 years in prison, in a dramatic climax to
a trial that was broadcast live and became a national spectacle.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, The United States
said up to 900 Islamic State group jihadists have been killed in the
offensive to retake Iraq's Mosul, as camps around the city filled
with fleeing civilians.
(AFP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, Two Yazidi women
who survived a nightmare ordeal of kidnapping, rape and slavery at
the hands of Islamic State jihadists won the European Parliament's
prestigious Sakharov human rights prize. Yazidis are followers of an
ancient religion with more than half a million believers
concentrated in northern Iraq.
(AFP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, The Pakistani
government banned all political meetings, rallies and protests in
the capital, Islamabad, ahead of a planned opposition march against
PM Nawaz Sharif on Nov. 2. The ban, which also applies to the
adjacent garrison city of Rawalpindi, will remain in force for two
months.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, The provincial
court of Pakistan's Sindh province ordered police and the area's
excise department to start closing all shops selling alcohol.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, In Syria at least
8 people were killed in government shelling on Douma, a rebel-held
suburb Damascus. At least 6 children were killed and 15 injured in
rebel rocket attacks in the government-held west of Aleppo city.
(AP, 10/27/16)(AFP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 27, In eastern Ukraine
six people died in clashes between government forces and pro-Russian
insurgents, the highest death toll since international peace talks
held 10 days ago.
(AFP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, Zcash, a new
crypto-currency, made its debut. The new digital currency was based
on the Bitcoin code.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.65)
2016 Oct 28, In eastern
Afghanistan an airstrike hit the home of a Taliban commander in
Nangarhar province and caused several civilian casualties. The US
strike targeted the home of Mawlawi Mohammad Alam, a Taliban
commander in the Sherzad district.
(Reuters, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, In the Central
African Republic clashes between militia groups killed six gendarmes
and four civilians.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 28, Egypt's health
ministry said 12 people have died and dozens were injured as heavy
rain battered several cities across the country.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, Crowds of mostly
young Iranians attended the march near the ancient city of
Pasargadae in central province of Fars to celebrate the day
unofficially marked in the Iranian calendar as Cyrus Day. On Oct 31
prosecutor Ali Salehi said the main leaders and organizers of the
gathering have been arrested.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 28, In Kashmir
soldiers from India and Pakistan continued to shell villages and
border posts. An Indian paramilitary officer said a civilian and a
soldier were killed by Pakistani firing.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, Lebanese singer
and composer Melham Barakat (71) died at a Beirut hospital. He was
highly esteemed and popular across the region. His most popular
songs included "Two Moons at my Door," and "Habibi Inta (You are my
Love)".
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, In the Maldives
six ruling party lawmakers defected to work with the opposition in
the party's first open split and a major challenge to President
Yameen Abdul Gayoom's rule.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, In Morocco
Mouhcine Fikri (31) was crushed to death in a rubbish truck in
Al-Hoceima, located in the northern Rif region, as he reportedly
tried to protest against a municipal worker seizing and destroying
his wares. An image of his inert body -- head and arm sticking out
from under the lorry's crushing mechanism -- went viral on social
media, sparking calls for protests nationwide including in the
capital Rabat. 11 people soon faced manslaughter or forgery charges
in the investigation of Fikri’s death.
(AFP, 10/31/16)(AP, 11/1/16)(Econ 7/8/17, p.42)
2016 Oct 28, Myanmar's
government said that a pregnant foreign woman has been diagnosed
with the country's first case of Zika, a mosquito-borne virus linked
to birth defects.
(AFP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, Pakistani riot
police clashed with stone-throwing supporters of
cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan who rallied in the capital in
defiance of a government-imposed ban on demonstrations.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, A Palestinian
attacked Israeli troops with his car late today and then with a
knife in the occupied West Bank before being shot and seriously
wounded.
(AP, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 28, South Africa said
it has detected its first outbreak of Tomato Leaf Miner, a pest
originally from South America which can ruin tomato and potato
crops. Tomato Leaf Miner spread from South America to Europe in 2006
and has since moved southward through Africa and Asia. It has been
reported in Kenya and Tanzania and was detected in Zambia in
September.
(Reuters, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, Syrian rebels
including jihadists began a counter-attack against the army and its
allies aiming to break a weeks-long siege on eastern Aleppo. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor,
said more than 15 civilians had been killed and 100 wounded by rebel
shelling of government-held western Aleppo.
(Reuters, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, The UN human
rights office said Islamic State forces in Iraq have abducted tens
of thousands of men, women and children from areas around Mosul and
are using them as "human shields" in strategic sites in the city as
Iraqi troops advance.
(Reuters, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, The UN General
Assembly voted Russia off the Human Rights Council.
(SFC, 10/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 28, In Venezuela a
12-hour work stoppage came as the opposition stepped up its campaign
to force embattled socialist Pres. Maduro from office after
electoral authorities canceled a recall referendum seeking his
removal.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 28, Yemen's Shiite
rebels and their allies fired a ballistic missile deep into Saudi
Arabia in an overnight strike that they said had targeted an
international airport while the kingdom claimed that it flew toward
the holy Muslim city of Mecca.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 29, A senior US
official said China's imports of North Korean coal run counter to
global sanctions, adding that a US missile system deployed in South
Korea should "motivate" Beijing to pressure Pyongyang over its
nuclear program.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Cambodia former
PM Pen Sovann (80), died. He was installed in 1981 and then
imprisoned by the Vietnamese after they defeated the brutal Khmer
Rouge regime.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 29, In El Salvador
Tony Saca, former president (2004-2009), was arrested on charges
ranging from money laundering to illicit enrichment. Six other
government officials from his time in office were also arrested as
part of the corruption probe. Saca was accused of diverting $301
million in public money and faced up to 30 years in prison if
convicted.
(CSM, 10/31/16)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.26)(SFC, 8/8/18,
p.A2)
2016 Oct 29, An Egyptian court
sentenced two Muslim Brotherhood supporters to life in prison and 16
others to 15 years in jail for a violent assault on a Cairo
neighborhood in 2013 after the ouster of former president Mohamed
Mursi. A senior military officer and one soldier were killed by a
roadside explosion in the North Sinai where the government faced an
Islamic State-led insurgency.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, Icelanders voted
in a snap election that could see the anti-establishment Pirate
Party form the next government in the wake of the Panama Papers
tax-dodging scandal and lingering anger over the 2008 financial
meltdown. The governing coalition of the Independence Party and the
Progressive Party together won 29 seats in the 63-member parliament.
The Pirates and its three center-left allies won 27 seats.
(AFP, 10/29/16)(AFP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Iraq Islamic
State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security
Forces near Mosul and threw their bodies in the Tigris river.
(Reuters, 11/1/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Iraq a suicide
bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group targeted Shiite
Muslims in Baghdad, killing at least four people.
(AFP, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, Iraqi Shi'ite
militias said they had launched an offensive towards the west of
Mosul, an operation that could inflame sectarian tension in the
mainly Sunni region.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Kashmir two
Indian soldiers were killed in fighting with Pakistani soldiers and
suspected militants along the volatile frontier.
(AP, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Pakistan gunmen
on motorcycles killed five people at a religious gathering of
Shi'ite Muslims in Karachi, in the latest attack claimed by the
Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's Al Alami faction.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Oct 29, In South Korea
thousands of people took to the streets of Seoul calling for
increasingly unpopular Pres. Park Geun-hye to step down over
allegations that she let an old friend, the daughter of a religious
cult leader, interfere in important state affairs.
(AP, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, Syrian government
forces launched a counteroffensive under the cover of airstrikes in
an attempt to regain control of areas they had lost to insurgents
the day before in Aleppo as insurgents launched a fresh offensive on
the city.
(AP, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 29, In western Yemen
Saudi-led coalition air strikes late today on the rebel-held
al-Zaydiya security buildings in Hodeida killed at least 60 people,
many of them inmates buried under the rubble of their detention
center.
(AFP, 10/30/16)(SSFC, 10/30/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 29, In southwestern
Yemen at least 17 civilians were killed by a Saudi-led coalition air
strike that struck a house in Taiz province. Exiled Pres. Hadi
rejected a UN peace proposal to end the turmoil saying the deal
would only be a path to more war and destruction.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 30, An Afghan official
said that at least seven civilians have been killed after a mortar
shell fired by insurgent groups hit a home in Baghlan province.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Brazil held
nationwide municipal elections in a 2nd round of voting following
the first-round on October 2. Marcelo Crivella, a Pentecostal
bishop, was elected mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
(AFP, 10/30/16)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.30)
2016 Oct 30, Indonesia said it
will resume some shipments of coal to the Philippines, after a
months-long halt due to concerns about piracy in seas between the
two archipelagos
(Reuters, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, In Iraq a parked
car bomb exploded in Baghdad's northwestern neighborhood of
Hurriyah, killing at least 10 and wounding 34. It was the fifth such
explosion in the capital today. The day's casualty toll from the
attacks in Baghdad stood at 17 dead and over 60 wounded.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Iraqi troops and
security forces edged closer to Mosul on two southern fronts but a
leader of the Shi'ite militias newly participating in the offensive
warned that the battle for Islamic State's Iraq stronghold would be
long and grueling.
(Reuters, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Italy's most
powerful earthquake in 36 years stuck the country's mountainous
center, panicking shell-shocked residents for the third time in two
months and flattening a world famous 600-year-old basilica. The 6.6
magnitude quake hit near the small mountain town of Norcia. There
were no reports of anyone dying.
(AFP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Pakistani police
arrested more than 100 supporters of opposition politician Imran
Khan who entered Islamabad days before a planned protest shutdown of
the capital.
(AFP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, A Russian Soyuz
space capsule landed in Kazakhstan, bringing astronauts Kate Rubins
of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia back
to Earth from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space
Station.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Saudi Arabia said
it broke up two militant plots in recent weeks, one with Islamic
State militants trying to kill police officers and the second
involving parking a car bomb at a soccer match with the United Arab
Emirates.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Syrian rebels
opened a new front in Aleppo as fighting spread on the third day of
a major insurgent counter-attack to break the government's siege of
the opposition-held part of the city, and each side accused the
other using poison gas. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
at least 38 people including 14 children had been killed in rebel
shelling of government-held areas of Aleppo in the last 48 hours.
(Reuters, 10/30/16)
2016 Oct 30, Ukraine officials
faced a deadline to upload details of their assets and income in
2015 to a publicly searchable database. Reuters calculations based
on the declarations show that the 24 members of the Ukrainian
cabinet together have nearly $7 million, just in cash. The average
salary in the country is just over $200 per month.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, President Barack
Obama extended US sanctions on Sudan for another year as of November
3, saying Khartoum's policies remained an "extraordinary threat" to
the national security of the United States.
(AFP, 11/1/16)(Econ, 12/3/16, p.40)
2016 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attack devastated a gathering of local elders
in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province. The Islamic State claimed
responsibility for the attack. Afghan officials said four people
were killed and seven wounded, while a statement from Islamic State
said 15 "apostates" were killed and 25 wounded.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In southern Brazil
a bus and a tanker truck filled with milk burst into flames when
they collided, killing 20 people and injuring at least 10 near
Cafezal do Sul in Parana state.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, China said it will
invest 946.3 billion yuan ($140 billion) by 2020 to relocate its
poorest citizens from remote, inland regions to more developed
areas.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, China's Foreign
Ministry confirmed a decision to allow Philippine fishermen access
to a disputed shoal following a visit to Beijing by the Philippine
president.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In western China a
gas explosion ripped through the privately owned Jinshangou coal
mine killing 33 miners in the Chongqing region. Two miners were
rescued.
(AP, 10/31/16)(SFC, 11/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 31, In Egypt militants
attacked the same Bir el-Abd army checkpoint in Sinai where 12
soldiers were killed earlier this month, this time leaving one
soldier dead.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Egypt's Health
Ministry said recent floods have killed 26 people and injured 72
others across the country.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, French Defence
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that France would be ready to
intervene in Central African Republic if necessary, despite ending
its peacekeeping mission in its former colony.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In Indonesia a
cargo plane carrying four people was reported missing in a remote,
mountainous area of easternmost Papua province.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Iraqi troops
entered the Karama district of the Islamic State stronghold of
Mosul, their first advance into the city itself after two weeks of
fighting in the surrounding area to dislodge the militants. The
Islamic State executed 50 people for desertion at the Ghazlani
military base in Mosul.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Oct 31, The Lebanese
parliament elected former army commander Michel Aoun as president,
ending a 29-month presidential vacuum as part of a political deal
that is expected to make Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri prime
minister.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In Morocco about
220 African migrants forced their way through a barbed wire fence
into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, clashing with Spanish
police who tried to prevent them from crossing the border.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Pakistani police
launched a nation-wide crackdown overnight, arresting at least 1,500
supporters of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan ahead of an
opposition rally planned later this week in Islamabad.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Pakistan's Supreme
Court stayed the execution of a mentally ill prisoner whose hanging
was to take place later this week. Imdad Ali (50), convicted of
murdering a religious scholar in 2001, was diagnosed with
schizophrenia in 2008.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, South African
prosecutors dropped fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin
Gordhan and two former tax officials, reversing a decision that was
criticized by many South Africans and deepened concern about the
country's struggling economy and alleged government mismanagement.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In South Korea
Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the center of a scandal roiling South
Korea, met prosecutors examining whether she used her close ties to
President Park Geun-hye to pull government strings from the shadows
and amass an illicit fortune. Using a common expression of deep
repentance she said: "I committed a sin that deserves death."
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In Spain PM
Mariano Rajoy took his oath as leader of the new conservative
government — an administration that is in a minority in parliament
and could have difficulty passing laws.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Syria's army said
the Nusra Front and what the army called other terrorist groups had
killed 84 people, mostly women and children, in Aleppo during the
past three days, in a bombardment that included chemical weapons and
rocket fire.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Turkish police
detained the chief editor and at least 12 senior staff of Turkey's
opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, in a widening crackdown on
dissenting voices.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, Venezuela’s
government and opposition leaders agreed to continue a
Vatican-backed dialogue following initial talks meant to ease an
escalating political standoff taking place against the backdrop of a
worsening economic crisis.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct, The US began beaming
“Current Time,” a 24-hour Russian language TV channel, to Russia. It
was only available online or by satellite.
(Econ 6/17/17, p.26)
2016 Oct, Porn star Stormy
Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford, received $130,000 in return for her
promise to keep quiet an extramarital affair she had with Donald
Trump in 2006-2007. The money was reportedly paid by Michael Cohen,
Trump's personal lawyer.
(SFC, 3/10/18, p.A6)
2016 Oct, A new 67-meter
control tower opened at the San Francisco Int’l. Airport at a cost
of $120 million.
(Econ 5/27/17, p.70)
2016 Oct, In California 104
tiny Perdix drones, with a wingspan of 30 cm, were launched from
three American fighters and performed a series of maneuvers.
(Econ 6/10/17, TQ p.8)
2016 Oct, Qualcomm bought chip
designer NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.56)
2016 Oct, In Cameroon English
speaking lawyers took to the streets demanding English translations
of the country’s key legal texts and better treatment by the
authorities. English speakers numbered less than a fifth of the
population.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.48)
2016 Oct, In China the head of
Crown's VIP International team, Jason O'Connor, was among three
Australian and 15 Chinese employees detained for suspected gambling
crimes. Jenny Chiang (33), a Shanghai-based Chinese citizen, was
released on Nov 11.
(AP, 11/12/16)
2016 Oct, The European Union
and Canada formally signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement (CETA). The accord, which had yet to be ratified,
eliminates 98 percent of tariffs between the EU and Canada.
(AFP, 6/14/18)
2016 Oct, French journalists
Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme authored "Un président ne devrait
pas dire ça..." (A president should not say that), based on 61
interviews with President Francois Hollande over four years.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.44)
2016 Oct, In Iran molestation
victims of Koran singer Saeed Tousi spoke out on Voice of America.
The judiciary ruled out a public trial. Tousi remained at liberty.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.40)
2016 Oct, In Italy a British
woman (50) was raped at a hotel in Sorrento. In 2018 arrest warrants
were issued for five workers at the hotel. Investigators had seized
the cell phones of male personnel at the hotel and discovered that
the suspects had chatted about the attack and exchanged photos taken
of the woman while she was being raped.
(AP, 5/14/18)
2016 Oct, New Zealand’s chief
conservation officer suggested that it might be time to charge
tourists for using the country’s wilderness trails. New Zealand’s
national parks made up a third of its territory.
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.30)
2016 Oct, In the Philippines
Jee Ick-joo, a South Korean businessman, disappeared from his home
in Angeles City. It was later reported that police from a special
anti-drug unit abducted him under the guise of a raid on illegal
drugs and that a policeman then strangled him inside Camp Crame. His
body was burned and flushed down a lavatory. The kidnappers demanded
a ransom from the victim's wife and she initially paid five million
pesos ($100,000), thinking he was still alive. On Jan 24, 2017, the
Philippine government apologized to South Korea and pledged to
ensure that justice is served and not delayed.
(AFP, 1/22/17)(AP, 1/24/17)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.33)
2016 Oct, Russian blogger
Ruslan Sokolovsky was detained for posting a video on his blog
showing him playing “Pokemon Go” on his phone in a church on the
supposed site of where the last Russian czar and his family were
killed in Yekaterinburg. On May 11, 2017, he was convicted of
inciting religious hatred and given a suspended sentence.
(SFC, 5/11/17, p.A2)
2016 Oct, Saudi Arabia tapped
markets for the first time raising $175 billion in the largest-ever
emerging market bond issue.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.61)
2016 Oct, In Spain 37
businessmen and former politicians went on trial on charges of
fixing the government procurement system to steer construction
contracts to their buddies. Businessman Frances Correa was the prime
suspect.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.45)
2016 Oct, In Sweden five
teenagers from Afghanistan reportedly dragged another Afghan boy
into a forest, threatened him with a knife and raped him. On Dec 6
Swedish authorities charged the five teenagers with aggravated rape.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Oct, The World Health
Organization (WHO) urged all countries to impose a tax on sugary
drinks.
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.78)
2016 Nov 1, In Iowa police
Officer Lucas Jones shot Jerime Mitchell (37), an unarmed black
motorist. The shooting left Mitchell paralyzed. On Dec 5 a grand
jury decided not to indict Jones.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 1, Britain's Treasury
Chief Philip Hammond promised that the UK will strike back against
cyberattacks amid fears that state-sponsored hackers jeopardize
society. The Kremlin dismissed as untrue allegations by the head of
Britain's MI5 intelligence agency that Russia is mounting
cyber-attacks and other aggressive measures which pose a growing
threat to Britain.
(AP, 11/1/16)(Reuters, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, Yum China Holdings
Inc., the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, completed the spinoff of its
China division. It began trading as YUMC on the New York Stock
Exchange as a separate company.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, Chinese President
Xi Jinping met with Taiwan's opposition leader, underscoring
Beijing's message to the island's independence-leaning
administration that it won't have access to the mainland's highest
levels of power if it doesn't accept that Taiwan is part of China.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, China and Malaysia
said their navies will cooperate more in the politically sensitive
South China Sea in an agreement signed today during a visit by
Malaysia's PM Najib Razak, who is seeking stronger ties with Beijing
as he tries to offset a financial scandal at home.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, China's J-20
stealth fighter made its public debut at an air show in Zhuhai, in
the latest sign of the growing sophistication of the country's
military technology.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, Ethiopia's PM
Hailemariam Desalegn reshuffled his cabinet to create a more
ethnically diverse team after an unprecedented wave of protests.
(AFP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, Indian officials
said 7 civilians were killed in Kashmir and nine others wounded by
Pakistani shelling. Two women were also reported killed in the
Rajouri sector in cross-border firing.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, Elite Iraqi forces
recaptured Gogjali village and a television station on the edge of
Mosul. Iraqi army forces managed to push into the Judaidat Al-Mufti
area of Mosul. Some 4,000 to 7,000 jihadists were believed to be in
and around Mosul. Islamic State militants transported 1,600 abducted
civilians from the town of Hammam al-Alil to Tal Afar, possibly for
use as human shields against air strikes.
(AFP, 11/1/16)(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 2, In the SF Bay Area
Karla Ramirez (21) was stabbed to death and burned at Arroyo Viejo
Park in East Oakland. Her body was found the next day and police
soon arrested Laura Rodgers (23) and Curtys Taylor (23).
(SFC, 11/9/16, p.A26)
2016 Nov 2, In Iowa two police
officers were killed in ambush-style attacks early today 20 minutes
apart in Des Moines. Police soon apprehended Scott Michael Greene
(46), a white male, in the shooting death. The incident marked the
first time a Des Moines officer has been shot in the line of duty
since two police were gunned down in 1977.
(AFP, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, It was reported
that Belgium's immigration minister is refusing to grant
humanitarian visas to a family in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo
despite being fined 4,000 euros ($4,438) a day for defying an appeal
tribunal.
(AP, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, Cambodian officials
promised to investigate problems in the sand mining business
following complaints from fishermen that dredgers have been stealing
the shore beneath their boats on an industrial scale.
(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 2, Iceland's President
Gudni Johannesson asked Bjarni Benediktsson, the leader of the
center-right Independence Party, to form a new government after the
party emerged on top in the Oct 29 general election.
(Reuters, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, In Indonesia an
overcrowded speedboat carrying workers home from Malaysia capsized
off the island of Batam. At least 54 people were killed and 41
survived. After three days 6 people were still missing.
(AP, 11/2/16)(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 2, In Iraq a spokesman
for a leading Shiite militia said its fighters have gained control
of a highway linking the Islamic State group-held city of Mosul to
the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the militants'
self-proclaimed caliphate. An Iraqi officer said troops have killed
eight Islamic State group militants while carrying out
house-to-house clearances in the newly-recaptured Mosul neighborhood
of Gogjali. 180 former Iraqi government employees died as Islamic
State retreated from Kokjali town.
(AP, 11/2/16)(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 2, In Israel
protesters demanding equal prayer rights for women at one of
Judaism's holiest sites scuffled with ultra-Orthodox Jews as they
sought to approach Jerusalem's Western Wall.
(AFP, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe held talks with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Tokyo and
pledged 40 billion yen ($390 million) in aid to back her
government's peace process with ethnic minorities, amid growing
international concern about reported army attacks on a Muslim group.
(AP, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, In Russia the
Moscow office of rights group Amnesty International was sealed off
by municipal officials without warning and staff could not get
inside.
(Reuters, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, Moscow declared a
10-hour humanitarian truce in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia seeks "honest
cooperation" for a political solution in Syria -- "the sooner the
better". Russia said it would extend the moratorium to Nov 4.
(AFP, 11/2/16)(SFC, 11/3/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 2, South Africa's
anti-corruption watchdog released its report into accusations
against President Jacob Zuma and called for prosecutors to
investigate alleged criminal activity. South African police fired
stun grenades and water cannon to disperse protesters who marched
towards President Jacob Zuma's offices in the capital Pretoria
demanding that he quit over what they called poor leadership.
(AFP, 11/2/16)(Reuters, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 2, In Spain Jose Luis
Pazos, president of the CEAPA, said parents had launched a strike
against their offspring's school load for the whole month of
November due to "the absolute certainty that homework is
detrimental" to children, damaging their extra-curricular
development.
(AFP, 11/2/16)
2016 Nov 3, The White House
said it will establish 48 national electric-vehicle (EV) charging
networks on nearly 25,000 miles of highways in 35 US states.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, The US Navy said US
Marines are using Super Cobra attack helicopters to mount
close-range airstrikes against Islamic State militants in the Libyan
city of Sirte.
(AFP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, In Louisiana two
police officers fired 18 shots into a car killing Jeremy Mardis (6),
an autistic boy, as the boy’s father Christopher Few has his hands
raised following a 2-mile chase in Marksville. On March 24, 2017,
Officer Derrick Stafford (33) was convicted of manslaughter. Officer
Norris Greenhouse Jr. faced a separate trial.
(SSFC, 3/26/17, p.A10)
2016 Nov 3, In South Carolina
Kala Brown (30) was found inside a 30x15 foot container in Woodruff
with chains around her neck and ankles. Todd Christopher Kohlhepp
(45) a registered sex offender, was arrested. Police the next day
found a body on the land nearby. The woman’s boyfriend, Charles
Carver (32), had also been missing after the couple disappeared on
August 31. Kohlhepp soon confessed to at least 7 murders. On Nov 5
warrants were issued charging Kohlhepp with a quadruple murder that
dated back to November 2003. On Nov 9 two more bodies, buried on the
property for almost a year, were identified as Meagan (25) and
Johnny Coxie (29).
(SFC, 11/5/16, p.A9)(AFP, 11/6/16)(SFC, 11/10/16,
p.A7)(SFC, 2/16/17, p.A8)
2016 Nov 3, In Afghanistan US
airstrikes early today killed 33 Afghan civilians, including women
and children in Buz Kandahari, Kunduz province, after a Taliban
assault left two American and four Afghan soldiers dead. Two Taliban
figures were also killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/zrktmkv)(AFP, 11/3/16)(AP,
11/5/16)(SFC, 1/13/17, p.A2)
2016 Nov 3, The High Court in
London ruled that parliament must approve the start of Britain's
withdrawal from the European Union.
(AFP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, China successfully
launched its new Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang launch
center. It will be used to launch components for the Tiangong 2
space station, due to come into full service in 2022.
(SFC, 11/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 3, Egypt devalued its
currency by 48 percent and said the pound would be allowed to float.
The measures met a key demand by the IMF in exchange for a $12
billion loan over three years to overhaul the ailing economy.
(SFC, 11/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 3, Greek retirees
staged an anti-government rally in Athens to protest a new round of
cuts under the country's international bailout program.
(AP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, Islamic State
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers there could be no
retreat in a "total war" against the forces arrayed against them, as
advancing soldiers battled the militants inside their northern Iraqi
stronghold.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, Israeli troops shot
dead a Palestinian who tried to stab a soldier near Ofra in the
occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, Avi Dichter, the
former head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency, said Iran now
commands a force of around 25,000 Shi'ite Muslim militants in Syria,
mostly made up of recruits from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, The Kyrgyzstan
Social Democratic party formed a new governing coalition, comprising
lawmakers who a day earlier voted for constitutional reforms that
opponents say are aimed at extending President Almazbek Atambayev's
rule.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, Lebanon's Pres.
Michel Aoun asked Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri to form a new
government, after he won the support of a majority of MPs including
the influential parliament speaker who said he would cooperate with
efforts to set up the new cabinet.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, In Myanmar six
attackers on three motorcycles shot at 11 policemen, killing one
police corporal and wounding another.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2016 Nov 3, Pakistan named
eight Indian diplomats it accuses of espionage and terrorism, as
tension mounted between the nuclear-armed rivals following days of
artillery duels and skirmishes on the border dividing the disputed
Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, The Russian
Parliament adopted an anti-doping bill that includes prison terms
for coaches found guilty of coercing young athletes into using
performance-enhancing drugs.
(AP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, Moscow declared a
10-hour humanitarian truce in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia seeks "honest
cooperation" for a political solution in Syria -- "the sooner the
better". Russia said it would extend the moratorium to Nov 4.
(AFP, 11/2/16)(SFC, 11/3/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 3, Syrian rebel
factions fought each other in besieged eastern Aleppo, potentially
undermining their efforts to fend off a major Russian-backed
offensive. Syrian TV said civilian deaths from rebel attacks on
western Aleppo has risen to 12.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)(AP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, In Turkey hundreds
of academics, students and union members staged a protest against a
government purge of thousands of educational staff since the
attempted military coup in July.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 3, In Yemen thousands
of people in Aden and other locations protested against a new UN
plan to end the devastating conflict between rebels and the
Saudi-backed government, saying it would legitimize the insurgents'
power grab.
(AFP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Louisiana former
police Sgt. Gerard Dugue admitted that he helped cover up two fatal
police shootings on Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina hit New
Orleans on Aug 29, 2005.
(SFC, 11/5/16, p.A9)
2016 Nov 4, New York City
police Sgt. Paul Tuozollo was shot and killed in an exchange of
gunfire with Manuel Rosales (35), who was also killed. Rosales
opened fire on police officers who had stopped his car following a
chase after a woman called 911 saying Rosales had broken into her
home violating an order of protection.
(SFC, 11/5/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 4, The Paris
Agreement, a new global deal to tackle climate change, became
international law. The agreement, crafted last December, seeks to
limit the rise in average world temperatures to "well below" 2
degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, and
ideally under 1.5 degrees, by weaning the world off fossil fuels.
(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, Some of the world's
biggest oil companies, including Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell,
pledged to invest $1 billion to develop climate-friendly
technologies as a global deal to wean the world off oil came into
force.
(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, Chilean police used
tear gas and water cannon to break up a protest against the
country's privatized pension system, which opponents say is leaving
many retirees in poverty.
(AFP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, China's Dalian
Wanda Group said it has added another entertainment trophy to its
stable of overseas acquisitions, paying $1 billion for Dick Clark
Productions, the TV company that produces the Golden Globes and the
"Miss America" pageant.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, French police
removed thousands of migrants from a squalid camp in northeast Paris
that had doubled in size after the closure last week of the "Jungle"
camp in Calais.
(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, Indonesian police
fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse hardline Muslims
protesters, after tens of thousands had rallied to demand the
resignation of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahja Purnama, who they said
had insulted the Koran. At least one person was killed. Some Muslim
groups have accused Purnama of blasphemy after he said his opponents
had deceived voters by attacking him using a verse from the Koran.
(Reuters, 11/4/16)(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Iraq bulldozers
and tanks backed by air strikes pushed into the streets of Mosul
from the east for the first time since Iraqi forces launched a broad
offensive to retake the city on October 17. Jihadist fighters
unleashed a deluge of bombs and gunfire on forces punching into the
streets of Mosul, forcing some units into a partial pullback. At
least seven suicide attackers in explosives-laden vehicles attacked
troops, five of whom were killed before nearing their targets.
(AFP, 11/4/16)(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 4, In northern Iraq
two roadside bombs struck a convoy carrying families fleeing the
Islamic State-controlled town of Hawija late today, killing 18
people.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Jordan three US
military trainers were shot dead when the car they failed to stop at
the gate of a military base and was fired on by Jordanian security
forces at the Prince Faisal air base. One Jordanian soldier later
faced murder charges.
(Reuters, 11/4/16)(SFC, 11/5/16, p.A5)(SFC,
6/7/17, p.A2)
2016 Nov 4, In northern Mali a
French soldier was killed in an attack after a mine exploded as his
armored vehicle passed by during a supply mission. The Mali-based
Ansar Dine extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Pakistan five
supporters of the Sunni Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), which
advocates for Shi'ites to be legally declared non-Muslim and has a
violent offshoot that targets Shi'ite mosques, were killed in
drive-by attacks in Karachi.
(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Pakistan a court
in Peshawar ordered that Sharbat Gulla, the National Geographic's
famed green-eyed 'Afghan Girl', be deported once her detention
expires.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, South Korean
President Park Geun-hye took sole blame for a "heartbreaking"
scandal amid rising suspicion that she allowed a mysterious
confidante to manipulate power from the shadows. Park also vowed to
accept a direct investigation into her actions.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Syria two
Russian soldiers and a Syrian journalist were injured in Aleppo when
mortar rounds struck one of the exit corridors designated for the
evacuation of rebels and residents from the eastern besieged part of
the city during a temporary halt in fighting announced by Russia.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, Tunisia's PM
Youssef Chahed sacked Salem Abd El Jalil, the minister of religious
affairs. A day earlier local media quoted Jalil as saying in
parliament: "I told the Saudi ambassador in Tunisia that terrorism
and extremism historically came from you ... You should reform your
(religious) school."
(Reuters, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Turkey a car
bomb attack in Diyarbakir killed at least nine people. The attack
came just hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish
lawmakers for questioning in terror related probes. PM Binali
Yildirim said the bombing was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK). Two more people soon succumbed to their wounds. A news
outlet linked to the Islamic State said its fighters staged the
bombing that killed 11 people.
(AP, 11/4/16)(AFP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 4, Uganda's High Court
ordered the closure of a chain of low-cost private schools backed by
Microsoft and Facebook founders Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. A
judge ruled that the 63 Bridge International Academies provided
unsanitary learning conditions, used unqualified teachers and were
not properly licensed.
(AFP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 4, UN experts said the
Afghan government and several other countries estimated that there
are about 45,000 opposition fighters in Afghanistan and that between
20 percent and 25 percent are foreigners.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 5, In New Jersey two
children and a woman were fatally stabbed at a home in Newark. Three
others were injured.
(SSFC, 11/6/16, p.A10)
2016 Nov 5, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb targeting a district leader killed his driver and
wounded the official and another person. A similar attack on a
police vehicle in the capital, Kabul, wounded four people. Unknown
gunmen kidnapped a female Pakistani-born Australian employee of a
non-governmental organization late today in Kabul.
(AP, 11/5/16)(AP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Albania
thousands gathered in prayer at the Shen Shtjefni cathedral in
Shkoder to celebrate the beatification of 38 Albanian Catholic
martyrs executed or tortured to death during the former communist
regime (1945-1974).
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, Leading members of
China's parliament said two Hong Kong lawmakers-elect who called for
the city's independence from China had damaged the territory's rule
of law and posed a grave threat to China's sovereignty and security.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, Police in Congo's
capital Kinshasa fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters
seeking to defy a ban on public protests and rally against plans by
President Joseph Kabila to stay in power beyond the end of his
mandate this year.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, French police in
Ascain arrested Mikel Irastorza, the leader of the debilitated
Basque militant group ETA. Spanish police said Irastorza, who had
been in hiding since 2008, became ETA's leading member a year ago.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, The German media
group Funke said the government plans to carry out security
investigations of all military recruits beginning in July 2017 after
its military counter-espionage service (MAD) identified 20 Islamists
in the Bundeswehr.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Iraq four
separate bombings hit neighborhoods across Baghdad, killing at least
10 people and wounding 37. Iraqi special forces cleared buildings in
neighborhoods they entered in eastern Mosul a day earlier, after
pushing out Islamic State militants in their drive to take back the
city. Some 1 million civilians remained in the city.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir at least 30 people were injured after
government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas as a funeral
procession for a teenager turned into a protest against Indian rule.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, Two Indonesians
were kidnapped from fishing vessels in waters off Malaysia's Sabah
state in two separate incidents.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Kosovo medical
student Astrit Dehari (26) died in jail in the southeastern city of
Prizren, where he had been detained since August along with five
fellow members of the opposition Self-Determination (Vetevendosje)
party. Prosecutors later said the activist had killed himself.
(http://tinyurl.com/zlcru2d)(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Malaysia several
hundred pro-government demonstrators dressed in red shirts protested
outside the office of the popular news portal, Malaysiakini, calling
for it to be shut down after reports that it received funds from an
organization linked to business tycoon George Soros.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Myanmar video
captured police officers shown beating villagers in the area of
Maungdaw township. The video was circulated on the internet and
forced a rare official acknowledgment of abuses taking place in the
western state of Rakhine.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2016 Nov 5, In northern Nigeria
one of some 270 schoolgirls abducted by jihadist group Boko Haram
from their school in Chibok in 2014 was found by soldiers screening
escapees from Boko Haram's base in the Sambisa forest. Maryam Ali
Maiyanga was discovered to be carrying a 10-month-old son, named
Ali.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, Pakistani officials
said heavy smog loaded with pollutants has covered several urban and
rural areas in Punjab province, prompting breathing problems, and
causing more than 20 deaths in traffic accidents caused by poor
visibility on highways.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In the Philippines
Rolando Espinosa, mayor of Albuera town in central Leyte province
and on President Rodrigo Duterte's list of top drugs suspects, was
killed during a shootout at a prison. On Dec 6 The National Bureau
of Investigation said the shooting to death of Mayor Rolando
Espinosa Sr. and another inmate, Raul Yap, was a "rubout." It said
the policemen most likely put pistols and illegal drugs in their
cells to justify a police raid.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Nov 5, In South Korea tens
of thousands protested in central Seoul in one the largest
demonstrations in the country's capital for years, calling on
embattled President Park Geun-hye to resign over a growing
influence-peddling scandal.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In South Sudan an
angry football fan fired on others watching a match in a bar in
Juba. By Nov 7 the death toll numbered least 13 people after some of
the injured died of their wounds.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 5, Tunisian TV
reported that a soldier has been killed in his home near central
Mount Mghilla, an area where jihadist fighters operate.
(AFP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 5, Turkey's military
said it hit 71 Islamic State targets in Syria over the last 24
hours, intensifying strikes against the militant group.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Turkey an
Istanbul court ordered the imprisonment of nine staff from the
opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper. Authorities detained nine officials
from the country's main pro-Kurdish opposition party. Police used
water cannon and tear gas against crowds of protesters in Istanbul,
in an attempt to block them from marching to the office of an
opposition newspaper whose staff had been arrested.
(AFP, 11/4/16)(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In southeastern
Turkish two children were killed when a bomb planted by the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) exploded in the province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, Algeria's army
seized a cache of weapons, including 17 anti-aircraft missiles in
the southern desert province of Adrar.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, In central Oklahoma
a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Cushing. The state recorded
19 earthquakes in the past week. Scientists have linked the sharp
increase to the underground disposal of wastewater from oil and gas
production.
(SFC, 11/7/16, p.A5)
2016 Nov 6, Bangladesh police
said 53 people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in
attacks and looting from Hindu homes. Hindu homes and temples in the
Brahmanbairs district have come under attack during the last week,
after a local youth allegedly shared a Facebook post that Islamic
hardliners said denigrated the Masjid al-Haram — a holy site for
Muslims.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, British PM Theresa
May said she would deliver a full exit from the European Union,
hitting back at critics of her Brexit strategy who have threatened
to try to block the process in parliament.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, Tesco Bank, the
financial arm of Britain’s biggest retailer, detected suspicious
transactions over the last 24 hours on 40,000 current (checking)
accounts. Raiders succeeded in stealing from 9,000 accounts. On Nov
8, Tesco Bank said it had reimbursed all losses to the tune of £2.5m
($3.1m).
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.68)
2016 Nov 6, Bulgarians voted in
a first round of a presidential election. Left-leaning air force
General Rumen Radev (53), seen as sympathetic to Moscow, won the
first round, dealing a blow to PM Boyko Borisov (57). Radev took
25.45 percent of the vote, followed by ruling center-right GERB
party candidate Tsetska Tsacheva with 21.97 percent. A run-off will
take place on Nov. 13.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 6, Hong Kong police
fired pepper spray and protesters threw bottles and road cones in
clashes near China's representative office where activists had
gathered to demonstrate against Beijing's attempts to stop a
fledgling independence movement.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, The Indian army
said Pakistani shelling killed two of its soldiers at posts along
the border of Indian-administered Kashmir. Five others including
three civilians were injured.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, In India the Delhi
state government said that schools in the capital will be closed for
the next three days, as the city struggles with one of the worst
spells of air pollution in recent years.
(AFP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, In Iraq Islamic
State fighters targeted troops with car bombs and ambushes in Mosul,
stalling an army advance, but faced attack on a new front as
US-backed Kurdish-Arab forces launched a campaign for the Syrian
city of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)(AFP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, In Iraq ten Iranian
pilgrims were killed in a suicide attack in Samarra.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, Montenegro’s chief
special prosecutor said Russian nationalists were behind the alleged
Oct 16 coup attempt that included plans to assassinate the
pro-Western prime minister because of his government's bid to join
NATO.
(AP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, Nicaragua held
elections to select their president and lawmakers in their National
Assembly. Pres. Ortega ran with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his
vice presidential candidate in a race against five lesser-known
candidates. Ortega overwhelmingly won re-election to a third
consecutive term. The opposition called the voting a farce.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 6, In Russia a gas
explosion hit a two-story apartment building before dawn in Ivanovo,
250 km (150 miles) northeast of Moscow. Six people were killed and
four seriously injured.
(AP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, In Somalia a
week-old ceasefire between the forces of the semi-autonomous regions
of Galmudug and Puntland broke down as fighting over a disputed
border area erupted again, killing at least 19 soldiers.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, South Korean
prosecutors arrested two former aides of Pres. Park Geun-hye. Ahn
Jongbeom was arrested for pressuring companies into making large
donations to non-profit organizations controlled by Choi Sonsil and
Jung Ho-sung for passing classified documents to Choi Soonsil, whose
relationship with the president has sparked a political scandal.
(SFC, 11/7/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 6, In Syria at least
six children were killed in government shelling that hit a
kindergarten in the rebel-held town of Harasta outside Damascus.
(AFP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, The Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab militia, announced an
offensive to eject the Islamic State from Raqqa.
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.47)
2016 Nov 6, Turkey's main
pro-Kurdish party said it was pulling out of parliament after nine
of its MPs including the two co-leaders were arrested in an
unprecedented crackdown. The state-run Anadolu Agency said police
have detained 15 suspects in an operation involving raids across the
southeastern province of Adana targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) militant group.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, In Yemen the
Mwatana Organization for Human Rights said that violations by the
warring parties in Taiz have killed or wounded hundreds of
civilians.
(AP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 7, Janet Reno
(b.1938), the first woman to serve as US attorney general
(1993-2001), died at her home in in Miami from complications of
Parkinson’s disease.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Reno)(SFC,
11/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Nov 7, In NYC a woman from
Queens (46) was killed after being pushed in front of a subway train
in times Square. A female suspect (30) was taken into custody.
(SFC, 11/8/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 7, A group of
investors representing more than 5 trillion euros ($5.53 trillion)
in assets under management have called on oil and gas companies to
observe an unlimited moratorium on activity in the Arctic high seas.
(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Leonard Cohen
(b.1934), Canadian singer, poet and novelist, died in Los Angeles.
His song "Suzanne" (1966) became a hit for Judy Collins, and was for
many years his most covered song.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen)(Econ, 11/19/16, p.80)
2016 Nov 7, Robert N. Hall
(b.1919, American physicist and inventor, died in Schenectady, NY.
He worked his whole life at GE Global Research. His WWII design of a
magnetron to jam enemy radar led to the development of the microwave
oven. His first solid state laser in 1962 led to the development of
bar-code scanners.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_N._Hall)(SFC, 5/11/18, p.D4)
2016 Nov 7, Australia’s Senate
blocked a plebiscite on same-sex marriage.
(SFC, 11/8/16, p.A4)
2016 Nov 7, A Cambodian court
sentenced opposition Senator Hong Song Hour to seven years in prison
for criticizing a 36-year-old border agreement with Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 7, China's top
legislature took the rare step of intervening directly in a local
Hong Kong political dispute by effectively barring two legally
elected separatist lawmakers from taking office, setting the stage
for further turmoil in the semiautonomous city.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 No 7, China adopted a new
cyber-security law affecting both domestic and foreign firms
operating on the Chinese mainland effective June 2018.
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.42)
2016 Nov 7, Egypt said that
Saudi Arabia has halted fuel shipments indefinitely, in a sign of
lingering tensions following a dispute over the conflict in Syria.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Germany pledged a
61-million-euro ($67.44 million) hike in funding for UN relief
operations in Africa so that fewer of its people undertake perilous
odysseys to Europe, which has struggled to absorb an influx of
migrants since last year.
(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Authorities in
Haiti said flooding has killed at least 10 people in three northern
provinces following heavy rain over the last 48 hours.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Iraqi forces retook
the key town of Hamam al-Alil, from the Islamic State group, a
crucial objective on the southern front of the offensive to wrest
back Mosul. Iraqi security forces announced the discovery of a mass
grave in the Hamam al-Alil area. The first officials at the site
said the grave likely holds about 100 bodies, many of them
decapitated.
(AFP, 11/7/16)(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 7, Kazakh businessman
Tokhtar Tuleshov, best known for running the Shymkentpivo brewery,
was sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges including plotting a
coup against veteran President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Montenegrin
lawmakers convened for the first time since last month's election,
with opposition parties boycotting the inaugural session. The
session in Cetinje was attended by 42 lawmakers of the 81-seat
parliament.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, The Moroccan Agency
for Solar Energy (Masen) issued Morocco's first green bond to help
to finance the country's development of solar power. Morocco aimed
to obtain 52 percent of its electricity from renewable energy
sources by 2030.
(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Nigeria armed
bandits killed 36 gold miners at the informal mining site at Gidan
Ardo in northwest Zamfara state. 20 miners were reported missing.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 7, Pakistani police
arrested dozens of people in a crackdown on more than 90 seminaries
in Karachi, following a series of sectarian shootings in the city.
(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Pakistani officials
said Indian troops have opened fire across the Line of Control in
the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing three civilians
and wounding six others as Indian and Pakistani troops continue to
trade heavy fire.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Romania's
parliament approved double-digit public sector wage increases. The
next day PM Dacian Ciolos said his government would challenge the
increases because they are against the law.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Syria
Kurdish-led Syrian fighters clashed with Islamic State militants
north of the city of Raqqa as they pushed ahead in their offensive
aiming to retake the city that has been the de facto capital of the
extremist group since 2014.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, Tanzania signed a
memorandum of understanding with Switzerland to help the East
African country recover money illegally kept in Swiss banks by
Tanzanian nationals.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, UN talks to
implement the Paris climate pact opened in Marrakesh. Diplomats from
196 nations met in Morocco to flesh out the planet-saving plan inked
in the French capital last December.
(AFP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Ukraine Mikhail
Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who became governor of
the Odessa region, announced that he is resigning in frustration at
what he characterized as obstruction in efforts to root out
corruption.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, The Vatican
denounced the decision of a priest in China's underground Catholic
Church to be ordained bishop without the pope's approval.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 7, The World Health
Organization said Yemen's 20-month war has killed more than 7,000
people and wounded nearly 37,000.
(AFP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 8, Democrat Hillary
Clinton held a narrow lead in opinion polls over Republican Donald
Trump as millions of Americans turned out to vote for the next
president after one of the most negative campaigns in US history.
Republican Donald Trump (70) stunned the world by defeating heavily
favored rival Hillary Clinton. Republicans also kept control of
Congress.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 8, In the US
presidential election Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all swung
for Donald Trump with margins of one percent or less. Wisconsin’s
voter ID law impacted an unknown number of eligible voters as Trump
defeated Clinton by roughly 22,000 votes.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.25)(SFC, 5/9/17, p.A4)
2016 Nov 8, Rolling Stone, its
publisher, and reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely were ordered to pay $3
million to University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo for her
portrayal in the debunked cover story "A Rape on Campus" from 2014.
(CSM, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, California,
residents backed a referendum that bans large-capacity ammunition
magazines and requires some people to undergo background checks in
order to buy ammunition. Prop. 63 tightened gun ammunition
regulations and required owners of magazines holding ten or more
cartridges to turn them in. In 2019 a federal judge ruled that the
banning of high capacity gun magazines is unconstitutional.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)(SFC, 3/30/19, p.A7)
2016 Nov 8, California,
Nebraska and Oklahoma voted to reinstate or otherwise support the
death penalty. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts had poured some $400,000
of his family’s money to finance the death penalty referendum.
(SFC, 11/10/16, p.A7)(AFP, 11/12/16)(Econ,
11/19/16, p.24)
2016 Nov 8, Voters rendered a
split decision on gun control measures in the election, approving
universal background checks for private firearms sales in Nevada
while narrowly rejecting them in Maine.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 8, Former Nevada
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Rep. Joseph J. Heck
(R) in a narrow fight, becoming the first woman of Hispanic descent
to take a place in the Senate.
(CSM, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 8, Washington state
voters easily approved a measure giving judges the power to keep
dangerous individuals, such as accused domestic abusers, from
possessing guns.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 8, Authorities
identified a Belgian named Oussama Atar as the possible organizer of
deadly Islamic State attacks on Paris and Brussels over the past
year. The whereabouts of Abu Ahmed, a pseudonym of the suspected
attack coordinator, was unknown.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In Bosnia several
newly-elected mayors boycotted the swearing-in of convicted war
criminal Fikret Abdic (76) as new mayor of Velika Kladusa. Abdic was
released in 2012 after serving his 15-year sentence in Croatia.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, A Cambodian court
found Sam Rainsy, the country's exiled opposition leader, guilty of
defamation for alleging that a senior government official sought to
inflate PM Hun Sen's online popularity by buying "likes" for his
Facebook page.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In Congo DRC two of
the most popular radio stations in the country were jammed for the
fourth day in a row, drawing criticism of the government from the
United States and opposition groups.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In eastern Congo
DRC a grenade detonated where a group of Indian peacekeepers were
exercising morning on the outskirts of Goma, killing at least two
people and sparking an angry demonstration that was dispersed by
tear gas.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Dubai agreed a deal
with California-based startup Hyperloop One to "evaluate" the
construction of a near-supersonic transport link that could slash
travel times to Emirati capital Abu Dhabi to minutes.
(AFP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Estonian PM Taavi
Roivas refused to step down a day after his three-party coalition
collapsed and faced a confidence vote in parliament that he is
unlikely to survive.
(AFP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, European Union
finance ministers agreed on new targeted sanctions against Crimean
officials, adding to restrictive measures adopted after Russia's
annexation of Crimea in 2014.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In Hong Kong more
than 1,000 lawyers dressed in black marched through the heart of the
city in silence to condemn a move by China that effectively bars two
elected pro-independence lawmakers from taking their seats in the
legislature.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Indian PM Narendra
Modi announced that 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes would be withdrawn
from the financial system at midnight, saying it was part of a
crackdown on rampant corruption. He added that new 500 and 2,000
rupee denomination notes will be issued later. The discontinued
tender represented 86% of all currency in circulation in India.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)(Econ, 11/12/16, p.68)
2016 Nov 8, Indian officials
worked to restore the websites of seven Indian embassies in Europe
and Africa that were hacked and had data dumped online. The security
of the websites of Indian embassies in Italy, Switzerland, South
Africa, Libya, Malawi, Mali and Romania was breached by hackers who
identified themselves to the media as Kaputsky and Kasimierz L.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Indian and
Pakistani troops once again traded fire across the Line of Control
in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing three civilians
and wounding four others on the Pakistani side, and killing one
Indian soldier.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In India
authorities in New Delhi began revoking licenses for thousands of
older diesel vehicles and halted construction work on the
underground rail network, as air pollution remained several times
over the safety limit.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Iraqi Kurdish
forces seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from the Islamic State
group. About five percent of the town remained under jihadist
control. US-backed militia forces advanced on the jihadists' Syrian
stronghold Raqa.
(AFP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Irish teachers went
on strike in a dispute that could close most secondary schools
indefinitely, the latest industrial unrest testing the minority
government and pressuring the country's still fragile finances.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, The Irish Examiner
reported that seal levels around Ireland have risen by almost 3
inches since the early 1990s and cited this as the most evident
impact of climate change.
(SSFC, 11/13/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 8, In Niger heavily
armed gunmen killed five soldiers and injured four others in an
attack on the western town of Banibangou near the border with Mali.
Two assailants were killed and 26 others in possession of weapons
and ammunition were arrested.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In Nigeria a blast
rocked a pipeline operated by the state-run oil firm NNPC that feeds
the Forcados terminal in the southern Niger Delta energy hub. The
explosion occurred while the pipeline was being repaired following
an attack last week.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, The Philippines'
Supreme Court ruled that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos can be
buried at a heroes' cemetery, a decision that opponents said rolled
back the democratic triumph of the "people power" revolt that ousted
the strongman three decades ago.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, South Korean
President Park Geun-hye, to defuse a massive scandal, conceded to
lawmakers the power to name her new prime minister, a move that
could seriously hurt, or even destroy, her ability to govern.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, The Syrian army
said it had taken a strategic district of Aleppo in what would mark
the most important advance in the divided city by Damascus and its
allies in weeks. At least seven children and two pregnant women were
killed in an air strike on the town of Khan Sheikun in the rebel
stronghold province of Idlib.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)(AFP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In southern Yemen
troops loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government killed
at least 30 suspected al Qaeda militants in a raid backed by a
Saudi-led military coalition. Four soldiers were also killed in the
operation at a farm west of Mukalla.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, From New York to
Los Angeles thousands of people in around 10 cities rallied late
today against president-elect Donald Trump. Protesters burned a
giant orange-haired head of Trump in effigy, lit fires in the
streets and blocked traffic as rage over the billionaire's election
victory spilled onto the streets of Oakland, Ca., Chicago, Boston,
Philadelphia, Portland and Washington DC.
(AFP, 11/10/16)
2016 Nov 9, The New Jersey
Local Finance Board voted to take over the governmental functions of
Atlantic City, half a billion dollars in debt, after the state
government rejected a proposed five-year financial turnaround plan.
(SFC, 11/10/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 9, The US dollar,
Mexican peso and world stocks fell as Donald Trump swept to victory
in the US presidential election, but fears of a Brexit-style shock
that wiped trillions off global markets has failed to materialize so
far. Trump's election triggered fears that his view that global
warming is a hoax might lead other nations to scale back ambitions
under a landmark climate change deal.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, Afghanistan's
President Ashraf Ghani welcomed home Sharbat Gulla, National
Geographic's famed green-eyed "Afghan Girl," just hours after she
was deported from Pakistan, the latest in the odyssey of the
globally recognized refugee.
(AP, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, Australia's prime
minister beat other world leaders to an early call with
President-elect Donald Trump by getting his cellphone number from
Greg Norman, the golfing great. PM Malcolm Turnbull said he had a
warm and "very frank" 15-minute discussion with Trump within hours
of the Republican nominee claiming victory in the presidential
election.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 9, Belgium froze the
assets of 15 people allegedly linked to terrorism, including Oussama
Atar, a Belgian man identified as being a possible organizer of the
deadly attacks on Paris and Brussels.
(AP, 11/10/16)
2016 Nov 9, In England 7 people
were killed, more than 50 others were injured after a tram
overturned in south London.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)(AP, 11/10/16)
2016 Nov 9, Estonian PM Taavi
Roivas lost a parliamentary vote of no confidence vote after his
junior coalition partners deserted him, possibly opening up the path
for a traditionally pro-Russian party to gain power.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, In India the
Maharashtra State Child Rights Protection Commission launched the
Child Helpline for Information on Rights and Address Grievances
(Chirag), a mobile app for people to report child abuse.
(Reuters, 11/10/16)
2016 Nov 9, In Iraq and Syria
US-backed forces pressed offensives on the Islamic State group's
strongholds. An air strike by the American-led coalition reportedly
killed 20 civilians in the village of Heisha near the Syrian city of
Raqa (Raqqa).
(AFP, 11/9/16)(AP, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, In Iraq residents
of Mosul said Islamic State militants fighting to hold on to the
city have displayed the crucified bodies of five people they said
gave information to "the enemy", and were back on the city streets
policing the length of men's beards. Islamic State militants posted
a video showing four children, who appeared to be 10-14 years old,
shooting four civilians accused of disloyalty in Mosul near the
Tigris River.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)(SFC, 11/12/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 9, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran has exceeded a soft limit on
sensitive material set under its nuclear deal with major powers. A
diplomat said Iran plans to ship sensitive material out of the
country within days to bring it back under a soft limit set under
its nuclear deal with major powers.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, Lithuania's
Peasants and Greens Union said it had agreed a deal with the Social
Democrats to form a coalition that will focus on reducing inequality
in a country where more than a fifth of the population lives below
or close to the bread-line.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, The first batch of
Kenyan troops who had served in a UN peacekeeping mission in South
Sudan arrived home, after Nairobi ordered them to withdraw in
response to the sacking of the Kenyan commander of the UNMISS force.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, The Israeli
military said it has struck a Syrian army artillery position after a
rocket from Syria hit the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan
Heights.
(AP, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 9, Nigerian militants
said they have again blown up an oil pipeline carrying crude oil for
export from Shell’s Forcados terminal. This was the third attack in
eight days on the Trans Forcados pipeline network.
(SFC, 11/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 9, President Vladimir
Putin said Russia is ready to do its part to fully restore ties with
Washington following the election of businessman Donald Trump as the
next US President.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 10, US Pres.-elect
Donald Trump met with Pres. Barack Obama to discuss the presidency.
Obama warned Pres.-elect Donald Trump against hiring Michael Flynn
as his national security adviser.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.21)(SFC, 5/9/17, p.A12)
2016 Nov 11, Pres.-elect Donald
Trump replaced Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, with
vice-president-elect Mike Pence.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.21)
2016 Nov 11, In Oakland, Ca.,
Dana Rivers (61) of San Jose fatally stabbed and shot Charlotte Reed
(57) and Patricia Wright (56) and their son Toto Diambu (19). She
then set the garage of the home on fire in a bid to hide evidence.
(SFC, 11/16/16, p.D2)
2016 Nov 11, Alibaba, a Chinese
e-commerce giant, posted nearly $18 billion in sales for the day,
breaking last year’s record for Singles’ Day shopping.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.65)
2016 Nov 11, In Indonesia
Qienabh Tappii (28) won the country’s Miss Transgender pageant and
was crowned Miss Waria Indonesia. Waria is the Indonesian word for
transgender. Journalists were notified just a few hours in advance
to prevent any attempt by Islamic hardliners to shut down the event.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 11, Singapore
convicted a banker who had handled some of Malaysia’s 1MDB money of
forgery and failing to report suspicious transactions. He was
sentenced to 18 weeks in jail.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.33)
2016 Nov 12, In the SF Bay Area
William Sims was robbed, beaten and shot to death outside the Capri
Club pool hall in El Sobrante. Suspect Daniel Porter-Kelly (31) was
soon arrested and charged with murder, robbery and committing a hate
crime. Suspect Ray Simmons (32) was arrested on Dec 10. Suspect
Daniel Ortega (31) was arrested on Dec 16.
(SFC, 12/2/16, p.D1)(SFC, 12/13/16, p.C1)(SSFC,
12/18/16, p.C11)
2016 Nov 12, In NYC Connor
McGregor (b.1988) of Ireland won a mixed martial arts contest
defeating Eddie Alvarez in the second round by a technical knockout.
McGregor thus became holder of title belts in two different weight
classes.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conor_McGregor)(Econ, 2/11/17, SR
p.10)
2016 Nov 12, Colombia’s
government and FARC leaders came up with a revised agreement for the
rebels to disarm.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.30)
2016 Nov 12, In Pakistan the
Islamic State dispatched a suicide bomber to the Shah Noorani shrine
in Balochistan province where people had come to watch Sufi mystics
dance. More than 50 people were killed.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.34)
2016 Nov 13, President-elect
Donald Trump chose Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican
National Committee, as his chief of staff and Stephen Bannon, a
right-wing media mogul, as chief strategist and councilor.
(SFC, 11/14/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 13, In central
California David Machado (36) shot sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Wallace
(53) twice in the head outside the city of Hughson. Hours later
Machado was arrested when he tried to steal a woman’s purse in
Lindsay.
(SFC, 11/14/16, p.A12)
2016 Nov 13, Leon Russell
(b.1942), rock ‘n’ roll producer, songwriter and performer, died in
Nashville, Tenn.
(SFC, 11/14/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 13, Bulgaria held
elections. PM Boiko Borisov quit following the victory of Rumen
Radev, who favored improved ties with Russia and had the backing of
the opposition Socialists.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 13, In Colombia two
fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) died
in a clash with the army. Rebels later cast doubt on whether
fighting had taken place.
(AFP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 13, Moldova held
presidential elections. Igor Dodon, a pro-Russian politician, won
52.2% of the vote, while Maia Sandu won 47.8%.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 13, In northern Syria
at least 11 children were among 23 people killed as pro-government
forces kept up their campaign against opposition areas.
(SFC, 11/14/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 14, Gwen Ifill
(b.1955), PBS journalist, died of cancer. She and Judy Woodruff were
named co-anchors of the PBS “NewsHour” in 2013.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A9)
2016 Nov 14, In central
California David Machado (36) shot sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Wallace
(53) twice in the head outside the city of Hughson. Hours later
Machado was arrested when he tried to steal a woman’s purse in
Lindsay.
(SFC, 11/14/16, p.A12)
2016 Nov 14, The Int’l.
Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said in a report that US forces in
Afghanistan may have committed the war crime of torture when
interrogating detainees, opening the possibility of Americans being
prosecuted even though their country is not a member of the court.
The report added that CIA operatives may have subjected at least 27
detainees in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to "torture,
cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape" between
December 2002 and March 2008.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 13, In Egypt Magdy
Maken (53), a fish cart vendor, was arrested late today after an
altercation with a policeman. After beating him in the street the
Coptic Christian was taken to a police station in Cairo's
middle-class neighborhood of el-Ameriyah. Hours later, his lifeless
body was brought to a nearby hospital with "torture marks." In
December ten policemen were charged with torturing Magdy Makain.
(AP, 11/18/16)(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Nov 14, In Iraq suicide
bombers targeted Fallujah and Karbala killing at least 6 people in
each city.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 14, In southern Libya
senior al-Qaida leader Abu Talha al-Hassnawi was reportedly killed
in a late-night drone strike that hit his home in Sabha. He was
previously said to have been a leading member of al-Qaida's
affiliate in Syria.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 14, Some 135 people
were drowned or lost when a dinghy sank off the coast of Libya.
(AFP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 14, Malaysian
opposition lawmaker Rafizi Ramli was sentenced to 18 months in jail
for releasing one page of a classified document on the 1MDB
controversial state investment fund.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 14, Pakistan’s
military said Indian troops fired on its soldiers in Kashmir killing
seven and prompting return fire.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 14, South Korea-based
Samsung said it would pay $8 billion for Harman, a firm in Stamford,
Conn., that makes internet connected audio, information and security
systems for cars. The deal was the largest for Samsung to date.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.57)
2016 Nov 14, In northern Syria
Turkish warplanes struck Islamic State positions near al-Bab as
Syrian-backed opposition fighters inched closer to the town. Air
strikes and shelling killed at least three people.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 15, US Secretary of
State John Kerry said that Yemen's Houthi group and the Saudi-led
coalition fighting it had agreed to a ceasefire from Nov 17. The
internationally recognized Yemeni government quickly rejected the
move.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, The rebuilt
cast-iron dome of the US Capitol, a soaring symbol of national unity
since the 19th century, was formally completed after a $60 million
overhaul that included repairing rust-choked gutters and more than
1,300 cracks.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, The companies
behind the Dakota Access Pipeline asked a US court to intervene in
the fight over its completion as demonstrators fanned out across
North America to protest the controversial project.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, In Belgium some
8,500 off-duty military personnel marched in the streets of Brussels
over a rise in the pension age, at times clashing with police.
(AFP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Thousands of
British prison officers in England and Wales walked out in protest
at rising levels of violence in jails, prompting the government to
seek a court injunction to force them back to work.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Canada's attorney
general announced a move to repeal Section 159 of the Criminal Code
used to effectively prosecute gay youths who engage in anal sex,
calling it "discriminatory."
(AFP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Canada’s Chief of
Defense Gen. Jonathan Vance said Canadian troops are allowed to fire
first in Iraq.
(http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/liberals-canadians-shoot-first-raq/)
2016 Nov 15, China executed Jia
Jinglong (30), a protester against forced expropriation in Hebei
province. In 2013 his home was destroyed under official
expropriation 18 days before his wedding. In Feb, 2015, he shot a
local party chief in the back of the head at a New Year party.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.86)
2016 Nov 15, In Congo DRC
reporter Marcel Lubala was shot three times early today at his home
in the central town of Mbuji-Mayi. The group Journalist in Danger
said his body was dragged in front of his wife, who had been
tied up.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 15, Thousands of
people along the Dominican Republic's north coast were evacuated
amid heavy rains that have caused widespread flooding and destroyed
dozens of homes.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, An Egyptian court
struck down the death sentence passed by a lower tribunal against
former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi for his part in a mass
prison break during the country's 2011 uprising.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Egypt's parliament
approved a bill to regulate non-governmental organizations in a move
human rights groups say effectively bans their work.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, The European Union
agreed to increase its military research budget for the first time
since 2010 after Britain softened its opposition, a breakthrough
that may signal British support for defense co-operation even once
outside the bloc.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Sources said
Volkswagen AG has reached an agreement with US regulators for a mix
of buybacks and fixes for 80,000 polluting Audi, Porsche and VW
3.0-liter vehicles.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, In Ghana Nana Afia
Kobi Serwaa Ampem II (b.1907), revered queen of the powerful Ashanti
kingdom, died. King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is the deceased queen's
biological son.
(http://tinyurl.com/jq22mxx)(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 15, Greek riot police
used tear gas and stun grenades in Athens to disperse about 3,000
left-wing marchers protesting President Barack Obama's visit. Greek
left-wingers still resent US support for Greece's 1967-74 military
dictatorship. Obama offered solidarity with Greece over its debt and
migrant crises on Tuesday during his final trip to Europe as US
president before handing over power to Donald Trump.
(AP, 11/15/16)(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Hungarian police
said anti-terror squads have detained 12 people in eight localities
suspected of involvement with the extremist Hungarian National
Front.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Iran's official
IRNA news agency said the nation's intelligence service has
confiscated about 2 tons of explosives linked to planned attacks by
the Islamic State group in the country's west.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Israel appointed
an ambassador to Turkey, its first since both countries recalled
their envoys five years ago amid a spat over a deadly Israeli raid
on a Turkish vessel trying to reach the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, In Italy more than
1,000 people marched under torchlight through the Medieval center of
Soave where the mayor is fending off plans to house more than 100
migrants.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 15, Swimmers crossed
the Dead Sea from Jordan to Israel to raise awareness of what they
said was an environmental disaster that has shrunk the inland lake's
surface by a third in 30 years. They were the first people to thrash
their way over the body of water so salty that it poisons anyone who
drinks it.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Kenya destroyed
some 5,250 illegal firearms by fire as part of efforts to fight
crimes like cattle rustling, carjackings and to eliminate threats
from terrorism.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Amnesty
International said Kenya is coercing residents of the world's
largest refugee camp to leave it and return to Somalia where they
risk getting killed or forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist
group, al-Shabab.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, In Libya an air
strike targeting Islamist militants killed at least seven people
near the southwestern city of Sabha. Gunmen later seized the remains
of the suspected militants from a morgue.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, In southern Libya
tribal clashes erupted after three young men turned a pet monkey
loose on a high school girl. The girl's family sought revenge and
killed all three men along with the animal. Over the next days at
least 20 people were killed and 50 wounded in the clashes.
(AP, 11/20/16)(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 15, Around 95 people
were missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean after another
migrant dinghy capsized off Libya.
(AFP, 11/15/16)(AFP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 15, Myanmar’s army
said sixty-nine members of the government described Rohingya Muslim
militant group and 17 members of the security forces have been
killed since the October 9 start of fighting in western Rakhine
State.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 15, Nepalese
authorities said police have detained 41 Tibetans trying to cross
the border into India, in a crackdown on people fleeing the disputed
region where opposition to Chinese control persists.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Russian President
Vladimir Putin dismissed Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev over
allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from top oil producer
Rosneft, a case that could expose fault lines in the Russian
leader's inner circle.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Russia launched
coordinated missile strikes against rebels in Syria and Moscow for
the first time used its only aircraft carrier in combat.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, South Africa's
main opposition party filed a criminal complaint accusing President
Jacob Zuma of corruption after a report this month by an anti-graft
agency listed allegations of influence-peddling in his government.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, In Syria Russia
launched new air strikes involving carrier-borne jets and long range
missiles in rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo after a
weeks-long pause. Activists said between 4 and 10 people were killed
in the strikes on Aleppo.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)(SFC, 11/16/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 15, The UN warned that
75,000 Nigerian children risk dying in "a few months" as hunger
grips the country's ravaged northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram
insurgency. Doctors Without Borders said thousands of children have
died of starvation in the Boko Haram ravaged northeast.
(AFP, 11/15/16)(SFC, 11/16/16, p.A5)
2016 Nov 15, A key UN committee
approved a resolution condemning North Korea's "systematic,
widespread and gross violations of human rights" and encouraging the
Security Council to refer the country to the International Criminal
Court.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, Venezuela's high
court ordered the opposition to drop plans for a political trial
against President Nicolas Maduro, whose rivals blame him for food
shortages in the volatile country.
(AFP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 16, Colson Whitehead
won the US National Book Award for fiction for his novel “The
Underground Railroad.” Ibram X. Kendi won the nonfiction award for
“Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas
in America. The poetry award went to Daniel Borzutzky for “The
Performance of Becoming Human.”
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A11)
2016 Nov 16, The US Geological
Survey said the Wolfcamp Shale geologic formation in the Midland
area of West Texas could yield 20 billion barrels of oil.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A8)
2016 Nov 16, Melvin Laird (94),
former US defense secretary, died in Florida. Pres. Richard Nixon
had appointed Laird as the nation’s 10th defense secretary in 1969.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A10)
2016 Nov 16, Journalist and
author Peter Binzen (1922) died in Pennsylvania. His books included
“Whitetown, USA” (1970).
(SFC, 11/24/16, p.D2)
2016 Nov 16, Georgia executed
Steven Frederick Spears (54) for the 2001 slaying of his
ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland. This was the state’s 8th execution
this year.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A8)
2016 Nov 16, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on a motorbike killed six people in Kabul in an
attack targeting a minibus with security agents working for the
government. The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan promptly
claimed responsibility.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Albania's Defense
Ministry says Manushaqe Shehu (51) has been promoted to the rank of
general, becoming the first female general for the nation.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Brazilian federal
police arrested, Anthony Garotinho, a former Rio de Janeiro state
governor, for his alleged involvement in a vote-buying scheme.
Military police in Rio de Janeiro shot pepper spray at demonstrators
protesting austerity measures. Thousands of state employees have not
been paid, or have been paid months late.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, The British
Foreign Office said Indian Ocean islanders expelled from the
British-ruled Chagos archipelago during the Cold War to make way for
a U.S. military base will not be given the right to return to
resettle.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Greek authorities
said four people believed to be migrants have been found dead on a
crippled boat in the northern Aegean Sea and another 15 survivors
have been rescued.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Hong Kong’s high
court ruled that newly elected pro-democracy lawmakers Yau Wai-ching
(25) and Sixtus Leung (30) were unfit to take up their posts in
Legco.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.36)
2016 Nov 16, Indonesian police
named Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian governor of
Jakarta, as a suspect in a blasphemy investigation in a major test
of the Muslim-majority nation's reputation for religious tolerance.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, In Iraq heavy
fighting broke out in Mosul's eastern Tahrir neighborhood, where a
suicide car bomber from the Islamic State group disabled an Abrams
tank belonging to the Iraqi army. Special forces now controlled 70
percent of the Tahrir district, where most residents were sheltering
indoors.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Israel's
parliament gave preliminary approval to a disputed bill that would
retroactively legalize Jewish ettlement outposts built on
privately-owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Kenya agreed to
suspend the closure of Dabaab refugee camp, the world's largest, for
six months after coming under fire over the fate of its 280,000
inhabitants, most of them Somalis.
(AFP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, In Libya at least
20 members of the Libyan National Army (LNA) were reported killed
and 40 injured in two days of fighting in the eastern city of
Benghazi.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Another migrant
shipwreck took place off the Libyan coast, raising the number of
those missing feared drowned this week to 340.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 16, Advocates for
Myanmar's Muslim ethnic Rohingya community said that more than 100
members of the minority group have been killed in recent government
counterinsurgency sweeps in the western state of Rakhine. Ko Ko Linn
of the Arakan Rohingya National Organization said that according to
villagers, at least 150 people had been killed in Maungdaw district
by security forces since Nov 12.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, In Pakistan
Karachi mayor Waseem Akhta, accused of helping militants and
instigating political violence, was released from prison after a
court granted him bail in the last of 39 cases against him.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Pakistan ordered
400 Turkish nationals to leave the country ahead of a visit by
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 16, Pakistani
authorities arrested eight alleged Islamic State militants in Lahore
who were taking orders from commanders in Syria.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 16, Poland's lawmakers
voted to lower the retirement age in a reversal of a 2012 reform,
despite questions about financing of the new system. The lower house
voted 262-149 with 19 abstentions to allow women to retire at the
age of 60 and men at 65, as of October 2017. The lower chamber also
voted 269-170 for a bill establishing the Territorial Defense Forces
that are starting to recruit men and women.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Russia dealt the
International Criminal Court a fresh blow as the court's top
officials urged nations to support the tribunal hit by a wave of
unprecedented defections. Moscow has never ratified the world's only
permanent war crimes court, but in a heavily symbolic move on the
opening day of the ICC's annual meeting, it said it was formally
withdrawing its signature to the tribunal's founding Rome Statute.
(AFP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Russia overturned
a criminal conviction against opposition politician Alexei Navalny
following a European court decision, but ruled he must face a fresh
trial. He was convicted of embezzlement in 2013 along with a
businessman associate in a trial he and his supporters see as
politically motivated.
(AFP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Russian security
services raided the offices of Rosnano, a state technology company
headed by Anatoly Chubais, an economic reformer of the 1990s.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.45)
2016 Nov 16, South Sudanese
soldiers and rebels clashed in Unity State, killing at least 15
people, as rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar tried
to steal cattle in the small village of Adaab el Bahr.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 16, The Swedish
Academy said music icon Bob Dylan will not attend the Nobel ceremony
in December to accept his literature prize because he has other
commitments.
(AFP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, Syrian government
and Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held parts of northern Syria,
including battered second city Aleppo, where food aid rations were
all-but-exhausted after months of regime siege. At least 54 people
were killed in air strikes and artillery shelling across northern
Syria. An airstrike in Batbo village, Aleppo province, killed at
least 18 people, including six women.
(AFP, 11/16/16)(AP, 11/16/16)(SFC, 11/17/16,
p.A4)
2016 Nov 16, Tunisia said
authorities have dismantled a jihadist cell that was planning
attacks against a security station and a commercial center in the
capital.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 16, In Yemen heavy
fighting between government forces and rebels in the north and west
left 51 dead over the last 24 hours, as a new peace efforts appeared
to stumble.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 17, President-elect
Donald Trump met with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe in Trump's first meeting
with a world leader since his election last week.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, The US
Republican-led House acted to bar the sale of commercial aircraft to
Iran. The legislation prohibited the Treasury Department from
issuing the licenses US banks would need to complete transactions
potentially valued in the billions of dollars.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 17, US Surgeon General
Dr. Vivek Murthy released a report titled “Facing Addiction in
America.” The report noted that 78 people in the US die each day
from opioid overdose and that 20 million have a substance abuse
disorder.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 17, Delaware-based
DuPont said it will soon stop contributing to active employees'
pension plans, a move that will affect the retirement of 13,000 US
workers, including 2,800 in Delaware. DuPont closed the pension plan
to new employees in 2007.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Illinois a gas
explosion rocked downtown Canton killing one person and injuring
several others.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 17, It was reported
that JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $264.4 million in
fines to federal authorities to settle charges that it hired friends
and relatives of Chinese officials in order to gain access to
banking deals in that country.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Two former
executives were charged in a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan
federal court on charges related to the investigation of drugmaker
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc's ties to a specialty
pharmacy company. The FBI arrested Gary Tanner (39) and Andrew
Davenport (48) at their residences in Phoenix and Philadelphia.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Afghanistan a
Taliban attack in the country's western Farah province killed at
least 8 police officers and seized weapons and ammunitions from the
convoy.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 17, Argentina's
Congress passed a law to ban greyhound racing in a bid to reduce the
risk of animal cruelty in the South American country.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Argentina
extradited suspected Colombian drug boss Henry Lopez Londono (45) to
the United States to face cocaine trafficking charges. The leader of
the "Urabenos" gang was arrested on the outskirts of Buenos Aires in
2012.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Brazil Sergio
Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro state, was arrested as
part of a corruption investigation linked to a World Cup project and
other works worth billions of dollars, a blow to Brazil's ruling
party that may fuel political instability. Several others were also
arrested who served in Cabral’s 2007-2014 administration.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A4)
2016 Nov 17, Britain said it
had ratified the Paris Agreement, the global deal to combat climate
change. The 21-day period for parliamentary scrutiny in Britain
expired with no objections on November 15.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, A Cambodian court
sentenced opposition Senator Thak Lany in absentia to 18 months in
prison for suggesting the authorities were involved in the July
killing of a popular political analyst who criticized the
government.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, DR Congo's
president named opposition lawmaker Samy Badibanga as prime minister
under a controversial power-sharing deal that effectively extends
President Joseph Kabila's term in office.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Egypt pardoned 82
detainees, including many students and a former TV host convicted of
"defaming religious symbols."
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, European Union
states agreed to waive visas for Ukrainians on short visits, but
only after the bloc beefs up a mechanism to suspend visa-free
agreements in an emergency.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Germany
President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed a
message of solidarity and trans-Atlantic cooperation between top
trading partners and key NATO allies as Donald Trump prepares to
take office.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Thousands of
Greeks vented frustration at their economic lot as they marched in
Athens to mark the anniversary of the bloody 1973 student uprising
that helped topple the then-military junta.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Indonesia refused
to take the blame for the disappearance of at least six British and
Dutch World War II shipwrecks -- considered war graves -- that
investigators believe could have been salvaged for scrap. It is
believed the military wrecks -- lost in 1942 during the Battle of
the Java Sea -- were removed by illegal scavengers looking for scrap
metal, an effort that could have taken years.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Mozambique a
tanker truck carrying petrol exploded in Tete province. 43 people
were killed on the spot. The death toll soon rose to 80 with 35 in
critical condition.
(AFP, 11/18/16)(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A2)(AFP,
11/21/16)
2016 Nov 17, PeruRail, the
company that takes hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors to the
ancient Incan ruins of Machu Picchu each year, suspended service
indefinitely due to the threat of violent protests.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Russia economy
minister Alexei Ulyukayev was arrested on bribery charges. He was
the first serving cabinet minister to be arrested in decades.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 17, Slovenia made
access to drinking water a constitutional right in a bid to protect
the Alpine nation's water resources from excessive exploitation.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 17, South Korea's
parliament passed a law that would allow a special prosecutor to
investigate a corruption scandal threatening the presidency of Park
Geun-hye. The opposition-controlled National Assembly also voted for
a parliamentary investigation into allegations that Park allowed a
secretive confidante to manipulate power from the shadows and amass
an illicit fortune.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said government air
strikes and shelling killed 25 civilians in eastern districts of
Aleppo, on the third day of a wide-ranging regime assault on
rebel-held areas. At least 13 people were killed and dozens were
injured by a car bomb which targeted a building used by a rebel
group in the northern town of Azaz near the Turkish border.
(AFP, 11/17/16)(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Turkish police
detained the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of the southeastern city of Van,
expanding a crackdown on municipal chiefs throughout the region that
has sparked international concern.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Turkey a copper
mine collapsed near the town of Sirvan, Siirt province. At least 6
miners were killed and 10 remained missing. Six people were later
detained in the investigation of the mine collapse.
(AP, 11/18/16)(AP, 11/19/16)(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 17, The United Nations
said its budget to assist people suffering from Zimbabwe's worst
drought in a quarter of a century that left millions in need of food
aid had fallen short by $140 million.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Yemen clashes
raged killing at least 27 people as the Saudi-led coalition said
military operations will continue despite US Secretary of State John
Kerry announcing a truce.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Zimbabwe
opposition activists were abducted and beaten before a demonstration
against the cash-strapped government's plans to introduce a new
currency. Six people were beaten and two cars were burned in what
was seen as a warning against going ahead with the protests.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 17-2016 Dec 30, Syrian
government forces carried out at least eight chemical attacks during
the final weeks of the battle for Aleppo, killing nine people.
(AFP, 2/13/17)
2016 Nov 18, The Obama
administration announced a 5-year Arctic offshore drilling plan that
blocks the planned sale of new oil and gas drilling rights in the
Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska.
(SFC, 11/19/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 18, President-elect
Donald Trump tapped arch-conservative Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions
(69) to be attorney general and hawkish congressman Mike Pompeo
(52), a strident opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, as his CIA
director. Trump turned to Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (57) as
national security adviser.
(AFP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Donald Trump
agreed to a $25 million settlement in a lawsuit in which former
customers of his now-defunct Trump University accused him of fraud.
The agreement came 10 days before jury selection was scheduled to
begin in San Diego.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, Vice
President-elect Mike Pence was booed at a performance of the
award-winning Broadway musical "Hamilton," whose "alarmed and
anxious" cast made an unusual call for Donald Trump's incoming
administration to work on behalf of all Americans.
(AFP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Georgia US
Marshall Patrick Carothers (53) died after being shot twice while
trying to serve a warrant to Dontrell Montese Carter in rural Long
County. Other officers returned fire killing Carter, who was wanted
on charges of attempted murder of police officers.
(SFC, 11/19/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 18, In Chicago Javon
Wilson (15), the grandson of Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., was shot and
killed following an argument over a pair of basketball shoes. Police
soon arrested a boy (16) and a girl (17) after they were identified
by witnesses.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 18, In Massachusetts
Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino (16) went missing in Lawrence. His
decapitated body was found on Dec 1 near the Merrimack River. His
head was recovered nearby. On Dec 3 fellow classmate Mathew Borges
(15) was charged with the killing.
(http://50crime.com/tag/Lee+Manuel+Viloria-Paulino)(SFC, 12/6/16,
p.A6)
2016 Nov 18, Sharon Jones (60),
a fiery Grammy-nominated soul and funk singer sometimes called the
"female James Brown," died in Cooperstown, NY, after losing a battle
to pancreatic cancer.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Utah an air
ambulance crashed late today in Elko, killing all three crew members
and a patient aboard.
(SSFC, 11/20/16, p.A10)
2016 Nov 18, Facebook announced
that it was buying back up to $6 billion of its shares in apparent
reaction to a 10% drop in its share price following a warning of
slowing growth. Facebook numbered about 1.8 billion monthly users.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.61)
2016 Nov 18, In Australia a man
(21) injured 26 bystanders when he set himself on fire with gasoline
in a bank branch in the Melbourne suburb of Springvale. He was soon
identified as a Myanmar asylum seeker, known by his friends as Noor,
who had been waiting three years to be accepted as a refugee.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Cambodia an
Australian woman and two local associates were detained for
providing commercial surrogacy services — a practice the country
banned last month after becoming a popular global destination for
would-be parents seeking women to give birth to their children.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 18, Two Chinese
astronauts returned from a monthlong stay aboard the country's space
station, China's sixth and longest crewed mission and a sign of the
growing ambitions of its rapidly advancing space program.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Germany-based
Volkswagen announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs in a wide-ranging
restructuring of its namesake brand as it tries to recover from a
scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Iraqi troops
advanced cautiously into eastern districts of Mosul as air strikes,
automatic fire and artillery were heard from dawn. One soldier was
reported killed in the clashes.
(SFC, 11/19/16, p.A4)
2016 Nov 18, The island nation
of Kiribati established a large shark sanctuary that will help
ensure the creatures are protected across much of the central
Pacific. Palau established the first shark sanctuary in the region
in 2009, and has been followed by the Marshall Islands, French
Polynesia and other nations.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Macedonia a
special prosecutor launched criminal proceedings against 10 people,
including top officials of the secret police, over their suspected
role in a phone-tapping scandal that brought down PM Nikola
Gruevski.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Malaysian police
raided the office of electoral reform group Bersih and detained two
officials on the eve of a street rally by the group seeking PM Najib
Razak's resignation over a financial scandal. Police arrested Maria
Chin Abdullah, the leader of a coalition of human-rights groups,
that organized the event.
(AP, 11/18/16)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.12)
2016 Nov 18, UN talks to
implement the Paris climate pact ended in Marrakesh. Diplomats from
196 nations had met in Morocco to flesh out the planet-saving plan
inked in the French capital last December.
(AFP, 11/7/16)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.55)
2016 Nov 18, In Nigeria five
suicide bombers targeted a police checkpoint and a bus station near
a transit camp in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing four
of themselves and two civilian self-defense fighters. The fifth
bomber was arrested.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Lima, Peru,
Asia-Pacific leaders were urged to defend free trade from rising
protectionism after the election victory of Donald Trump stoked
fears that years of tearing down barriers to global commerce could
be reversed.
(AFP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, In the
Philippines long-dead former dictator Ferdinand Marcos was
buried at the country's Heroes' Cemetery in a secrecy-shrouded
ceremony, a move approved by President Rodrigo Duterte that
infuriated supporters of the "people power" revolt that ousted
Marcos three decades ago.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Police in Slovenia
said they have seized nearly 900 kg (2,000 pounds) of drugs and
detained 10 suspects in the biggest bust in the country in years.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Syrian rebels
fought fiercely with pro-government forces as they tried to advance
into opposition-held areas of eastern Aleppo. Warplanes kept up
their bombardment of the area in a renewed bid by Damascus to retake
the entire city. Airstrikes that hit four hospitals in east Aleppo.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 18, Thailand's
military government announced a $1.5 billion effort to help
struggling rice farmers in part by guaranteeing prices well above
market rates. Global prices for the grain have plummeted to their
lowest in nearly a decade, severely weakening an industry crucial to
Thailand's economic well-being.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Turkey 76
academics were detained at a university in Istanbul as part of the
ongoing investigation into the movement allegedly responsible for an
attempted coup. Detention warrants were issued for 103 employees
Yildiz Technical University on charges of "membership in an armed
terrorist organization."
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, A bill in Turkey
that would overturn men's convictions for child sex assault if they
marry their victim provoked fury with critics accusing the proposals
of encouraging rape.
(AFP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, The UN Security
Council extended for one year an international inquiry to determine
blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, paving the way for a
showdown between Russia and Western powers over how to punish those
responsible.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Venezuela freed
Rosmit Mantilla (33), a politician accused of fomenting violent
protests in 2014, but opposition leaders said it was not enough and
demanded President Nicolas Maduro's government release all 100 or so
jailed opponents.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, Venezuela said it
has rejoined an international pact to curtail the smuggling of
conflict diamonds, vowing to resume issuing export certificates to
guarantee the minerals are not being used to finance war or violent
activity.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, The World Health
Organization (WHO) in Geneva declared an end to its global health
emergency over the spread of the Zika virus and said the disease
should now be viewed as an ongoing threat like malaria and yellow
fever.
(SFC, 11/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 18, In Yemen 13 rebels
and eight pro-government forces were reported killed over the past
24 hours. Rebels reported dozens of casualties in shelling of a
local market.
(AFP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 19, The new GOES-R
spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral. It will track US
weather as part of an $11 billion effort to revolutionize weather
forecasting.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 19, Paul Sylbert (88),
film production designer, writer and director, died in Philadelphia.
He won an Oscar for his work on Warren Beatty’s “Heaven Can Wait”
(1978).
(SFC, 11/25/16, p.D5)
2016 Nov 19, In Albania a
former top-secret nuclear bunker reopened as a museum in Tirana to
show visitors how Communist-era police persecuted the regime's
opponents. It now holds photographs and equipment that illustrate
the political persecution of some 100,000 Albanians from 1945 until
1991.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Brazil a
military helicopter providing support to a police operation in Rio
de Janeiro crashed, killing the four officers on board.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, Congo DRC
authorities blocked an opposition demonstration in the capital aimed
at putting pressure on President Joseph Kabila to step down next
month at the end of his mandate.
(Reuters, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, An Egyptian court
sentenced the head of the journalists' union and two members to two
years in prison for "harboring fugitives", allowing them to pay bail
pending an appeal. Journalists Syndicate president Yahiya Kallash
(Yehia Qalash), Gamal Abd el-Rahim and Khaled Elbalshy were charged
in May with sheltering two journalists wanted over protests against
the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. On March 25,
2017, an appeals court suspended their jail sentences.
(AP, 11/19/16)(AP, 3/25/17)
2016 Nov 19, In northeastern
India rebels ambushed two army vehicles and killed at least three
soldiers and critically wounded four others in Assam state.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Indonesia
thousands of people rallied in Jakarta, calling on fellow citizens
not to be divided by political and religious interests.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Another two
Indonesian fishermen were abducted by armed men off Malaysia’s
eastern Sabah state on Borneo island, the second such case this
month and the latest in a spate of sea attacks.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, Iraqi troops faced
stiff resistance from Islamic State militants as they pushed deeper
into eastern Mosul, backed by aerial support from the US-led
international coalition. Three members of the Iraqi security forces
were killed when an Islamic State group truck bomb they were trying
to defuse exploded west of Baghdad. Islamic State killed seven Sunni
tribal fighters who support the Iraqi government and five policemen
on in a town south of Mosul.
(AP, 11/19/16)(AFP, 11/19/16)(Reuters, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Kenyan police
officers killed four suspected extremists in the volatile Mandera
County, a border region hard-hit by recent attacks by the Somali
extremist group al-Shabab.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, Libyan authorities
arrested Asma Kadousi, a wife of the one-eyed militant leader
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, once considered the most dangerous man in the
Sahara and a veteran al-Qaida-linked figure.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Malaysia more
than 10,000 yellow-shirt protesters rallied in Kuala Lumpur seeking
PM Najib Razak's resignation over a financial scandal, undeterred by
a police ban and the arrest of 20 people, mostly activists.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In central Mali a
militia that represents ethnic Peuhls said it would lay down its
arms in a boost for government attempts to bring peace to the
country.
(Reuters, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Mongolia the
Dalai Lama preached to thousands of supporters at the
Gandantegchenlin monastery, on a visit set to test the country's
ties with China at a time when it is seeking a critical aid package
from its powerful neighbor.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Montenegro
officials inaugurated a cemetery for German soldiers killed in the
country during WW II, hailing it as an act of reconciliation
important for the future. About 2,000 German soldiers are believed
to have been killed in Montenegro. About 500 have been unearthed so
far and the rest are considered missing.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Nigerian troops
gunned down a suicide bomber at a transit camp for refugees from
Boko Haram in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Pakistan's
military announced that it has shot down a small Indian drone after
it allegedly trespassed into the country's part of Kashmir amid
daylong cross-border firing that killed four villagers, including
two sisters and their brother.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Pakistan four
members of the security forces were shot dead by gunmen on a
motorcycle in the southwestern city of Quetta. The Islamic State
group soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, Members of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathered in Lima, Peru.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.11)
2016 Nov 19, In Poland tens of
thousands of teachers from all over the country protested in Warsaw
against education reforms proposed by the right-wing government that
critics say could see thousands of jobs slashed.
(AFP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Poland's defense
minister officially launched self-defense courses for women, saying
that training by military instructors will increase individual and
national security.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, A Saudi soldier
was killed by a missile fired by Yemeni rebels across the border
into the kingdom's southern Asir province.
(Reuters, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Somalia's PM Omar
Sharmarke said he had secured a ceasefire between two warring
regions in the Horn of Africa nation, two weeks after a peace deal
collapsed leading to fighting that killed at least 29 people.
Sharmarke met Galmudug President Abdikarim Hussein Guled and
Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali over the last week and
witnessed a troop pull-back from the area where they clashed.
(Reuters, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In South Korea
hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Seoul
in the fourth straight weekend of protest against embattled Pres.
Park Geun-hye.
(Reuters, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In northern Syria
government bombardment of besieged rebel-held neighborhoods in
Aleppo killed at least 27 people, a day after the health directorate
said all hospitals in opposition areas have been knocked out of
service.
(AP, 11/19/16)(AFP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Turkey
two homemade pipe bombs were thrown by two children around about 12
or 13 years old during a performance by singer Aleyna Tilki at a
cafe in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Six people were
injured, none seriously.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, At the Vatican
Pope Francis created 17 new cardinals from across the globe,
elevating them in a time-honored ceremony to an elite body that
advises and elects popes.
(AFP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, The Vietnamese
cargo ship MV Thaison 4 and the Indonesian sailboat KM Mulya Sejati,
which was carrying 27 people, collided before dawn off Tuban
district. At least three people were left dead and 12 others
missing.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, Yemen rebels and
loyalist forces battled around Taez even as a 48-hour ceasefire
announced by a Saudi-led coalition fighting the insurgents began
following US pressure.
(AFP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 20, Ambush-style
attacks left a police detective in San Antonio dead and a sergeant
in St. Louis critically injured. The suspect in Missouri was killed
in a shootout with police. Otis Tyrone McKane, the attacker in
Texas, was arrested the next day.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 20, In North Dakota
months-long protests over an oil pipeline came to a head in
sub-freezing temperatures this evening, as hundreds of protesters
tried to push past a police barricade on Backwater Bridge. They were
met with what appeared to be tear gas, water cannon spray, and
rubber bullets.
(CSM, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 20, Acclaimed Irish
novelist William Trevor (b.1928) died at his adopted English home.
Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times for “The Children of
Dynmouth” (in 1978), “Fools of Fortune (in 1983), and “Felicia’s
Journey” (in 1994). He was widely regarded as one of the greatest
contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trevor)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.C4)
2016 Nov 20, Egypt’s state news
reported that 292 suspects linked to the Islamic State group have
been referred to a military tribunal over attacks and an alleged
plot to assassinate Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 20, Estonia's Pres.
Kersti Kaljulaid nominated Juri Ratas, the new leader of a
center-left, traditionally pro-Russian party, as prime minister who
promised to leave foreign policy unchanged in a region worried about
possible Russian aggression. Ratas (38) headed a 3-way coalition
consisting of his own Center Party, the left-leaning Social
Democrats and the Conservative IRL party.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)(SFC, 11/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 20, French
conservatives voted in a nationwide primary for the first time to
choose their nominee for next year's presidential election, after a
campaign marked by concerns about immigration and Islamic extremism.
The three leading candidates included Nicolas Sarkozy (61) and
former prime ministers Francois Fillon (62) and Alain Juppe (72).
Francois Fillon won 44 percent of the votes.
(AP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 20, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel (62) told her party she will seek re-election next
year, a move likely to be welcomed in many capitals as a sign of
stability following poll triumphs for Brexit and Donald Trump.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, The German news
agency dpa reported that some 8,800 geese on two poultry farms will
be culled in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein because some
of the animals are infected with the bird flu. Last week 30,000
chickens were destroyed in Schleswig-Holstein after H5N8 was
detected in their enclosure.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Haitians voted in
a long-delayed presidential election, hoping a new government will
lift the economy after a devastating hurricane and more than a year
of political instability. Jovenel Moise won with 56% of the vote in
a field of 27 candidates. The turnout was only 21%.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A3)(Econ
6/10/17, p.35)
2016 Nov 20, In northern India
at least 146 people were killed close to 200 injured when an express
train derailed in Uttar Pradesh state. The death toll soon climbed
to 148 after two more people died from their injuries.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 20, Iraqi troops
fortified their positions in Mosul neighborhoods retaken from the
Islamic State group as their advance toward the city center was
slowed by sniper fire and suicide bombings, as well as concern over
the safety of civilians.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Iraq millions
of Shiite Muslim pilgrims beating their chests in mourning thronged
Karbala under the protection of thousands of members of the security
forces. The commemoration of Imam Hussein's death in 680 AD
culminates on Nov 21.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Israel dozens
of LGBT activists protested in Jerusalem against comments reportedly
made by the city's chief rabbi disparaging the gay community. Rabbi
Shlomo Amar told an Israeli newspaper last week that gay people were
an "abomination" and homosexuality a "cult."
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Mali held its
first elections since 2013, with turnout low as security jitters
remained high despite an international military intervention.
Malians burned ballot boxes and one candidate was kidnapped during
the local elections. Polls were canceled in at least seven districts
for security reasons.
(AFP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Heavy rains and
strong winds hit the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia
destroying homes. At least three people were killed, including two
children.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 20, Norwegian police
said they were investigating a pedophile network suspected to
involve at least 51 people, which includes the abuse of infants and
at least one case of a suspect acknowledging abusing his own
children.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Peru President
Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to each
other start of the opening session of APEC, the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit in Lima. Obama held separate meetings
with the leaders of Australia and Canada as he wrapped up the final
foreign trip of his presidency.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, The Syrian
government refused a UN proposal to grant the rebel-held eastern
districts of Aleppo autonomy in order to restore calm to the
war-torn city. Fresh fighting in Aleppo killed at least eight
schoolchildren. A barrel bomb killed a family of six in the
rebel-held area.
(AP, 11/20/16)(AFP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Pope Francis
brought to a close the Catholic Church's "Year of Mercy," shutting
the Holy Door at Saint Peter's after a year in which he raised
Mother Teresa to sainthood and took in Syrian Muslim refugees.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Yemen's dominant
Houthi movement launched Katyusha rockets into Saudi Arabia and
residents reported Saudi-led air strikes in a Yemeni border province
in exchanges that threatened to derail a 48-hour truce.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 21, Adam Ondra (23), a
Czech mountain climber, free-climbed the El Capitan formation in
Yosemite Valley in a record eight days using only a rope for safety.
(CSM, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 21, In Indiana a house
fire killed four young sisters in the town of Flora.
(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A5)
2016 Nov 21, In Tennessee an
elementary school bus crashed in Chattanooga killing 6 children.
Driver Johnthony Walker (24) was soon arrested for vehicular
homicide, reckless driving and reckless endangerment. In 2018 Walker
was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. While on bail he
was arrested on statutory rape charges and his bond was revoked.
(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/23/16, p.A8)(SFC,
7/10/18, p.A5)
2016 Nov 21, West Virginia
prosecutors charged Bruce Lamar Griggs of Ohio (22) with
distributing carfentanil, an elephant sedative, and fentanyl, an
opioid, in connection with 27 overdoses in Huntington.
(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 21, In West Virginia
James Means (15), a black teenager, was shot and killed by William
Pulliam (62), a white man, after they bumped into each other in
Charleston. Pulliam reportedly showed no remorse saying: “that’s
another piece of trash off the street”.
(SFC, 11/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide attack at the Shi'ite Baqir-ul-Olum mosque in Kabul killed
more than 30 people and wounded dozens. The Islamic State claimed
responsibility.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Albania's Defense
Ministry said a warship has left to take part with the NATO "Sea
Guardian" maritime force deployed to the Aegean Sea to stop
smuggling of migrants from Turkey to Greece, a first mission of the
kind for the country.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Amnesty
International said torture and other forms of ill-treatment persist
in Bahrain despite reforms introduced by the Gulf Arab kingdom to
address alleged human rights abuses after a 2011 uprising.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Bolivia's
government declared a state of emergency due to water shortages in
large swaths of the country amid the worst drought in 25 years,
making funds available to alleviate a crisis that has affected
families and the agricultural sector.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Canada announced a
plan to phase out the use of coal-fired electricity by 2030.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a state visit to Peru by laying a floral wreath at
a monument to the South American nation's independence heroes. Peru
is home to China's biggest mining investment in Latin America.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In China about
half a dozen listed Chinese companies, mainly in the pharmaceutical
sector, said they have temporarily halted production in the northern
city of Shijiazhuang as part of a Chinese government anti-pollution
drive.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In China
well-known legal activist Jiang Tianyong (45) went missing after he
traveled to the city of Changsha, Hunan province, to visit relatives
of an arrested human rights lawyer, Xie Yang. Tianyong has spoken
out about a government crackdown on legal defenders and has been
involved in high-profile cases of dissidents who have irked Chinese
authorities, including the case of blind activist Chen Guangcheng.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 21, An Egyptian
government committee ordered the confiscation of assets of 46
members and supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The
confiscated assets included five companies involved in trade,
construction, and pharmaceuticals.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In Egypt hundreds
of Nubians blocked a main road for a third day to protest the
government's planned takeover of land they say is part of their
ancestral homeland.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In France two
Qatari women were targeted on the A1 highway en route to Paris'
high-end 16th arrondissement after arriving at the Le Bourget
Airport. Two masked thieves stopped their car, sprayed them with
tear gas and stole belongings worth as much as 5 million euros ($5.3
million).
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 21, Germany’s port
city of Hamburg named a street after Domenica Niehoff (d.2009), the
country’s most famous dominatrix. Niehoff gained fame in the 1980s
by campaigning for the rights of sex workers. She also worked to
help women struggling with drug addiction.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Japanese
peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South
Sudan, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with
those expanded powers in nearly 70 years. The 350 Self-Defense
Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers
who served in the UN Mission in South Sudan, but did not have
mandate to use force.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Kosovo police said
they arrested 11 people over the weekend and collected 36 minors
countrywide in a crackdown on child beggars. Thirteen of the
children were from neighboring Albania.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In Libya at least
three children were killed and 20 people wounded by a car bomb in
the city of Benghazi.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In Myanmar four
ethnic armed groups attacked security forces in the north of the
country, dealing a major blow to leader Aung San Suu Kyi's top goal
of reaching peace with ethnic minorities. Human Rights Watch said
high-definition satellite images show 820 newly identified
structures destroyed this month in five Rohingya Muslim villages in
Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state where the military is carrying out
counter-insurgency operations.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, An attack by
Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists against a Lake Chad army base manned
by an anti-insurgent regional force left six Cameroonian soldiers
dead.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 21, Pakistan's
military said Indian shelling has targeted several villages in
Kashmir, killing four civilians and wounding 10.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Turkish
authorities detained Ahmet Turk (74), a Kurdish politician and mayor
in the southeastern province of Mardin. He was reported released on
Feb 3 because of deteriorating health.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2016 Nov 21, Pope Francis
extended indefinitely to all Roman Catholic priests the power to
forgive abortion, a right previously reserved for bishops or special
confessors in most parts of the world.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In Yemen a fragile
48-hour ceasefire in Yemen ended after failing to stem violence
across the country, with each side blaming the other for violating
the US-backed truce.
(AFP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 22, Pres. Obama
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 21 actors, musicians,
athletes and innovators who have inspired him over the years.
(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 22, The US extradited
Azra Basic (58), a Croatian woman wanted in Bosnia for war crimes
she allegedly committed against Serbs during the 1992-95. She was
handed over to authorities at the Sarajevo airport.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, The Dow Jones
industrial average crossed 19,000 for the first time as the stock
market extended its reach further into record territory. The gains
came a day after four major market indexes closed at all-times highs
at the same time, something that hadn't happened since 1999.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, More Rohingya
Muslims from Myanmar poured into neighboring Bangladesh, with some
feared to have drowned after a boat sank during a bid to flee
violence that has killed at least 86 people and displaced 30,000.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 22, An Egyptian
appeals court quashed one of two life sentences handed down to
Mohamed Morsi since his 2013 overthrow, in the Islamist
ex-president's second appeals victory in a week.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Ethiopian
authorities detained about 20 vintage biplanes and their pilots,
including Americans, who were participating in a trans-Africa
Vintage Air Rally. All were released after two days.
(AP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 22, The leaders of the
European Parliament's two largest groups called for the EU to halt
membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, The European Union
judicial agency Eurojust said police forces across Europe and the
United States arrested 178 people last week as part of a crackdown
on money laundering and identified some 23 million euros ($24.46
million) in stolen funds.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In Germany cabin
crew at Lufthansa's budget unit Eurowings launched a 15-hour strike,
causing dozens of flight cancelations, as the German carrier warned
customers to prepare for a larger walk-out by pilots the next day.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, India's central
bank relaxed rules on loans to farmers, asking the National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development to disburse up to 230 billion
rupees ($3.36 bln) to district cooperative banks for crop loans. The
recent demonetization scheme has badly hit farmers, leaving them
without cash just ahead of sowing winter crops.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Three Indian
soldiers were killed along the highly militarized de facto border
that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and
Pakistan.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, The head of Iran's
veterans' affairs office said more than 1,000 combatants sent from
Iran to fight in support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria have
been killed in the conflict.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In Iraq US forces
said they have carried out an air strike on a bridge spanning the
Tigris river, restricting militant movements between western and
eastern parts of Mosul. The air strike hit the number four bridge in
the past 48 hours. A month ago a US air strike destroyed the No. 2
bridge and two weeks later another strike took out the No. 5 bridge.
The strike leaves Mosul's oldest British-built bridge as the only
one still standing out of five in the center of the city.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Italy's coastguard
said that 1,400 people had been saved in 12 separate migrant rescue
operations over the last 24 hours with least eight people dead and
an unknown number missing.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Northeastern Japan
was jolted by a magnitude-7.4 earthquake, the strongest since a
devastating quake and tsunami five years ago. Only moderate tsunami
waves reached shore.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Lithuania's
parliament approved former interior minister and police chief
Saulius Skvernelis as the Baltic country's new prime minister.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In Malawi Eric
Aniva (45), an HIV-positive man who said he had sex with at least
100 girls and women in traditional cleansing rituals, was sentenced
to two years in jail for "harmful practices." Malawi is one of the
worst HIV-affected countries in the world, with 27,000 deaths from
AIDS-related illnesses and nine percent of the adult population
infected with the virus.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Nepal celebrated
the restoration the Boudhanath stupa, one of the largest of its kind
in the world and a major tourist attraction, a year and a half after
a colossal earthquake destroyed hundreds of treasured historic
sites.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In northeastern
Nigeria local leaders said Boko Haram fighters are overrunning
villages near Chibok, forcing hundreds of people to flee as the
insurgents loot and burn in the area where nearly 300 schoolgirls
were kidnapped in 2014.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Portugal's
government said it has made an early reimbursement of 2 billion
euros ($2.12 billion) to the International Monetary Fund, which was
one of the contributors to the eurozone country's 78 billion-euro
bailout in 2011.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In northern Puerto
Rico dozens of FBI agents seized documents and electronic equipment
at the city hall of the financially struggling town of Toa Baja.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Syria's army
announced the formation of a new corps of volunteers to fight
alongside its soldiers and allies against opponents of President
Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Thailand's
military government approved a one-time payout for low-income people
in an effort to stimulate the country's weak economy. People who
make less than 30,000 baht ($846) a year will receive 3,000 baht
($86), while people who make 30,000 to 100,000 baht ($846 to $2,821)
a year will receive 1,500 baht ($42).
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan said government-backed forces have besieged the
Islamic State-held Syrian town of al-Bab from the west and have set
their sights on Manbij for their next offensive.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish
authorities issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim, a leader of
the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in relation to a
February bomb attack on military buses in Ankara. The arrest papers
also mentioned 47 other people, including leading members of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkey dismissed
15,000 more state employees, from soldiers and police officers to
tax inspectors and midwives, and shut 375 institutions and several
news outlets, deepening purges carried out since a failed coup.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Ukraine's justice
minister Pavlo Petrenko appointed law graduate Anna Kalynchuk (23)
to lead a campaign to purge officials tainted by corruption of the
ousted regime. Last week, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov appointed a
24-year old woman as deputy interior minister and was promptly
accused of promoting his protégé, who attracted extra attention
because of some nude photos of her posted online.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 22, Vietnam's National
Assembly voted to abandon plans to build two multi-billion-dollar
nuclear power plants with Russia and Japan, after officials cited
lower demand forecasts, rising costs and safety concerns.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In Yemen renewed
clashes between government forces and rebels killed more than 40
people, a day after a fragile 48-hour ceasefire expired without
halting the violence. The International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) said civilians in Taiz are trapped by intense fighting, with
dead bodies lying in the streets and 200 people wounded in the past
three days.
(AFP, 11/22/16)(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, President-elect
Donald Trump chose South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as US ambassador
to the United Nations, the first woman tapped for a top-level
administration post during his White House transition so far. Trump
charter school advocate Betsy DeVos as his secretary of education.
(AP, 11/23/16)(SFC, 11/24/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 23, A federal jury in
San Francisco awarded $54 million in damages against Walmart for
failing to pay hundreds of truck drivers for time they spend waiting
to load and unload cargo, washing and fueling their trucks and other
tasks.
(SFC, 11/24/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 23, In eastern
Tennessee a wildfire began in the Chimney Tops area of Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. The fire grew amid drought conditions and
eventually killed 14 people and damaged more than 1,700 buildings.
On Dec 7 authorities charged two juveniles for setting the fire.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 23, Australian
researchers said daylight saving time could reduce the decline of
koalas in Queensland state, where the population has plunged by 80%
in less than two decades in great part due to road accidents.
(SFC, 11/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 23, Bulgarian state
prosecutors charged outgoing defense minister Nikolay Nenchev with
failing to honor an agreement with Russia for repair of its
Soviet-era fighter jets, arguing that the move had left the country
without an effective air defense.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, The Czech justice
ministry said the United States and Russia have both requested the
extradition of Yevgeniy Nikulin, a Russian arrested in Prague and
indicted in the US for hacking computers of social media companies.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Estonia said
Captain Sten Sepper, the commander of its Navy, has resigned.
Customs officials found smuggled alcohol and cigarettes aboard the
Estonian minehunter Sakala taking part in NATO operations on the
Baltic Sea earlier this month. Sakala Lt. Cmdr. Ott Laanemets also
announced his resignation.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, German airline
Lufthansa canceled nearly 900 flights and scrapped another 912
scheduled for Nov 24 after pilots launched a 2-day strike in a pay
dispute.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, India’s Jharkhand
state assembly approved changes to two laws that will allow the
state to buy protected tribal land to lease to investors, and use
agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The approval
sparked immediate protests.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 23, Police in India
said eleven people have been arrested on suspicion of duping single
women into selling their newborn babies and trafficking the infants
inside biscuit containers to an adoption center to be sold on to
childless couples. The Crime Investigation Department (CID) in West
Bengal said more arrests were likely.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Indian troops
fired on a Pakistani passenger bus in Kashmir, killing 10 civilians
in one of the deadliest incidents in weeks of violence in the
disputed Himalayan region, stoking tensions between the
nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, An Indonesian
court jailed an extremist for nine years for his role in a deadly
gun and suicide bombing attack in Jakarta claimed by the Islamic
State group. Saiful Muhtorir was found guilty of helping funnel cash
to the militants behind the January assault, which killed four
civilians and four attackers.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, A Baghdad court
issued arrest warrants for two correspondents with a Saudi newspaper
over a false news report accusing Iranian pilgrims of sexually
harassing Iraqi women. The Nov 20 article quoted a purported World
Health Organization spokesman as saying that after last year's
pilgrimage more than 169 Iraqi women became pregnant out of wedlock.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, In Iraq
Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitaries said they had linked up with
Kurdish peshmerga forces west of Mosul, a move they said completed
the encircling of the Islamic State-held city and nearby town of Tal
Afar.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Israel revived
plans to build 500 new homes for Jewish settlers in Israeli-annexed
east Jerusalem.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Israel Antiquities
Authority unveiled a "unique" 3,800-year-old figurine showing a
seated person, apparently deep in thought. It was discovered
recently in excavations at Yehud, east of Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Kazakhstan's
parliament called for the capital city, Astana, to be renamed after
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a week ahead of a national holiday
dedicated to the 76-year-old leader who has the power to accept or
reject the proposal.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, A senior Qatar
immigration official said around 9,000 people living illegally are
expected to leave the country by Dec 1 under an ongoing three-month
amnesty for undocumented residents.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Slovak PM Robert
Fico told journalists they were "dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes"
when asked about allegations that public procurement rules had been
broken for cultural events marking Slovakia's European Union
presidency.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, South African
police arrested a Hong Kong-bound Chinese man found with 18 rhino
horns hidden in his luggage.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 23, In South Korea
state prosecutors combed through the offices of Samsung for a third
raid in as many weeks related to a probe in an influence-peddling
case tied to the administration of Pres. Park Guen-hye.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.60)
2016 Nov 23, Turkish-backed
Syrian opposition forces clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern
Syria, where both are fighting the Islamic State group.
Kurdish-affiliated forces entered the IS-held town of Arima, near
al-Bab.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, It was reported
that the former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has
raised the necessary $1.1 million to request a vote recount in
Wisconsin. Donald Trump also won by a slim margin in Pennsylvania,
where a recount filing fee costs $500,000, due on November 28. The
filing fee in Michigan, where Trump has a razor-thin lead in
unofficial results so far, is $600,000 due by November 30.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In the SF Bay Area
a Thanksgiving luncheon at the American Legion in Antioch left 3
people dead and another 18 suffering symptoms of nausea, vomiting
and diarrhea. On Dec 20 CDC officials said the illness was caused by
Clostridium perfringens.
(SFC, 12/3/16, p.D2)
2016 Nov 24, In Detroit,
Michigan, Wayne State Univ. police Officer Collin Rose (29) died a
day after he was shot in the head while on patrol near the campus.
On Nov 25 DeAngelo Davis (31) was charged with murder and gun
crimes.
(SFC, 11/25/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/26/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 24, William Mandel
(b.1917), leftist activist and long-time broadcaster on the SF Bay
Area KPFA radio, died. He wrote eight books on Soviet history,
politics and culture. His 1999 autobiography was titled “Saying No
to Power.”
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.D9)
2016 Nov 24, In Pennsylvania
Demetrius Coleman (22) of Pittsburgh fled police and crashed into a
car that burst into flames killing two adults and a child.
(SFC, 11/26/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 24, In Belgium close
to 20,000 protesters from the non-profit sector took to the streets.
Their anger centered on plans to limit days off for veteran workers
in the future.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In southern
Bulgaria about 2,000 migrants, most from Afghanistan, were involved
in a conflict that reportedly erupted over the Harmanli refugee camp
being put under quarantine following an alleged outbreak of
infectious diseases and an outbreak of panic among local residents.
About 400 migrants were detained after clashes with police that left
several injured.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 24, In Burkina Faso
doctors and nurses continued a 3-day strike at public health centers
throughout the West African country, leaving only medical students
to help the sick amid outbreaks of dengue fever and meningitis.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Burundi's
government refused to cooperate with a UN inquiry into months of
political violence, saying accusations of abuses by its officials
were part of a political plot. The UN released a report by
independent experts in September identifying government officials
suspected of ordering political opposition to be tortured or killed.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In Cameroon two
young female suicide bombers attacked Mora town in the Far North
region, the fourth strike near the Nigerian border by suspected Boko
Haram militants this week. Both girls were killed.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In eastern China a
platform under construction at a power plant collapsed early today,
killing 74 people in Fengcheng, Jiangxi province. 13 people were
soon detained over the collapse of the scaffolding.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/25/16))
2016 Nov 24, Colombia's
President Juan Manuel Santos signed, for the second time in under
two months, a historic peace accord with leftist rebels. The accord
will be sent to congress where a solid pro-peace majority is
expected to easily ratify it in the coming days. After that, the
FARC's 8,000-some fighters will begin concentrating in rural areas
where they will turn over their weapons to United Nations-sponsored
monitors over the next six months.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, The European
Parliament voted to freeze membership talks with Turkey over its
"disproportionate" post-coup crackdown, further escalating tensions
with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, European
Parliament lawmakers backed a data-sharing deal with the United
States for security and terrorism investigations which aims to
safeguard data exchanged between national authorities.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, German flagship
carrier Lufthansa said it is scrapping 830 flights for tomorrow,
grounding more than 100,000 passengers, as a strike by pilots over
wages extends to a third day.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, German media
reported that authorities in northern Germany have killed 16,000
turkeys and ordered 92,000 chickens slaughtered after detecting an
outbreak of bird flu.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, German defense
company Rheinmetall and Romania's Uzina Automecanica Moreni launched
a joint venture to produce eight-wheeled armored military vehicles
in Romania.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Greek
public-sector workers went on strike to protest labor and pension
reforms and state asset sales which the leftist-led government
agreed with the country's official creditors in exchange for bailout
loans.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In eastern India
protests over land rights flared for a second day in the Jharkhand
state, as activists and indigenous people took to the streets after
the state assembly approved amendments to colonial-era land laws
despite strong opposition.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Indonesia's
military lost contact with an army helicopter carrying four soldiers
in Indonesia's part of Borneo. On Nov 27 a search team found the
wreckage and rescued an injured pilot. Four people remained missing.
(AP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 24, In Iraq a car bomb
attack at a gas station near the city of Hilla killed at least 73
people including about 40 Iranians returning from Karbala. The
Islamic State group claimed responsibility. The death toll was later
raised to 92.
(AP, 11/25/16)(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Nov 24, In Israel tens of
thousands of residents were ordered to leave Haifa as wildfires tore
across central and northern Israel. The country's chief of police
said politically motivated arson may be behind some of the blazes.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Hurricane Otto hit
Nicaragua and then Costa Rica where it left nine people dead and
caused millions of dollars of damage before exiting into the
Pacific.
(Reuters, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 24, Amnesty
International accused Nigeria's security forces of killing at least
150 pro-Biafra protesters and injuring hundreds since August 2015.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Peru's president
signed off on the extradition of Manuel Burga, the country's former
soccer boss, to the US for his alleged involvement in a
multibillion-dollar FIFA bribery scandal involving marketing and
broadcasting rights.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Philippine troops
launched an assault on the Maute group militants in Butig due to
intelligence reports that they were continuing to make bombs after
being blamed for a Sept. 2 bomb attack that killed 15 people in
southern Davao city, the president's hometown.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 24, Sudanese security
agents detained dozens of foreign exchange dealers for black market
trading, as the authorities struggled to curb speculation against
the pound. The local currency has lost 60 percent of its value
against the dollar in the past six months.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, Syrian rebels in
besieged east Aleppo agreed to a UN plan for aid delivery and
medical evacuations, but the United Nations still awaited a green
light from Russia and the Syrian government.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In northern Syria
three Turkish soldiers were killed in what the military said was a
suspected Syrian air strike. Turkey said it would retaliate.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In southern Turkey
a car bomb exploded in the car park of the governor's office in
Adana killing two people and wounding 33. Police shot and captured a
suspect. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) later claimed
responsibility.
(AFP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/24/16)(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Alaska four
people including an infant were shot and killed at a hotel in
Fairbanks. McKay Hutton (22) was identified as the gunman in the
murder-suicide.
(SSFC, 11/27/16, p.A8)
2016 Nov 25, San Francisco’s
MUNI Metro passengers began riding for free following a hack of the
agency’s computer systems. The hacker demanded 100 bitcoins, or
about $73,000. Passengers continued to ride for free the next day as
MUNI worked to restore its systems from backups. The system was
restored on Nov 27.
(SFC, 11/29/16, p.A1)
2016 Nov 25, Pauline Oliveros
(b.1932), accordionist, composer and experimentalist, died in New
York. She influenced several generations of musicians with her call
for a process she dubbed “deep listening.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Oliveros)(SSFC, 11/27/16,
p.C5)
2016 Nov 25, In Afghanistan a
bomb blast in Jalalabad killed one police officer and wounded five
people. Bomb blasts in eastern Nangarhar province killed five and
left 27 others wounded.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Afghanistan VP
Abdul Rashid Dostum encountered rival Ahmad Ishchi while watching a
game of buzkashi and punched him in the face. Bodyguards beat Mr.
Ishchi some more before carting him away in an armored vehicle. He
has not been seen since. Dostum was acting president at this time as
his boss was abroad.
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.33)
2016 Nov 25, Thousands of
Bangladeshis marched in the streets of Dhaka to protest the
persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Smaller protests
occurred in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, British chef
Stephen Port (41), convicted two days earlier of murdering three
young men whom he met online, was sentenced to life in prison. Over
a 15-month period Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor
all overdosed on the psychoactive drug GHB. Port then dumped their
bodies in and around a graveyard near his apartment.
(AFP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Fidel Castro (90),
former Cuban leader (1959-2006), died. He had led a rebel army to
improbable victory, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the
power of 10 US presidents during his half century rule of Cuba. The
Cuban government soon declared nine days of national mourning.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 25, In France British
photographer David Hamilton (b.1933), known for his widely published
nude images of underage girls, was found dead in his Paris home with
a plastic bag over his head. Flavie Flament (42), who modelled for
Hamilton almost 30 years ago, published an autobiographical novel
last month in which she described being raped by a famous
photographer during a shoot.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 25, Germany's
Lufthansa airline canceled 830 short- and medium-haul flights
affecting 100,000 passengers after a pilots' strike entered its
third day in a long-running dispute over wages.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Hungary
far-right Asotthalom mayor Laszlo Toroczkai said councilors have
voted to ban the construction of mosques and the activity of
muezzins, as well as the use of veils and headscarves like burqas,
chadors and burkinis worn by Muslim women.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, India's top court
stopped firecracker sales in and around New Delhi as the worst
season for air pollution began.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Iran at least
44 people were killed and 100 injured when one passenger train
collided with another at a station in the northern province of
Semnan. Three railway officials were soon detained.
(Reuters, 11/25/16)(AFP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Iraq IS
militants reportedly shot to death 27 civilians in Muhandiseen Park
in northern Mosul.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Israel foreign
firefighting planes helped tackle a wave of wildfires that have
forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, as police announced a
dozen related arrests. Israel received airborne assistance from
Russia, Turkey, Greece and Croatia.
(AFP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Rebels fighting
against Indian rule in Kashmir ambushed a police patrol, killing two
officers. Two militants and an Indian soldier died in a separate
gunfight in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Mexican
authorities said Investigators searching clandestine graves have
found 32 bodies and nine human heads in the southern state of
Guerrero. After days of digging, they discovered a total of 32
bodies in 17 pits.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Thousands of
Filipinos, including more than a dozen nude students, protested
against the hasty burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes'
cemetery, in a growing political storm that's lashing the president
who allowed the entombment.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Russian President
Vladimir Putin presented a Russian passport to US actor Steven
Seagal (64) and said he hoped it would serve as a symbol of how the
fractious ties between Moscow and Washington are starting to
improve.
(Reuters, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Russian aircraft
maker MiG said Vano Mikoyan (b.1927), one of the developers of the
MiG fighter jets for the Soviet and then Russian air force, has
died.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, In Syria
airstrikes on the northern village of Taqad killed at least five
people including children. Opposition activists reported intense
airstrikes and shelling on the besieged rebel-held eastern
neighborhoods of Aleppo amid fighting on several fronts. Air strikes
in Idlib province knocked out two medical centers dedicated to women
and killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 11/25/16)(SFC, 11/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 25, In southern
Thailand two men suspected of involvement with violent unrest were
killed in a shootout with police and soldiers who had been tracking
them.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Turkish media
reported one soldier killed and five lightly wounded in the fight
against the Islamic State group in al-Bab, northern Syria. Four
opposition fighters were also reported killed in the clashes.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, In eastern Ukraine
the Czech humanitarian organization Clovek v Tisni (People in Need,
PIN) was banned from the Donetsk area by separatist authorities.
(Reuters, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 26, In North Dakota
organizers of the protest against the Dakota Access pipeline said
they will not follow a government directive to leave the federal
land at the Oceti Sakowin camp. A day earlier they receiving a
letter from the US Army Corps of Engineers that said all lands north
of the Cannonball River will be closed to public access on Dec 5 for
safety concerns.
(SSFC, 11/27/16, p.A10)
2016 Nov 26, In Burundi
thousands of people took part in street protests across the country
in support of the government's opposition to United Nations
investigators who are looking into alleged human rights abuses in
the east African country.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that police in Jincheng city, Shanxi
province, have arrested 94 members of a $72 billion cross-border
gambling ring whose activities stretched into Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Germany pilots
at Lufthansa staged a fourth consecutive day of strikes, with
chances of an immediate resolution to the pay dispute looking slim
after their union rejected a new offer from the company. The Cockpit
union targeted Lufthansa's long-haul services, prompting 137 flight
cancellations and affecting some 30,000 passengers.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Iraq's parliament
voted to accord full legal status to 110,000 government-sanctioned
Shiite popular mobilization forces (PMF) as a "back-up and reserve"
force for the military and police and empower them to "deter"
security and terror threats facing the country, like the Islamic
State group. The legislation, supported by 208 of the chamber's 327
members, was promptly rejected by Sunni Arab politicians and
lawmakers who said it was evidence of what they called the
"dictatorship" of the country's Shiite majority.
(AP, 11/26/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.39)
2016 Nov 26, In Israel fires
raged in several locations for a fifth day, including in a Jewish
West Bank settlement where 40 homes were burned and all 1,000-plus
of its residents evacuated.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Kuwaitis voted in
an election energized by the participation of opposition candidates
for the first time since 2012 and focused on recent government
austerity measures aimed at tackling the oil-rich nation's deficit.
Opposition candidates won an estimated 20 seats of 50 in the
elections that saw most parliament members replaced in favor of
candidates who promised to confront the government over recent
austerity measures.
(Reuters, 11/26/16)(Reuters, 11/27/16)(Econ,
12/3/16, p.38)
2016 Nov 26, Libyan forces
faced fierce resistance from Islamic State militants defending a
final strip of land in their former stronghold of Sirte, losing at
least five men.
(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Malaysian
political cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque (54), or Zunar as he is
popularly known, was arrested under the country's Sedition Act for
cartoons that allegedly insulted PM Najib Razak.
(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In New Zealand
five people were killed and three others were left missing in a
boating accident in Kaipara Harbour near Auckland.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Pakistan's office
of the prime minister announced that Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa has been
appointed as the new army chief and Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayat as
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In northwestern
Pakistan four heavily-armed suicide bombers attacked a military
facility and killed two soldiers, but failed to storm a busy mosque
inside. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA), claimed
responsibility for the attack on Ghalani Camp in Mohmand Agency.
(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Six Pakistanis
working for a Polish oil and gas surveying company were kidnapped in
northwestern Pakistan, years after a Polish engineer from the same
company was beheaded by Pakistani militants.
(Reuters, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 26, Philippine troops,
backed by bomber aircraft, assaulted local sympathizers of the
Islamic State group, including dozens of Maute militants who took
cover in an unoccupied Islamic school in Butig's Bayabao village.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Somalia a car
bomb exploded near a police station in a busy market in Mogadishu,
killing at least 11 people and injuring 16 others.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In South Korea for
the fifth straight weekend, masses of protesters occupied major
avenues in downtown Seoul demanding the ouster of President Park
Geun-hye. Organizers estimated the crowd at 1.5 million.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, South Sudan's
government said it has accepted with "no conditions" increase the
peacekeeping force in the country as mandated by the UN Security
Council in August.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, The Syrian army
said troops have captured a neighborhood in Aleppo days after the
government resumed its offensive on the besieged rebel-held eastern
part of the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an
agreement to start evacuating rebels and their weapons from
rebel-held Khan al-Shih will start to be implemented. Another
agreement was reached to evacuate rebels from al-Tal.
(AP, 11/26/16)(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Taiwan veteran
Chinese director Feng Xiaogang picked up the best director award for
his social satire "I Am Not Madame Bovary" at the 53rd Golden Horse
Awards, considered the equivalent of the Oscars for
Mandarin-language cinema.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Thailand a
gunman walked up to two women eating at a street stall in Pattani
province's Panarae district, shooting both before fleeing. A
nine-months-pregnant woman was shot dead, her companion survived.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 26, Turkey's state-run
news agency said a Turkish soldier was killed and three wounded in
an attack during an anti-IS operation in north Syria, raising to
five the number of Turkish troops killed in Syria this week. Turkish
warplanes destroyed 12 Islamic State targets during the offensive.
(AP, 11/26/16)(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Turkish
authorities detained two reporters working for the BBC and Voice of
America in the town of Sirvan, the latest journalists taken into
custody in the government's sweeping crackdown following July's
failed coup.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Uganda 41
tribal insurgents and 14 police officers were killed in clashes in
the west of the country. Charles Wesley Mumbere, the king of the
Rwenzururu Kingdom who supports the opposition, was detained for
questioning.
(Reuters, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban fighters killed four border police in an ambush
in Zabul province. Several Taliban were also reported killed.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 27, In northeastern
Congo DRC a local militia allegedly has killed at least 35 civilians
with machetes and guns. The Mai Mai Mazembe militia group was named
as being responsible for the attack.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, French
conservatives voted for their nominee in next year's presidential
election. Francois Fillon (62) faced Alain Juppe (71), both
high-profile leaders of the center-right Republicans party.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, In Iran a
helicopter on a mission to carry an injured person from an oil
platform crashed in the Caspian Sea, killing all five people aboard.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, Israeli aircraft
struck a machine gun-mounted vehicle inside, killing four Islamic
State-affiliated militants after they had opened fire on a military
patrol on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, Denmark's PM Lars
Lokke Rasmussen said he had agreed to form a new government with the
Liberal Alliance and the Conservative Party, reducing the risk of
snap elections.
(Reuters, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, In India hundreds
of gay rights activists marched in a parade in New Delhi,
highlighting the continuing discrimination India's LGBT community
faces and demanding the repeal of a law criminalizing homosexual
acts.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, Dutch officials
said they have culled 190,000 ducks on a farm where inspectors have
confirmed the presence of a highly infectious strain of bird flu.
(AFP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, The Philippine
military killed at least 11 members of the Maute rebel group in
Lanao del Sur, sending local communities fleeing as a battle
continued to rage. The Maute Group has pledged allegiance to Islamic
State.
(Reuters, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, In Sudan armed men
abducted three UN refugee agency staffers, including two foreigners,
from the strife-torn Darfur region.
(AFP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 27, Swiss voters
rejected a call to speed up the phase-out of the country’s ageing
nuclear reactors. A full 54.2 percent of voters and an overwhelming
majority of 26 cantons voted against an initiative which would have
forced three of the country's five nuclear reactors to close next
year.
(AFP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, In Syria hundreds
of residents of rebel-held eastern Aleppo fled shifting frontlines,
after an advance by the Syrian army and allied forces. A
vehicle-borne bomb killed several people in the northern town of
al-Rai, an area under the control of Turkey-backed rebels. Rebels
handed in their heavy weapons in Khan al-Shih, a town southwest of
Damascus, as part of a deal they have made with the government to
get safe passage to insurgent-controlled areas.
(Reuters, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, The Turkish army
said 22 pro-Ankara Syrian rebels were hit by an Islamic State (IS)
gas attack east of Al Rai in northern Syria, the first time Turkey
has accused the jihadists of chemical warfare.
(AFP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, In western Uganda
the death toll rose to 62 dead as security forces fought royal
guards accused of belonging to a separatist militia in the town of
Kasese. (see March 15, 2017).
(AFP, 11/28/16)(AP, 3/15/17)
2016 Nov 28, The World Trade
Organization (WTO) ruled that US plane maker Boeing received major
illegal tax breaks from Washington state, adding that the federal
government should now take action to end that support within months.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, In Oakland, Ca.,
Roderick Travon Godfrey (19) and Deante Antonio Miller (19) were
shot and killed on the 700 block of 39th St. Months earlier Godfrey
had spoken out against gun violence at a town hall hosted by Rep.
Barbara Lee.
(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A13)
2016 Nov 28, In Ohio Abdul
Razak Ali Artan, a Somali-born Ohio State Univ. student, plowed his
car into a group of pedestrians in Columbus and then got out and
stabbed 11 people with a butcher knife. Campus officer Alan Horujko
(28) shot and killed Artan.
(SFC, 11/29/16, p.A8)(SFC, 11/30/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 28, In Tennessee
wildfires threatened homes and businesses in two small resort towns
north of the Great Smoky Mountains.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 28, The first
commercial flight from the US in more than 50 years arrived in Cuba.
(SFC, 11/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 28, Belgium and the
Netherlands signed a deal for a peaceful exchange of land between
them for the mere fact that it makes sense to do so. Belgium gave up
a tiny peninsula on the Meuse river linked only to the Netherlands
and got in return a nearby piece from its neighbor.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Britain's
anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) elected its former
chairman Paul Nuttall as leader, seeking to overcome months of
internal turmoil and capitalize on its successful Brexit campaign.
Nuttall (40) succeeded Nigel Farage.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)(Econ, 12/3/16, p.47)
2016 Nov 28, In Colombia a
plane carrying Brazil’s Chapecoense team soccer team crashed killing
71 people. Six survivors suffered severe trauma injuries. 21
journalists were among the 77 people onboard the British Aerospace
146. The Bolivian plane ran out of fuel moments before slamming into
the Andes mountains.
(AP, 11/29/16)(AP, 11/30/16)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 28, German news agency
DPA reported that arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch will no
longer sign contracts to supply countries outside of NATO's
influence because it has become too difficult to obtain government
approval for such deals.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Germany-based
Lufthansa said it is canceling more than 1,700 flights scheduled for
the next two days as a union representing the airline's pilots
resumes a campaign of strikes.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, An Indonesian
woman screamed in agony as she was caned in Aceh, the latest in a
growing number of women to be publicly flogged for breaking the
province's strict Islamic laws. Two women and three men were flogged
in front of a cheering crowd at a mosque in the provincial capital
Banda Aceh.
(AFP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Iraqi residents in
Mosul said the Islamic State has arrested dozens of shop owners
accused of raising food prices in the nearly besieged city, to tamp
down discontent as a US-backed offensive closes in on the group's
stronghold.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Kazakh courts
sentenced nine Islamic State supporters and two leading political
activists to prison terms in separate trials after their convictions
over the two biggest shocks to veteran President Nursultan
Nazarbayev's rule.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Kuwait said plans
to buy 28 Boeing F-18 Super Hornets. It also planned to return a
number of outdated F-18s in its inventory as part of the purchase
deal.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Montenegro's
parliament endorsed a new cabinet led by Dusko Markovic (58), a
former head of the secret police who pledged to lead the country's
accession to NATO and the European Union.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, In Nigeria a woman
suicide bomber carrying a baby on her back was shot by soldiers at a
checkpoint. The shot detonated her explosives, killing the woman and
the baby.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Nov 28, In Somalia
hundreds of pro-government forces began moving toward the port town
of Qandala for an offensive against Islamic State fighters who
seized it last month.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, In central Somalia
clashes between the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab and villagers
in the port town of Harardhere left six militants and four residents
killed in ongoing fighting over a demand for tax payments.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Aid agencies said
a second poor rainy season in Somalia has pushed livestock herders
in the drought-hit Puntland region to trek an average of 60 km (40
miles) to fetch drinking water and called for rapid action to
prevent renewed famine.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, In Sudan the
second day of a three-day campaign for a general strike left streets
in the capital, Khartoum, deserted, classrooms empty and many shops
closed. Authorities have arrested dozens of activists and members of
opposition parties over allegations they engineered a call for a
general strike against subsidy cuts that have sparked price hikes.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, The Syrian army
and its allies announced the capture of a swathe of eastern Aleppo
from rebels in an accelerating attack that threatens to crush the
opposition in its most important urban stronghold.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, The presidents of
Turkmenistan and Afghanistan officially opened a new railroad at the
Imamnazar station on the Turkmen side of the border that will link
the oil-rich former Soviet republic with Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Two Turkish
soldiers were reported killed after clashing with Kurdish militants
in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 28, Zimbabweans
greeted a new "bond note" currency with deep suspicion that it could
herald the return of hyperinflation that destroyed their savings
less than 10 years ago. The new "bond notes" were valued at the
equivalent of $1 and $2.
(AFP, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 29, US President-elect
Donald Trump nominated Tom Price as health secretary, indicating he
plans to fulfill a campaign promise to tear up the divisive
healthcare reform law. The congressman from Georgia and former
orthopedic surgeon has been a fierce Obamacare critic.
(AFP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Afghanistan
General Muhayuddin Ghori, commander of the 207th Zafar Corps based
in the city of Herat, died after the aircraft he was in went down in
Baghdis province on the border with Turkmenistan.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, Scientists
reported that warming oceans have caused the largest die-off of
corals ever recorded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
(SFC, 11/30/16, p.A4)
2016 Nov 29, Pirates hijacked
the Greek-flagged Saronic Breeze off the coast of Benin and sailed
the vessel to Nigeria before abandoning it near the southeastern oil
capital of Port Harcourt. A Russian captain and two crewmen were
kidnapped.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Cyprus two
female high school students and the driver of their school bus were
killed when the vehicle collided head-on with a truck along a busy
mountain road in the northern, Turkish Cypriot half of the island's
capital, Nicosia.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Egypt an
amended law that toughens penalties for female genital mutilation to
up to 15 years in jail came into effect.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Nov 29, Airbus said it
wants to cut more than 1,100 jobs across Europe after presenting a
reorganization plan to the works council in Toulouse.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, Germany took over
the presidency of the G20 leading economies, a platform Chancellor
Angela Merkel wants to use to safeguard multilateral cooperation
under threat following Donald Trump's U.S. election victory.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In northern India
militants attacked an army base near the city of Jammu, Jammu and
Kashmir state, killing at least seven security personnel and taking
hostages in the boldest assault on a military base in the region in
recent months.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, An Iraqi official
said water supplies to about 650,000 residents of Mosul have been
cut off after a pipeline was hit during fighting between the army
and Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, The Hashed
al-Jabour militia, made up of Sunni tribal fighters backed by the
government, killed four men it had captured in a village north of
Mosul. Witnesses said the men were shot in the presence of Iraqi
security forces without any judicial proceedings.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Nov 29, Libyan military
commander Khalifa Haftar, the dominant figure in the divided
country's east, met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow
and said he was seeking Russia’s help in his fight against Islamist
militants at home.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In northern Mali
militants struck two airports with an explosives-laden truck and
rockets, in attacks that caused no victims but pointed to desert
jihadists intensifying their insurgency.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 29, The Dutch
parliament voted to ban face veils in some public places, a law the
government said was essential for security but which opponents said
pandered to anti-Muslim sentiment.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah re-elected him party head as the
movement opened its first congress since 2009 with talk mounting of
who will eventually succeed the 81-year-old.
(AFP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In southwestern
Poland an earth tremor at the Rudna copper mine left at least 5
people dead. Three miners remained missing.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 29, Russian government
officials said they plan to send 100,000 tons of wheat in
humanitarian aid to Syria this year.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In northern
Somalia Islamist insurgents killed four pro-government soldiers and
injured 11 others when a roadside bomb destroyed a military pickup.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in the Galgala
hills.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, South Korean Pres.
Park Geun-hye said that she'll resign, if parliament arranges the
technical details, in her latest attempt to fend off impeachment
efforts. Opponents immediately called Park's conditional resignation
offer a stalling tactic.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, Sudanese
authorities banned three more newspapers, seizing all copies ahead
of distribution as a general strike against fuel subsidy cuts and
price hikes continued for the third day.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Syria renewed
airstrikes killed at least 20 civilians as they fled government
advances in the eastern part of Aleppo. The United Nations said up
to 16,000 people have already been displaced in recent days of
fighting.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, Thailand's
parliament named Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn as the new king,
completing a formal step for the heir to take the throne following
the death of his father last month.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, Tunisia won
pledges of more than a billion dollars in financial support at an
investment conference aimed at reviving the country's struggling
economy. More than 2,000 business, finance and political leaders
from 40 countries attended the two-day "Tunisia 2020" conference.
(AFP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Turkey a deadly
fire at a dormitory for schoolgirls left 12 people dead in the
southern region of Adana. Twelve people were detained the next day
as anger grew over possible negligence that caused the tragedy.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 29, Ugandan
prosecutors charged Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere with
murder, accusing him of backing a separatist militia where weekend
fighting between his guards and security forces left at least 87
people dead.
(AFP, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 30, US officials with
the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development said smoking will be
banned in public-housing residences nationwide effective early next
year. Housing agencies will be given a year and a half to put
smoke-free policies into place.
(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A7)
2016 Nov 30, The US
Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan to finalize vehicle
emissions standards through 2025 -- a move strongly opposed by major
automakers and likely to set up a significant fight early in the
next administration.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, In Alabama an
early morning tornado tore through the state as severe storms landed
in several southeastern states, destroying infrastructure and power
lines. At least three people were reported killed in ala and two in
Tennessee. Up to 27 tornadoes were reported in Texas, Mississippi,
Tennessee, and Alabama, amid hail and heavy downpours.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Air-conditioning
maker Carrier Corp. said it has reached a deal with Pres.-elect
Donald Trump to keep nearly 1,000 jobs in Indiana.
(SFC, 12/1/16, p.C2)
2016 Nov 30, Andorran lawmakers
agreed to end banking secrecy in the Pyrenees mountains principality
once considered a tax haven, approving automatic sharing of
information on accounts held by non-residents.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Nov 30, A human rights
group says that Belarus, the only European country that hasn't
abolished capital punishment, has executed a third person in a year.
(AP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Colombia’s lower
house voted unanimously in favor of a revised peace deal with the
FARC rebels.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Nov 30, In Ethiopia Merera
Gudina (60), chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was
arrested at his home in Addis Ababa and was held in an unknown
location with three others. Earlier this month Gudina had addressed
the European Parliament in Brussels, alongside Olympic silver
medalist runner and fellow member of the Oromo tribe, Feyisa Lilesa.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Nov 30, Europol police
across the globe smashed a massive criminal network, known as
“Avalanche,” providing online services including malware attacks
that infected half a million computers worldwide. Five key suspects
were arrested.
(AFP, 12/1/16)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A3)
2016 Nov 30, EU regulators set
a path for renewables to power half of Europe by 2030, with plans to
cut energy use, phase out subsidies for coal and enforce greater
cross-border trade.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, The European Union
unveiled its biggest defense funding and research plan in more than
a decade to reverse billions in cuts and send a message to US
President-elect Donald Trump that it wants to pay for its own
security.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, German airline
Lufthansa said it has made a modified pay offer to pilots as it
seeks to put an end to a long-running dispute that's seen a
succession of strikes over recent days.
(AP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Authorities in
Indian-controlled Kashmir released prominent human rights activist
Khurram Parvez (39) from prison after a court in the disputed region
ruled that his 76-day detention under a controversial security law
was illegal.
(AP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Indonesia's
parliament reappointed Setya Novanto as its speaker, reinstating him
despite a scandal last year when he was accused of trying to extort
$1.8 billion of shares from the local unit of US mining giant
Freeport McMoran Inc.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Amnesty
International warned that multinational companies are selling
consumer products containing palm oil from Indonesian plantations
where workers suffer rights abuses, listing problems including child
labor and exposure to toxic chemicals.
(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, OPEC agreed its
first limit on oil output since 2008, with Saudi Arabia accepting "a
big hit" on its production and agreeing to arch-rival Iran freezing
output at pre-sanctions levels.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, In the Philippines
some 3,000 people gathered at the “People Power” monument in Manila
to protest the burial of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos at a heroes’
cemetery.
(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 30, President Vladimir
Putin named deputy finance minister Maxim Oreshkin (34) as Russia's
new economy minister, two weeks after former economy minister Alexei
Ulyukayev was detained and accused of bribery.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Slovakia passed
legislation to effectively block Islam from gaining official status
as a religion in the near future in the latest sign of growing
anti-Muslim sentiment across the European Union.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, South Africa
launched a major clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against
the AIDS virus, which scientists hope could be the "final nail in
the coffin" for the disease.
(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Spanish novelist
Eduardo Mendoza (b.1943) won the 2016 Cervantes Prize, the
Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor, for bringing a "new
narrative style to Spanish fiction." His novels included "La verdad
sobre el caso Savolta" (The Truth about the Savolta Case) and “La
ciudad de los prodigios" (City of Marvels).
(AP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Syrian government
forces and their allies clashed with rebels in southeast Aleppo, as
Damascus and its allies tried to build on major gains in the city.
Regime artillery fire killed at least 26 civilians in east Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 50,000 people
have fled Aleppo's rebel-held districts, including at least 20,000
to government-held territory and another 30,000 to
Kurdish-controlled districts.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, Peng Chang-kuei
(98), the creator of General Tso’s chicken, died in Taipei. He had
created the Hunan-style dish during the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1955
during the 4-day visit by Adm. Arthur Radford, chairman of the US
Joint chiefs of staff.
(SSFC, 12/4/16, p.C11)
2016 Nov 30, The UN warned that
op to 500,000 civilians in Mosul are facing a "catastrophic"
drinking water shortage, as Iraqi forces advanced against the
Islamic State group in the city.
(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, The United Nations
Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea aimed at
cutting the Asian country's annual export revenue by a quarter in
response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test in September.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, In Zimbabwe
riot police fired tear gas and beat up opposition protesters
marching through Harare against the new "bond note" currency.
(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov, The Obama
administration agreed to accept up to 1,250 refugees held at Nauru,
who have been refused entry to Australia. Most of the refugees were
from Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka.
(SFC, 2/10/17, p.A2)
2016 Nov, Pres.-elect Donald
Trump outlined his priorities in a YouTube video and announced a new
rule: for every new regulation, two old ones must be eliminated.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.65)
2016 Nov, New York’s Dept. of
Financial Services (DFS) imposed a $215 million fine on the
Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) for suspect financial transactions
and sanction violations.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.63)
2016 Nov, Trump Inc. was
estimated to be worth $4 billion, with $490 million in annual
revenue. This would make it the 833rd largest firm in America by
market value and 1,925th by sales.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.59)
2016 Nov, New Mexico state
voters passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting judges from
jailing people because they can’t afford bail.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.26)
2016 Nov, Google unveiled a new
version of Translate. The old version was called “phrase-based”
machine translation. The new version used as artificial neural
network lin king digital “neurons” in several layers.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.70)
2016 Nov, In Argentina police
arrested Rev. Nicola Corradi (82), Rev. Horacio Corbacho (55) and
three other men following a raid at the Antonio Provolo Institute
for hearing impaired children in Mendoza province. Police and found
magazines featuring naked women and about $34,000 in Corradi's room.
At least 24 students of the institute had come forward seeking
justice for the abuse they say they suffered at the hands of the
five men.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Nov, In Brazil Edmar Bacha
(b.1942) became the third economist to join the Brazilian Academy of
Letters, whose members are known as the “immortals.” He was one of
the architects of the Real Plan, which tamed inflation in 1994.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.31)
2016 Nov, In Chile El Romero,
the largest solar plant in Latin America, became operational in the
Atacama desert after 13 months of construction. It was built by
Spanish company Acciona.
(http://tinyurl.com/lrt2xp7)(Econ, 12/10/16,
p.38)
2016 Nov, El Salvador’s
government and right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena)
averted disaster by allowing the government to issue $550 million of
new debt in exchange for agreeing to a “fiscal responsibility law”.
(Econ, 1/21/17, p.26)
2016 Nov, Egypt’s inflation was
running at about 14%.
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.14)
2016 Nov, In Germany the Pulse
of Europe, a pro-European citizen's initiative, was founded in
Frankfurt. It aimed at encouraging citizens of the European Union to
speak out publicly in favor of a pan-European identity.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_of_Europe)(Econ 5/13/17, p.48)
2016 Nov, India mandated that
all moviegoers stand during the playing of the national anthem at
all the country’s cinemas.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov, Almost 2,000 Iraqi
troops were killed this month across the country.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.41)
2016 Nov, Bilal Rozayna, the
brother of Hamas internal security chief Mustafa Rozayna, was
arrested after he entered Israel.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Nov, In Madagascar a rush
for sapphires led the government to hold meetings and declare
protection for the eastern Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena a national
priority. Miners over the next six months cut down thousands of
acres of forest in the area.
(AP, 4/2/17)
2016 Nov, In Malaysia Amri Che
Mat, a Shi'ite Muslim activist who worked with the poor, disappeared
in the northern state of Perlis. In 2019 the country's human rights
commission said he was probably abducted by agents of Special
Branch, a police intelligence unit.
(Reuters, 4/3/19)
2016 Nov, Russian hacker
Vladimir Anikeyev, who headed Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty-Dumpty) hacker
group, was arrested and later sentenced to two years in prison. The
group had hacked the accounts of several government officials,
including a spokeswoman for Russia's prime minister. On August 6,
2018, Anikeyev was set free in line with a new law that makes one
day spent in pre-trial detention equivalent to 1½ days in prison.
(AP, 8/6/18)
2016 Nov, In Russia a cull of
reindeer began in the northern Yamal region. The cull this year was
raised from 70,000 to 100,000 and would continue to the end of
January. Opponents of the plan said traditional pasture lands of the
Nenets people are disappearing due to the growth of the oil and gas
industry.
(SFC, 11/17/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov, Russia announced the
placement of missile defense systems on Etorofu 12, and Kunashiri
islands, part of the lower Kurile island chain also claimed by
Japan.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.40)
2016 Nov, In Sudan some 2.6
million people remained displaced in Darfur, a region the size of
Spain.
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.40)
2016 Nov, In Turkey pro-Kurdish
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas was
detained on charges of links to Kurdish militants. He was detained
along with another nine HDP lawmakers and his female co-leader Figen
Yuksekdag.
(AFP, 1/17/17)
2016 Nov, Uganda’s Pres. Yoweri
Museveni closed Makerere Univ. in Kampala for two months after a
strike by lecturers over unpaid bonuses sparked student protests.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.42)
2016 Nov, Uzbekistan
authorities freed Samandar Kukanov, a dissident who had spent 23
years behind bars.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.40)
2016 Nov, Vietnam’s government
hosted a big pow-wow on wildlife conservation and obliterated tons
of confiscated ivory in a fireball.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.36)
2016 Dec 1, The US Senate voted
99-0 to renew for ten years the decades-old Iran Sanctions Act.
Pres. Obama planned to sign it.
(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 1, The US Justice
Department said Carnival Corp's Princess Cruise Lines will plead
guilty to seven felony charges of polluting the seas and trying to
cover it up, and pay a record $40 million criminal penalty.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Texas the city
of Corpus Christi first received a “dirty water report” from the oil
refiner Valero owned administration building at the asphalt plant
leased to Ergon Asphalt and Emulsions and city workers flushed the
pipe. On Dec 7 a 2nd report came from the same building and the main
was flushed. On Dec 13 the city warned residents to stop using the
public water supply forcing school closures and a run on bottled
water. On Dec 14 the city released a map showing where it was safe
to drink water. On Dec 18 the four-day ban on drinking from the
public water supply was lifted.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A9)(SFC, 12/17/16, p.A7)(SSFC,
12/18/16, p.A20)(SFC, 12/19/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 1, In Washington state
police shot and killed a man in Tacoma who had killed a fellow
officer a day earlier and taken two children as human shields.
(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A14)
2016 Dec 1, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants hanged university student Faiz ul Rahman Wardak in
public in a village west of Kabul after accusing him of involvement
in the death of a senior Taliban official named Mullah Mirwais.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 1, Australia’s Senate
approved a law allowing convicted terrorists to be kept in prison
after the completion of their sentence if a court believes they
still pose a significant threat to the community.
(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 1, The Bolivian Civil
Aviation Authority indefinitely suspended permission for LaMia
airline to operate following the deadly crash of one its charter
planes in Colombia.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Canada the body
of Elana Eric Shamji (40), a family physician, was found in Vaughan,
Ontario. Neurosurgeon Mohammed Shamji (40) was soon arrested and
faced a first-degree murder charge.
(SSFC, 12/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 1, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh faced the strongest electoral challenge of his 22-year
rule as voters went to the polls, braving an internet and phone
blackout the government defended as a security measure. Opposition
candidate Adama Barrow pulled off a stunning victory, comfortably
winning the presidential election and putting an end to the 22-year
rule of Yahya Jammeh.
(AFP, 12/1/16)(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 1, The French-German
human rights award in Berlin was presented to Wang Qiaoling, whose
husband Li Heping, a prominent lawyer, was detained by Chinese
authorities in 2015.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan an
unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted with a load of supplies to the
International Space Station, but Russian space officials said they
weren't getting data from it. The Progress MSD-04 cargo craft broke
up over Siberia.
(AP, 12/1/16)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 1, A Kenyan court
charged two Iranian men with collecting information to facilitate a
terrorist act after they were allegedly found with video footage of
the Israeli embassy.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Peru one woman
was killed and some forty people were arrested in the Huaycan
shantytown outside Lima after an angry mob tried to lynch two poll
workers who residents believed were butchering local children to
take their organs.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 1, Poland and the US
Patriot missile maker Raytheon signed a letter of intent to
cooperate in production that could pave the way for the purchase of
missiles.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Qatar Doha News,
an independent English-language news site, accused the Gulf state of
censorship, saying two Internet service providers had simultaneously
blocked access to it.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, Senegalese sculptor
Ousmane Sow (b.1935) died in Dakar. His work celebrated African
tribes along with historical icons such as Nelson Mandela and Martin
Luther King Jr. Sow was admitted to France's Academy of Fine Arts in
2013.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, Spanish police said
authorities have detained 34 people, including six tennis players,
involved in a tennis match-fixing network that made more than
half-a-million dollars from lower-tier tournaments in Spain and
Portugal.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, Elite Syrian troops
moved into east Aleppo ahead of a push into the most densely
populated areas, as regime ally Russia called for corridors to bring
in aid and evacuate wounded. Aleppo rebels said they have agreed to
form a new military alliance to better organize the defense of parts
of the city they control from a ferocious assault by the government
and its allies.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Thailand Crown
Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (64) became the new king after he
accepted an invitation from parliament to succeed his father, King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in October.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, The UN mission in
Iraq said 1,959 Iraqi forces were killed last month and at least 450
others wounded. The UN statement also said at least 926 civilians
were killed, bringing to 2,885 the number of Iraqis killed in acts
of terrorism, violence and armed conflict last month.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, Yasmin Sooka, the
head of the UN commission of human rights in the South Sudan, said
ethnic cleansing is taking place in some areas of South Sudan and
the stage is set for a repeat of the Rwandan genocide. Attacks on
aid workers and bureaucratic interference were preventing supplies
from reaching tens of thousands of desperate South Sudanese who have
fled their homes amid escalating violence.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, UN envoy to Yemen
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi met in
the southern city of Aden to discuss a new bid to end the country's
conflict.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 2, The United States
blacklisted seven people and 16 North Korean companies for ties to
the North Korean government or its nuclear and weapons programs, the
US Treasury said in a statement.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, US President-elect
Donald Trump accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwanese President
Tsai Ing-wen, a breach of long-standing tradition that risked enmity
from China.
(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 2, Jared Kushner, the
son-in-law of Pres. Donald Trump, spoke with Russian ambassador
Sergei Kislyak on this day or a day earlier at Trump Tower and
proposed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure
communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the
Kremlin. This was only made public on May 26, 2017.
(SFC, 5/27/17, p.A6)
2016 Dec 2, The FBI arrested
Jamaican fugitive Marlon Jones a day after he was added to the
agency's top 10 most wanted list in the deaths of four people at a
Los Angeles birthday party in October.
(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 2, In southern
California graduate student David Jonathan Brown stabbed to death
UCLA Prof. Bosco Tjan, an expert in vision cognition and perception.
The student was arrested.
(SFC, 12/3/16, p.A7)(SSFC, 12/4/16, p.A8)
2016 Dec 2, In southern
California CHP officers found more than 200 pounds of heroin, valued
at about $11 million, in a tractor trailer that was stopped for
speeding in Victorville.
(SFC, 12/3/16, p.A7)
2016 Dec 2, In the SF Bay Area
a warehouse was gutted by a blaze during a rave party in Oakland. An
estimated 50 to 100 people attended the electronic dance music
party. At least 36 people were killed at the artist collective known
as Satya Yuga, led by Derick Ion Almena (46). On July 3, 2018,
Derrick Almena and Max Harris (28) pleaded no contest to involuntary
manslaughter charges in the Ghost Ship fire.
(AFP, 12/4/16)(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A13)(SFC, 7/4/18,
p.A1)
2016 Dec 2, In Tennessee people
returned to the fire-ravaged city of Gatlinburg as the death toll
rose to 13. The number of damaged buildings approached 1000.
(SFC, 12/3/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 2, Ford Motor Co said
on Friday it will recall about 680,000 of its Ford Fusion and
Lincoln MKZ sedans to fix a seat belt issue.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, An Afghan police
official said Taliban militants have killed 23 civilians in Kandahar
Province in the last 48 hours.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, Angola’s state
radio announced that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos (74) will
stand down next year.
(AFP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 2, Britain’s
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the maker of Big Ben (1858), announced its
closure. The foundry will close in May 2017, after nearly 450 years
of bell making and 250 years at its present site.
(http://tinyurl.com/jxfxhd7)(Econ, 12/24/16,
p.122)
2016 Dec 2, Cambodia's King
Norodom Sihamoni pardoned Kem Sokha, the deputy leader of the
country's opposition party, acting at the request of PM Hun Sen in a
complicated maneuver that could have a major political impact ahead
of nationwide local elections next June.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, China appealed to
Washington and Berlin to avoid injecting politics into the proposed
670 million euro ($740 million) acquisition of German semiconductor
maker Aixtron SE by Fujian Grand Chip, following a report President
Obama plans to oppose it as a security risk.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In Cyprus the
leaders of the ethnically split island ended a two-week stalemate by
agreeing to meet next month in Geneva for a summit to tackle the
most difficult issues in the way of a peace deal.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, German police said
an iron gate with the infamous slogan "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work
will set you free") stolen from the former Nazi concentration camp
Dachau two years ago has been found in Norway.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, Indonesian police
arrested 11 people including prominent citizens for suspected
treason and other crimes and said they were planning to use a mass
protest in the capital to cause chaos and overthrow the government.
Eight of those arrested were released the next day.
(AP, 12/2/16)(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 2, In Indonesia at
least 200,000 conservative Muslims rallied peacefully in Jakarta in
the second major protest against its minority Christian Gov. Basuki
"Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, who is being prosecuted for alleged
blasphemy.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, Iran threatened to
retaliate against a US Senate vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act
(ISA) for 10 years, saying it violated last year's deal with six
major powers that curbed its nuclear program. The ISA had been due
to expire on Dec 31.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, Iraqi special
forces fighting in Mosul seized a new neighborhood and took full
control of the densely-populated Zohour neighborhood, where troops
happened upon a residential complex for IS fighters.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, Lithuania's
president urged Donald Trump to uphold the United States' security
commitment to Europe amid questions about the US president-elect's
intentions toward his NATO allies.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, Lithuania’s state
security said it has opened a 24-hour hotline for citizens to report
potential foreign spies in an effort to increase public awareness of
potential threats.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, The Dutch
government backed a multi-year inquiry into the end of its colonial
period in Indonesia in the 1940s, when troops from the Netherlands
are accused of massacres in Southeast Asia's largest nation.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, A Nigerian court
ruled that Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in
Nigeria (IMN), should be released along with his wife after being
held without charge for nearly a year by the country's security
agency. Founders of the Nigerian sect were inspired by the Islamic
Revolution in Shi'ite Iran.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In central Nigeria
a petrol tanker skidded off the road and exploded, killing at least
14 people in the transit town of Tegina, Niger state.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In Poland
technicians worked across the country to restore power to some
180,000 households as the freezing weather that has gripped the
country for a month claimed two more lives.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In Slovenia Natasa
Pirc Musar, director of the Pirc Musar&Partnerji law firm, said
that the use of the name "Melania Trump" for commercial purposes
without approval of her client would be against the law in the small
Alpine state and would represent a violation of personal rights.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In Switzerland
member nations approved an additional 440 million euros ($469
million) to fund the European Space Agency's next mission to Mars.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In Syria rebels put
up fierce resistance in a key district of Aleppo, where a regime
offensive has left bodies in the streets and sparked global outrage.
Rebel fire on west Aleppo killed 9 people.
(AFP, 12/2/16)(AFP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 2, Syrian intelligence
officials returned the emaciated and abused dead body of Ibrahim
al-Ahmad (25) to his family saying the man, missing for four years,
had died of a heart attack.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.75)
2016 Dec 2, Pres. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan urged his citizens to give up the dollar and euros at a time
the economy is teetering. Erdogan called on Turkish citizens to
convert savings held in foreign currencies into gold and Turkish
lira to help boost the ailing currency, which recently dropped above
3.5 lira per dollar, the weakest exchange rate in more than a
decade.
(http://tinyurl.com/j9uebpr)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 2, UN investigators
said South Sudanese soldiers have brutally raped an elderly woman
and a pregnant woman lost her baby after being gang-raped by seven
soldiers. Three in five women in UN-administered "protection of
civilian" sites around the capital Juba experienced rape or sexual
assault, according to a 2016 report by the UN Population Fund.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, The UN said nearly
20,000 children have fled their homes in battered east Aleppo in
recent days, warning that time is running out to provide them with
the help they desperately need.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 3, In Ohio Saif Nasser
Mubarak Alameri (26), a student at Case Western Univ. and a United
Arab Emirates citizen, was speeding and driving erratically on the
turnpike when he sideswiped another vehicle, causing his car to flip
onto the roof. Alameri fled the scene and was killed during a
struggle with a Hudson police officer.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 3, In Abu Dhabi
representatives of around 40 countries approved plans to establish a
fund to protect heritage sites in war zones and a network of safe
havens for endangered artworks. The meeting, co-sponsored by France
and the United Arab Emirates, was spurred by the systematic
destruction and looting of archaeological treasures in Iraq and
Syria by the Islamic State group. France committed $30 million
toward protecting cultural heritage sites during wartime.
(AFP, 12/3/16)(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, Austrian police
said two migrants, who had apparently hidden on a train bringing
trucks from Italy to Austria, were found dead today, either of cold
or because they were crushed when the vehicles were unloaded.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, Azerbaijan's
domestic security agency agents killed Emin Jami, a man linked to
"international terrorist organizations and illegal armed groups
involved in military conflicts abroad." He was allegedly wearing a
suicide bomb belt in Baku.
(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, Chilean media
reported that the government has decided to draw up charges against
lithium giant SQM for a series of alleged environmental violations
that could result in fines of up to $22.2 million.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, China's Taiwan
Affairs Office said US President-elect Donald Trump's call with
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was a "petty" move by Taiwan that does
not change its status as part of China.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, In northern China a
coal mine explosion killed 32 people in Chifeng city in the Inner
Mongolia region. News of the blast came just hours after 21 miners,
who were trapped for four days after an explosion hit their
unlicensed coal mine in Heilongjiang province, were confirmed dead.
Four people were arrested in connection with that disaster.
(AP, 12/3/16)(SSFC, 12/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 3, Congolese troops
detained 41 South Sudanese soldiers and one police officer after
they fled a rebel assault over the frontier.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 3, Dagestan warlord
Rustam Aselderov (35), suspected to be behind multiple attacks in
the North Caucasus, was killed along with four of his accomplices in
a police operation.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 3, Egypt's Supreme
Constitutional Court upheld a law that effectively bans street
protests, settling a years-long court battle and protecting the law
from further challenges.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, In Finland a lone
gunman shot dead a local official and two journalists, all of them
women, in a night-time attack in the small town of Imatra. A
23-year-old suspect was swiftly arrested after the shooting.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 3, Gabon said it has
postponed legislative elections set for Dec. 27 until next July
because of a lack of money.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, An Indonesian
police plane lost contact during a flight to the island of Batam
near Singapore. All 13 policemen aboard were feared dead.
(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, In Iraq Islamic
State militants staged attacks over the last 24 hours on positions
of state-sanctioned militias west and south of Mosul, apparently
taking advantage of bad weather conditions that normally disrupt air
support. Forces from the Iraqi army retook four villages from the
Islamic State group northeast of Mosul.
(AP, 12/3/16)(AFP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, More than 1,300
Fatah delegates confirmed the leadership role of Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas by acclamation and elected 18 members of the
movement's top decision-making Central Committee.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 3, In northern Somalia
soldiers in Puntland allied to the Western-backed government killed
seven insurgents from a faction loyal to the Islamic State group.
The Puntland forces were attacked in the village of Bashaashin.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, In South Korea
hundreds of thousands rallied in Seoul on Saturday in the sixth
straight weekend of protests demanding the resignation of
scandal-tainted President Park Geun-hye that took them closer than
ever to the presidential Blue House.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, Sri Lanka’s police
fired teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of
opposition-backed protesters outside parliament as lawmakers debated
the annual budget. Protesters were demanding local elections which
were due last year, but postponed to devise a new electoral system.
(AFP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, Syria's army
advanced deeper into east Aleppo. The government has now recaptured
around 60 percent of eastern parts of the city. Three people were
killed in air strikes on Shaar. Five people were killed by rebel
fire on west Aleppo.
(AFP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, Thai police
arrested anti-junta activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa for defaming
the monarchy in what rights groups said was the first case of
lese-majeste brought under Thailand's new king.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, The Turkish
military said it has killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the
southeastern Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, In Ukraine five
policemen were killed by friendly fire in a tragic accident in which
officers mistook colleagues for burglars in the small town of
Knyazychy. A gang of three burglars fled the scene but were detained
as they travelled back to Kiev.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 3, In Yemen military
officials said government forces have sent reinforcements to the Red
Sea coast to drive Iran-backed rebels away from a key global
shipping route.
(AFP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 4, The US Pentagon
announced the release of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Shawqi Awad
Balzuhair. The low level militant was sent to the West African
nation of Cape Verde for resettlement. This lowered the number of
prisoners held at the US base in Cuba to 59. Twenty of those
remaining have been approved for release.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, The US Army Corps
of Engineers turned down the request for an easement for the Dakota
Access Pipeline to build under the Missouri River, after months of
protests from Native American and climate activists. ETP said it
will continue to fight for the line.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 4, In Texas Deputy
Dora Linda Nishihara (69) was killed and two others were injured
when two vehicles plunged into a water-filled sinkhole in San
Antonio.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 4, The Cell Atlas
database was launched. It records which proteins are found in which
organelles.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.77)
2016 Dec 4, Austria's Freedom
Party conceded defeat in its bid to elect Europe's first far-right
president, as projections showed its candidate Norbert Hofer lagging
behind in a bitterly fought election re-run. Green leader Van der
Bellen (72) led with 53.5 percent of the vote over Hofer with 46.4
percent.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, In Brazil
demonstrators marched in major cities across the country, protesting
government corruption and a recent vote in Congress that was widely
perceived as an effort to intimidate judges and prosecutors
currently leading graft probes.
(Reuters, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, In Dubai a bus
carrying 20 migrant workers hit a truck, killing four people at the
scene. A fifth person died after being rushed to the hospital.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, In France Japanese
student Narumi Kurosaki (21) disappeared in the city of Besancon
after having dinner with her ex, Nicolas Zepeda. In 2018 a
prosecutor said she was probably suffocated in her university room
by her fugitive Chilean ex-boyfriend. Her body has not been found
despite extensive searches of a nearby forested area. Zepeda, a
teaching assistant aged in his mid-twenties, left France and
returned to Chile shortly after Kurosaki was last seen.
(AFP, 11/19/18)
2016 Dec 4, In Iraq two
militants tried to attack army barracks in Anbar province. Police
and army sources said the attackers were killed before they reached
the base. Iraqi commanders say they have killed at least 1,000
Islamic State fighters. A government adviser estimated the jihadist
group now had about 4,000 fighters in Mosul.
(Reuters, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, Human Rights Watch
said Kurdish restrictions on the movement of goods are harming the
recovery of Iraq's Yazidi minority, which was targeted for genocide
by the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, Israel was
embroiled in fresh controversy over its purchase of submarines from
German company ThyssenKrupp after reports that the country's
arch-enemy Iran holds a stake in the firm.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, Millions of
Italians voted in a knife-edge constitutional referendum that left
PM Matteo Renzi sweating on his future and the rest of Europe braced
for the fallout if he is forced to quit. PM Renzi won just over 40
percent of the vote in the referendum, a far worse result than polls
had predicted.
(AFP, 12/4/16)(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 4, In northern Lebanon
a soldier was fatally shot and a second was wounded at a military
installation. On Dec 7 four people, said to belong to an Islamic
State cell, were arrested in dawn raids in Beqaa Safrin, where the
attack had taken place.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 4, Palestinian
emergency workers said they have recovered the bodies of three men
who went missing in a smuggling tunnel between Gaza and Egypt. The
tunnel caved in after the Egyptian military flooded it with water.
One person remained missing.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, In Russia at least
12 people, including nine members of a children's acrobatics team,
were killed in a road collision in eastern Siberia.
(AP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, In Syria suspected
Russian air strikes killed at least 46 people in opposition-held
parts, as government forces advanced in fierce clashes with rebels
in east Aleppo.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, A coalition air
strike in Raqa, Syria, killed three Islamic State leaders involved
in plotting foreign attacks. Salah-Eddine Gourmat and Sammy Djedou
-- were involved in facilitating the November 13, 2015 Paris
attacks, in which 130 people died. Walid Hamman was a suicide-attack
planner who was convicted in absentia in Belgium for a terror plot
disrupted in 2015.
(AFP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 4, Uzbekistan held a
tightly controlled presidential election, the first vote since the
death of authoritarian leader Islam Karimov who ruled the country
for 27 years. Acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who spent 13
years as Karimov's prime minister, was favored to win. Mirziyoyev
garnered 88.61 percent of the vote.
(AP, 12/4/16)(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 4, Venezuela’s central
bank said it will introduce six new notes and three new coins
starting in mid-December to help alleviate practical problems in
doing business with the world's most inflationary currency. The
nation's largest note is worth just 2 US cents on the black market.
(Reuters, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 4, Vietnam’s
government said floods brought by torrential rain since late
November have killed at least 13 people while more heavy rain is
expected in coming days.
(Reuters, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 5, Retired
neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a rival-turned-supporter of Donald Trump,
overcame his stated qualms about a lack of government experience to
accept the president-elect's nomination to lead the Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, The US State Dept.
said that a fake US Embassy in Ghana has been shut down after
operating for about a decade in Accra.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, North Carolina Gov.
Pat McCrory (R) ended his legal challenges to the election,
conceding that he had lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Roy
Cooper.
(CSM, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Brazilian police
raided the homes of two former members of a parliamentary inquiry
into graft at state oil company Petrobras, seeking evidence they
extorted money from contractors who wanted to avoid being summoned
as witnesses.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, A Gambian court
freed a prominent lawyer and 18 other political prisoners on bail
pending an appeal of their jail sentence for "unlawful assembly", in
a sign that President Yahya Jammeh's shock election defeat last week
could end years of repression.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, German police in
the western city of Bochum arrested an Iraqi asylum-seeker (31) on
suspicion of sexually assaulting two Chinese students. DNA evidence
linked the man to an attack and attempted rape of a Chinese woman
(21) in August, and of raping a Chinese woman (27) in November.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Germany-based
Volkswagen said it is launching a new company dedicated to car
sharing and other "mobility services" in which people may need a
ride but don't necessarily want to own the car.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, German airline Air
Berlin said it is selling its stake in Austrian carrier NIKI to Abu
Dhabi-based Etihad for 300 million euros ($319 million).
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Officials said a
Greek court has refused to extradite the first three of eight
Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed July 15
military coup.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Jayaram
Jayalalithaa (68), chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, died
in Chennai following a massive weekend cardiac arrest. The former
movie star who enjoyed god-like status was buried the next day
alongside her on-screen lover. V.K. Sasikala, Jayalithaa’s live-in
assistant soon claimed the mantle of chief minister forcing out O.
Paneerselvam (OPS). On Feb 7 OPS declared that he had been unfairly
forced from office by Sasikala.
(AP, 12/6/16)(Econ, 2/11/17, p.33)
2016 Dec 5, Indonesia announced
that companies were banned from turning peatlands into palm oil and
other types of plantations, and must restore peatlands they have
degraded.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Western-backed
Iraqi forces have begun shelling parts of west Mosul, in preparation
for a new front against Islamic State seven weeks into a difficult
campaign to drive the militants from the city.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Doctors working in
Kenyan state hospitals went on strike to demand fulfillment of a
2013 agreement between their union and the government that would
raise their pay and improve working conditions.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Forces loyal to
Libya's UN-backed government said they had seized full control of
Sirte from the Islamic State group, in a major blow to the jihadists
who battled for months to retain their bastion.
(AFP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Mexico struck a
deal with Australia’s BHP Billiton to develop the Trion oil field in
Mexico with state-oil firm Pemex.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.62)
2016 Dec 5, Mexican police and
marines killed 14 presumed criminal gang members in a shootout in
the troubled Gulf coast state of Veracruz. Agents seized 13 assault
rifles and a weapon capable of piercing armored vehicles.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, New Zealand PM john
Key announced that he will submit his resignation on Dec 12
following eight years as leader.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Philippine VP Leni
Robredo resigned her Cabinet post, citing "major differences in
principles and values" with President Rodrigo Duterte and an
unspecified plot to remove her from the vice presidency. She
continued as VP.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Polish authorities
said Lufthansa and General Electric will jointly invest some 250
million euros ($270 million) in Poland to build a plant that will
service aircraft engines starting in 2018.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In northern Somalia
soldiers allied to the Western-backed Somali government killed three
fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Puntland as they pressed
ahead toward the insurgents' main stronghold.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In Syria opposition
rebel shelling in Aleppo killed two nurses and eight
civilians.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Tunisia’s
parliament's finance committee approved a budget draft that would
tax lawyers between about $8 to $20 on each file they present to
court. The levy was part of austerity measures proposed for 2017 by
a government under pressure from international lenders to cut the
fiscal deficit.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, The UN launched a
record humanitarian appeal, asking for $22.2 billion in 2017 to help
almost 93 million people hit by conflicts and natural disasters.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Vietnam punished
two editors of a major newspaper which had earlier been fined for
publishing what authorities said were false reports on toxic fish
sauce. A total of 50 news organizations were fined in November for
running reports about high arsenic levels found in fish sauce,
causing widespread panic.
(AFP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In Yemen security
officials said Shiite rebels have detained a number of Arab and
African nationals, including more than 30 Egyptians, on suspicion of
spying for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 6, US President-elect
Donald Trump said costs for a new Air Force One - one of the most
prominent symbols of the US presidency - were out of control, and
urged the government to cancel a contract with Boeing Co for the
jet.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, The US and Japan
said that Washington will give nearly 10,000 acres of land on
Okinawa back to the Japanese government. The land had been used by
Marines for jungle warfare training and the giveback will be
completed by Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 6, The US Supreme
Court ruled that sharing corporate secrets with friends or relatives
is illegal even if the insider providing the tip doesn’t receive
anything of value in return.
(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 6, In Bahrain top
officials from six Gulf Arab nations gathered for talks expected to
focus on regional security and cooperation. The GCC bloc includes
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Belgian federal
prosecutors said authorities have searched houses and detained eight
people for questioning on suspicion of supporting Islamic State
financially and through the recruitment of fighters for the Syrian
civil war.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Brazil's currency
and stocks seesawed as a Supreme Court decision to remove Senate
president Renan Calheiros because he has been indicted on
embezzlement charges raised doubts about upcoming votes on the
government's austerity agenda.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, A British man was
found guilty of providing cash to a key suspect in the deadly
Brussels and Paris bombings in a case that linked England to the
Islamic State group attacks in Europe. Zakaria Boufassil was
convicted of "engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of
terrorism" by providing 3,000 pounds ($3,700) to bombing suspect
Mohamed Abrini at a secret meeting in Birmingham, England.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Danish police
arrested a man (26) suspected of seriously wounding one of its
officers by shooting him in the head outside a police station in a
Copenhagen suburb earlier in the day. The dog squad officer (43)
died the next day.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 6, Danish toymaker
Lego said it is appointing its first foreign CEO and will give its
family owners a bigger role in developing the Lego brand under an
organizational shake-up that will see incumbent Jorgen Vig Knudstorp
step down by the end of the year. Briton Bali Padda, currently chief
operations officer, will replace Knudstorp.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Egyptian security
forces in the southern province of Assiut killed three gunmen in a
raid on a hideout used by what it described as an armed wing of the
Muslim Brotherhood.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Egypt's official
anti-corruption body said it has uncovered a network for human organ
trafficking, including physicians whom it said exploited the
victims' poverty in persuading them to sell their organs.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, In France former
interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve took over as prime minister,
replacing Manuel Valls who resigned to fight for the Socialist party
nomination in presidential elections next year.
(AFP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Germany’s
Chancellor Angela Merkel won a new two-year term as leader of her
Christian Democratic Union. She called for a ban on full-face Muslim
veils "wherever legally possible".
(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A5)(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 6, A Greek court
agreed to extradite three Turkish servicemen who were part of an
eight-person helicopter crew that fled to Greece after a failed
military coup, a decision that came a day after it refused to send
three others back to Turkey.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Iran's state TV
reported that a rescue helicopter carrying eight people has crashed
into a lake in western Tehran, killing two people.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Iraqi army units
surged towards the center of Mosul in an attack from the city's
southeastern edges that could give fresh impetus to the
seven-week-old battle for Islamic State's Iraqi stronghold.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, In Israel sculptor
Itay Zalait placed a four meter (13 foot) tall effigy of Netanyahu
on a white pedestal in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, adjacent to city
hall, to test the limits of freedom of expression. The gilded statue
was toppled by an onlooker after a brief public appearance.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, A dozen Lebanese
women, dressed as brides in white wedding dresses stained with fake
blood and bandages, gathered outside government buildings in Beirut
to protest a law, in place since the late 1940s, that allows a
rapist to get away with his crime if he marries the survivor.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, In central Mali
five suspected Islamist militants freed 93 prisoners during an
attack on a jail in the town of Niono. Ninety prisoners remained at
large after three were captured.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Poland's Supreme
Court confirmed that the country would refuse to detain and
extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the US.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, A Saudi court
sentenced 15 people to death for spying for the kingdom's rival
Iran, in a move likely to heighten regional tensions.
(AFP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, The Program for
Int’l. Student Assessment (PISA), run by the OECD, released its
latest results and showed students from Singapore roughly three
years ahead of American students in math.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.20)
2016 Dec 6, South Africa's
Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a ruling that granted a man the
right to medically-assisted death and could have opened the way to
legalize euthanasia.
(AFP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Syrian government
forces and allied militias captured Aleppo's centrally located
al-Shaar neighborhood from rebels as the government and its ally
Russia rejected a cease-fire for the war-torn city.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Thailand’s interior
ministry said severe flooding due to heavy rain in southern Thailand
has killed 14 people, including five students. Six days of floods
have affected 582,345 people in 11 of the country’s 76 provinces.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Several thousand
Tunisian lawyers demonstrated in front of the prime minister's
office, with some demanding his resignation as they escalated a
protest against widely unpopular new taxes that will hit them and
other high-end professions.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, Venezuela's
opposition withdrew from the latest round of crisis negotiations
with authorities, insisting the government first release prisoners
and allow a vote on the volatile country's political future.
(AFP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 6, A Yemen ferry sank
40 km (25 miles) northwest of the island of Socotra. At least 35 of
the 64 people on the ship were soon rescued.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, A transition
official said president-elect Donald Trump will nominate Iowa
Governor Terry Branstad as the next US ambassador to China, choosing
a longstanding friend of Beijing after rattling the world's
second-largest economy by speaking to Taiwan's president.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Time Magazine named
Donald Trump as Person of the Year.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 7, In Americus,
Georgia, a man fatally shot police Officer Nicholas Smarr and
wounded Officer Jody Smith before fleeing an apartment complex near
Georgia Southwestern State Univ. Smith died of his wounds the next
day and suspect Minquell Lembrick was found dead at a home where he
was hiding.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A7)(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 7, In Michigan a
federal judge who ordered the state to begin a recount of Nov 8
presidential voting, ended the recount following a state court
ruling that found Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no legal
standing to requests another look at the ballots.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 7, Amazon completed
its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes
will become a trend in automated shipments by air. The delivery was
made to a customer near Cambridge, England.
(AFP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 7, London-based
think-tank Overseas Development Institute said one third of children
living in the slums of Bangladesh's capital spend more than 60 hours
a week making clothes for the garment sector, well beyond the legal
working limit.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Bahrain British
PM Theresa May and leaders from the six-member Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) agreed to counter Iran's "destabilizing activities," a
pledge meant to calm nerves following the nuclear deal with world
powers. The summit aimed to advance plans to turn the (GCC) into a
Gulf Union with tighter defense coordination.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.50)
2016 Dec 7, British musician
Greg Lake (b.1947) died. He had co-founded both King Crimson and
Emerson, Lake and Palmer. ELP broke up in 1979, reunited in 1991,
later disbanded again and reunited for a 2010 tour.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, Paris, France, was
smothered by its worst winter pollution in a decade, with commuters
enjoying free public transport and half of all cars ordered off the
road to try to clear the air.
(AFP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel's conservatives toughened their tone on integrating
migrants, passing a resolution on tackling forced marriage and honor
killings, and cracking down on dual citizenship.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Ghana held
elections. President John Mahama sought a second and final term.
Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party said the
government has mismanaged national finances, not least revenue from
oil from an offshore field operated by British company Tullow that
began to flow in 2010.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Indonesia a
magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked Aceh province early today, killing
more than 100 people and sparking a frantic rescue effort in the
rubble of dozens of collapsed and damaged buildings.
(AP, 12/7/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, Iran struck a
preliminary memorandum of understanding with Royal Dutch Shell to
develop prospective oil fields.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.62)
2016 Dec 7, Iraqi army troops
entered another neighborhood held by the Islamic State group in the
southeastern part of Mosul. Soldiers from the 9th Division took over
the hospital building in the al-Salam neighborhood.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Iraq's parliament
speaker said an airstrike targeting the Islamic State-held town of
Qaim near the Syrian border killed and wounded "dozens" of
civilians, and that he is holding the Iraqi government responsible.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Ireland a Dublin
judge ordered Irish authorities to unfreeze 100 million euros ($107
million) in cash belonging to exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, ruling that police had provided no evidence that the
funds were illegally gained as Russia contends.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Italian Premier
Matteo Renzi said he would resign this evening now that Parliament
has approved the 2017 national budget, a step required by the
nation's president before he would let the leader step down. Pres.
Mattarella had asked him to stay long enough to secure passage of
the budget.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.51)
2016 Dec 7, Kazakhstan's state
security service said it has detained several people suspected of
stealing oil and fuel from a refinery in Aktobe and being linked to
radical Islamists.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Kenya’s Pres. Uhuru
Kenyatta urged medical workers to return to work saying nearly 20
people have died three days into a strike because of lack of care.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, Eastern Libyan
forces said they thwarted an attempted advance on some of Libya's
major oil ports, hitting a rival faction with air strikes and
capturing some of its commanders.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, NATO’s top military
officer said that about 150 Turkish officers have been recalled or
retired from the alliance’s high command since Turkey’s July 15
failed coup.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, Netherlands said it
will gradually phase out subsidizes for renewable energy and shift
its climate change strategy to areas such as energy saving and
carbon capture.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In northern
Pakistan a plane carrying 47 people crashed on the slope of a
mountain in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. There
were no survivors.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)(AFP, 12/7/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, The CEO of Rosneft,
Russia’s state-controlled oil company, said that it had agreed to
sell a 19.5 percent stake to Swiss commodities giant Glencore and
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Somalia soldiers
loyal to the government retook control of Qandala port town from
insurgents who had declared allegiance to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Syria rebels in
Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians
after losing more territory including the Old City to a Syrian army
offensive. The leaders of six major Western nations called for an
immediate ceasefire in Aleppo and condemned Russia and Iran for
supporting the Syrian government.
(AFP, 12/7/16)(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Thailand’s military
said Muslim separatist militants have shot dead six civilians over
the last 24 hours in the southern provinces of Narathiwat and
Pattani.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, In northern
Thailand six drug smugglers were fatally shot late today in a
gunbattle when they were confronted by soldiers. 554,000
methamphetamine tablets, 30 kg (66 pounds) of heroin, 1 kg (2.2
pounds) of opium, an AK-47 assault rifle and a short-barreled rifle
were seized.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 7, The UN Committee
against Torture called on Sri Lanka to investigate "routine torture"
of detainees by security forces and rebuked its government for
failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's
26-year conflict.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 8, A senior US
military official said North Korea now has the capability to launch
a nuclear weapon, adding that while the US believes Pyongyang can
mount a warhead on a missile, it's not clear that it can hit a
target.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 8, A US Surgeon
General report said soaring use of e-cigarettes among young people
is now a major public health concern.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 8, In Alabama Ronald
Bert Smith Jr. (45) was executed for killing a convenience store
clerk more than two decades ago. This was the state’s 2nd execution
this year. Smith heaved and coughed for 13 minutes of the 30 minute
ordeal.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 8, Arkansas’ highest
court ruled that same-sex parents will not be listed on their
children’s birth certificates. The ruling by a four-member majority
determined that only biological parents can be listed on a child’s
birth certificate.
(CSM, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 8, Astronaut John
Glenn (95) died. He was the first American to orbit the Earth and is
best known for making his three tours around the planet on February
20, 1962. Glenn was also elected US senator in Ohio and served as a
lawmaker from 1974 to 1999.
(AFP, 12/9/16)(Econ, 12/17/16, p.84)
2016 Dec 8, Ohio state
lawmakers passed a bill allowing to carry concealed handguns on
campus in the wake of the recent high-profile knife attack at Ohio
State University. The law was sent to Gov. John Kasich’s office to
await his signature.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 8, Washington state
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson
announced a lawsuit against agrochemical giant Monsanto over
pervasive pollution from PCBs, the toxic industrial chemicals that
have accumulated in plants, fish and people around the globe for
decades. The company said the case "lacks merit."
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 8, Retailer Sears
Holdings Corp reported its fifth straight quarterly loss and said
there was no guarantee when it would return to profitability,
underscoring its struggle to stanch a years-long decline in sales.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Zynga released its
“Dawn of Titans” video game as a free download for Apple and Android
phones.
(http://www.dawnoftitans.com/2016/12/08/358/)(SFC, 12/12/16, p.D1)
2016 Dec 8, The International
Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned that wild giraffe
numbers have plummeted by 40 percent in the last three decades, and
the species is now "vulnerable" to extinction.
(AFP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Azerbaijan a
court in Baku sentenced youth activist Bayram Mammadov to ten years
in prison on charges of heroin possession. Mammadov had pleaded not
guilty Amnesty Int’l. condemned the sentence as an attempt by
authorities to crush dissent.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 8, Britain’s
Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) said junk food ads aimed at
children from both print and social media will be banned from next
year.
(AFP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Her Majesty’s
Inspectorate of Constabulary reported 436 accusations of sexual
abuse by police in England and Wales over two years through the end
of March.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 8, Canada’s Finance
Minister Bill Morneau said that Viola Desmond will grace the front
of the $10 bill when the next series goes into circulation in 2018.
In 1946 she rejected racial discrimination by sitting in a
whites-only section of a New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, movie theatre.
She was arrested and fined.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, The Canadian
government said its air force will buy 16 Airbus C295W aircraft
modified for search and rescue to replace its aging fleet, at a cost
of Can $2.4 billion (USD$1.8 billion).
(AFP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, China’s state media
said China will fine anyone who spreads fake news in its western
region of Xinjiang, as part of new measures to maintain stability in
an area prone to ethnic unrest.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, China's Fujian
Grand Chip Investment Fund dropped its takeover bid for chip
equipment maker Aixtron after the United States blocked the deal on
security grounds, throwing the German company's future into doubt.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, A Tibetan Buddhist
monk set himself on fire in northwest China's Maqu region in what
appeared to be the latest such radical protest against Beijing's
rule. Tashi Rabten became the 145th Tibetan to self-immolate since
2009.
(AP, 12/9/16)(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Egypt Osama
Morsi, one of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi’s five
children, was led away from his house in the Nile Delta. The
state-run news website Al-Ahram reported the arrest, saying Osama is
accused of inciting violence.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, The European Union
banned Iran's Aseman Airlines from operating within the EU due to
safety concerns, in a blow to Tehran which is buying new jets to
renew the country's ageing fleet following the lifting of long-term
sanctions.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, The European Union
said it will allow Ukrainians and Georgians to visit the bloc
without a visa after diplomats and lawmakers struck a deal to end an
internal EU dispute that had been holding up the plan.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, The European
Central Bank said it will pour another half-trillion euros ($579
billion) in newly printed money into the eurozone economy to support
its recovery as the currency union heads into what could be a
tumultuous election year.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, The European Union
started legal action against seven countries including Germany and
Britain for failing to police emissions test cheating by carmakers
after the Volkswagen scandal.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Former French
budget minister Jerome Cahuzac (64), whose brief in government was
to crack down on tax dodgers, was sentenced to three years in prison
for tax fraud and money laundering. The hidden wealth of Cahuzac and
his wife Patricia Menard was estimated at 3.5 million euros ($3.8
million) in 2013, when Cahuzac was forced to resign after only 10
months in office.
(AFP, 12/8/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Germany's domestic
intelligence agency said Russia is trying to destabilize German
society with propaganda and cyberattacks ahead of the country's
general election.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Greece a
nationwide strike against spending cuts disrupted public transport,
state-run schools, ferries and national rail services, and left
public hospitals running with emergency staff.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, A Greek court
rejected Turkey's extradition request for the last two of eight
Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after a failed July military
coup.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Human Rights Watch
said the Philippines is facing one of the fastest growing epidemics
of HIV in the Asia Pacific, fueled by government policies that
restrict intervention, including access to condoms by men who have
sex with men.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Doctors Without
Borders said 70 severely wounded Syrians, including 16 children,
have been blocked from life-saving treatment since Jordan closed its
border with Syria six months ago and that some have likely died.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Kashmir at least
one civilian was killed and dozens of others injured in protests
against Indian rule that erupted following a gunbattle between
rebels and government forces.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, South Korea's
parliament introduced a bill to impeach President Park Geun-hye,
setting the stage for a historic vote to oust the embattled leader
engulfed in an influence-peddling scandal.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, The Syrian army's
advance in Aleppo slowed but a victory was still firmly in sight
after President Bashar al-Assad vowed that retaking the nation's
second city would change the course of the six-year civil war in his
favor.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 9, A senior US
official said the CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the
2016 election to help President-elect Donald Trump win the White
House, and not just to undermine confidence in the US electoral
system. The next day Trump challenged the veracity of the CIA
assessment.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)(SSFC, 12/11/16, p.A10)
2016 Dec 9, The Cherokee
Nation’s attorney general legalized same-sex marriage for the tribe
saying parts of a 2004 tribal law violated the Cherokee
Constitution.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 9, Human Rights Watch
reported that over 1,400 migrants have been forcibly deported from
Algeria this month. HRW also said Algerian authorities have deported
hundreds of West African migrants to Niger this week, trucking them
thousands of miles across the desert in one of the biggest roundups
seen this year.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Police overseeing
the sex abuse scandal in British soccer said 83 potential suspects
have been identified and linked to 98 clubs. The age range of
potential victims was 7 to 20 years old.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Canada’s PM Justin
Trudeau and 11 of 13 provincial and territorial leaders announced an
agreement on a national climate framework.
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.31)
2016 Dec 9, In Egypt a bomb
attack in Cairo killed six policemen and wounded another three. The
recently emerged militant group called the Hasm Movement claimed
responsibility. A bomb targeting a police vehicle in Kafr al-Sheikh
killed a civilian and injured 3 policemen.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A4)(Econ,
12/17/16, p.43)
2016 Dec 9, In France Kazakh
opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov was released from prison after
France's highest administrative authority blocked his extradition to
Russia, where he is accused of embezzling billions of dollars.
(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 9, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh declared he no longer accepted the results of the
December 1 vote. Jammeh cited "unacceptable errors" by election
authorities and called for new polls.
(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 9, Ghana’s election
committee said the New Patriotic Party candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo,
had taken 53.8 percent of the Dec 7 vote, against 44.4 percent for
President John Mahama.
(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 9, Hong Kong’s
Beijing-backed leader Leung Chun-ying said he would step aside after
his five-year term ends next June.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, In India retired
Air Marshal S.P. Tyagi, his cousin Sanjiv Tyagi and attorney Gautam
Khaitan were arrested for allegedly influencing a $750 million deal
with AgustaWestland for the purchase of 12 luxury helicopters to
ferry Indian VIPs.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, In Iraq separate
bombings in Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded another 22.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, A Japanese capsule
blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with much-needed
supplies for the International Space Station, a week after a Russian
shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Kenya deployed army
doctors to the country's main teaching and referral hospital where
the last remaining doctors joined a five-day strike that has
crippled healthcare services around the country.
(AFP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, In Mexico the
charred remains of three federal detectives were found in the bed of
a burning pickup truck in the southern resort of Zihuatanejo. The
remains of a 4th person were found nearby.
(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 9, In Morocco 438
African migrants stormed across a border fence to enter Spain's
North African enclave of Ceuta in one of the biggest crossing
attempts of recent years. Some 800 had tried to make the crossing.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, In the Netherlands
police acting on a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence agency
arrested a 30-year-old "terrorist" suspect and seized an arsenal of
weapons in the port city of Rotterdam.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Dutch populist
anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders was found guilty on of
discrimination against Moroccans, but acquitted of hate speech in a
closely-watched trial ahead of next year's key elections. Judges
decided not to impose any sentence or fine, and Wilders immediately
vowed to appeal against what he said was a bid to "neutralize" him
ahead of the March polls.
(AFP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, In Nigeria two
female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the northeastern town
of Madagali, killing 57 people and wounding 177.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 9, The Norwegian
Refugee Council said South Sudan has expelled Victor Moses, its
country director there.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, In Peru an
indigenous federation opposed to a recently approved plan for oil
drilling in the Peruvian Amazon said that native communities will
physically block any attempt by oil companies to operate on their
lands.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Saudi Arabia told
its US and European customers it would reduce oil deliveries from
January, signaling it had already started implementing cuts.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 9, A 7.8 magnitude
earthquake hit the Solomon Islands. A 6.9 magnitude aftershock
followed a day later.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 9, South Korean
lawmakers impeached Pres. Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall
for the country's first female leader amid protests that drew
millions into the streets in united fury. This allowed PM Hwang
Kyo-ahn to assume leadership until the Constitutional Court rules on
whether Park must permanently step down.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Spanish police
arrested 71 people for allegedly selling counterfeit goods, in the
country's biggest crackdown to date against intellectual property
theft and money laundering.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Syrian warplanes
launched fresh raids on the last rebel-held districts in Aleppo, as
key regime ally Russia vowed the assault would continue until
opposition fighters left the battleground city. The UN human rights
office said hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing
after leaving rebel-held areas.
(AFP, 12/9/16)(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, The Islamic State
seized more territory from Syrian government forces near the ancient
city of Palmyra in fierce clashes that raged for a second day. 49
Syrian soldiers were reported killed in the IS advance near Palmyra.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Turkish jets
carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region
of northern Iraq and killed 19 militants.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 9, Venezuela’s fair
pricing authority seized almost 4 million toys from toy distributor
Kreisel and said it plans to hand them out to poor children this
holiday season. Two company executives were detained on suspicion of
promoting price speculation.
(SSFC, 12/11/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 10, President-elect
Donald Trump moved closer to selecting ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson
as Sec. of State.
(SSFC, 12/11/16, p.A12)
2016 Dec 10, Louisiana state
Treasurer John Kennedy was elected to the US Senate in a runoff over
Democrat Foster Campbell. This gave the GOP a 52-48 edge in the US
Senate starting in January.
(SFC, 12/12/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 10, The Taliban said
hardline cleric Mullah Haibatullah Akundzada has reinforced his
position as the new leader of the Afghan Taliban by winning the
support of two senior members.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Bulgaria at
least five people were killed and 29 injured when a cargo train
derailed and exploded in the northeastern Bulgarian village of
Hitrino, demolishing about 50 houses and public buildings.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Two Chinese
filmmakers won the top awards at the Marrakesh film festival, with
Zang Qiwu's "The Donor" on the controversial issue of organ
transplants taking the coveted Golden Star. The best director award
went to China's Wang Xuebo for "Knife in the Clear Water".
(AFP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 10, In China six
workers were killed after being hit by an express cargo train on the
railway line connecting Beijing and the southern city of Guangzhou.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 10, In France US
Secretary of State John Kerry was given the Legion d'Honneur,
France's highest honor, with his French counterpart calling him "the
most French of American officials".
(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Gambian
President-elect Adama Barrow called on longtime leader Yahya Jammeh
(51) to drop his challenge to last week's election and appealed for
calm following the dramatic political U-turn.
(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, The Greek
Parliament passed a budget of continued austerity. Pres. Tsipras
predicted 2.7% economic growth for 2017.
(SSFC, 12/11/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 10, Greek ferry
workers ended a nine-day strike, saying they did not wish to disrupt
the holiday season, but promised to resume action if the government
did not back off tax hikes for ferry workers.
(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Indonesian police
safely detonated a bomb in a neighborhood on the outskirts of
Jakarta after arresting a female would-be suicide bomber and other
suspected Islamic militants who were planning to attack the
presidential palace this weekend.
(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, The Iraqi army
said it took full control of two more districts of east Mosul,
pushing back Islamic State militants in a slow and hard-fought
advance into the city whose 1 million residents face growing
shortages of fuel, water and food.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Kenya at least
39 people died when a tanker carrying flammable materials crashed
into other vehicles and burst into flames outside the town of
Naivasha late today.
(AFP, 12/11/16)(SFC, 12/12/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 10, New Zealander
Joseph Parker claimed the vacant WBO world heavyweight boxing title
with a contentious majority points decision against Mexico's Andy
Ruiz.
(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In southeastern
Nigeria at least 160 people were killed by the collapse of the
Reigners Bible church in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, while
a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of
government officials. The Akwa Ibom state government later said only
23 people died in the tragedy, an apparent attempt to cover up a
death toll of more than 150 when metal girders and the corrugated
iron roof crashed onto a crowded service.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 10, OPEC and other
non-OPEC producers, including Russia, reached their first deal since
2001 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more
than two years of low prices that overstretched many budgets and
spurred unrest in some countries.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)(SSFC, 12/11/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 10, In Pakistan gunmen
shot and killed counterterrorism police Officer Riazul Islam and
wounded his young son in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Somalia a car
bomb killed at least two policemen when it exploded at a checkpoint
near Mogadishu. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Sri Lankan naval
troops fired warning shots to break up a protest by striking dock
workers who have held up a Japanese vessel for four days at the
island's southern international port.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Sweden
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos accepted the Nobel Peace
Prize, saying it helped his country achieve the "impossible dream"
of ending a half-century-long civil war.
(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Syria's military
and Russian warplanes bombarded rebel-held districts of Aleppo as
Damascus's allies said victory was near, but insurgents fought back
and army advances halted after rapid gains during the week. Hundreds
more civilians fled what remained of the opposition's enclave in
Aleppo.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance, announced "phase
two" of its campaign for the Islamic State group's bastion of Raqa
as Washington said it was sending 200 more troops to back the
offensive.
(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, Turkey said its
warplanes have destroyed 39 Islamic State targets and killed four
militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Turkey twin
bombings killed at least 44 people and wounded 155 outside an
Istanbul soccer stadium. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) soon
claimed responsibility and the Turkish government vowed vengeance.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Yemen a suicide
bomber killed 48 and wounded 29 others as hundreds of troops had
gathered to collect their monthly pay at a barracks in Al-Sawlaban
near Aden's international airport. The Islamic State group claimed
responsibility.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)(AFP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, US President-elect
Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to
stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one
China," questioning nearly four decades of policy in a move likely
to antagonize Beijing.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 11, In Brazil Yuri
Lourenco da Silva (19), the son of singer Tati Quebra Barraco, was
killed along with and another man in a police operation early today
in the City of God slum.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, In Egypt a suicide
bombing at the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church next to St Mark's
Cathedral, Cairo's largest Coptic cathedral, killed 25 people and
wounded 49, many of them women and children attending Sunday mass.
Islamic State supporters celebrated the attack on social media. The
suicide bomber was identified as Mahmoud Shafik Mohamed Mostafa
(22). Four people suspected of involvement were soon arrested. The
death toll soon rose to 27.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(AFP, 12/12/16)(SFC, 12/13/16,
p.A3)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 11, In India police
arrested moviegoer S. Viji in Chennai for failing to stand during
the playing of the national anthem.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 11, In India a
helicopter crashed and caught fire in Mumbai, killing the pilot and
injuring three passengers. The Robinson R-44 helicopter belonged to
Aman Aviation, a company that offers aerial viewing of the city.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Iran's flag
carrier finalized a major deal with US plane maker Boeing Co. to buy
$16.6 billion worth of passenger planes in one of the most tangible
benefits yet for the Islamic Republic from last year's landmark
nuclear agreement.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Italian Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni was tapped to form a new, Democrat-led
government and end a political crisis so the country can quickly
tackle pressing problems.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Tokyo held a
groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5 billion National Stadium to host
the 2020 Olympic Games.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Kuwait's emir told
a new parliament that cutting public spending has become inevitable
because of the sharp drop in oil prices. Candidates who opposed
planned public sector wage restraint and other price hikes won
nearly half of the seats in the 50-member National Assembly last
month.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Kyrgyzstan voters
cast ballots in a constitutional referendum that includes amendments
that boost the power of prime minister — something opposition groups
have criticized in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Macedonians voted
in a general election called two years early as part of a
Western-brokered agreement to end a paralyzing political crisis.
Former conservative PM Nikola Gruevski, who had headed the
government since 2006, sought a new mandate. His VMRO-DPMNE party
led a 25-party coalition called "For a Better Macedonia." Main
opponent Zoran Zaev headed a left-leaning coalition called "For Life
in Macedonia." Neither party won enough seats to form a government.
Gruevski, his former transport minister and twelve others have been
charged over violence during a 2013 demonstration.
(AP, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/12/16)(SFC, 12/17/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 11, In Nigeria two
girl suicide bombers died when they exploded in a crowded area near
a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte said that he has decided to accept an arms
deal being offered by China under concessional terms, in the latest
sign of cozying relations between the once-hostile neighbors.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte rejected a demand by Maoist-led rebels to
free more prisoners as part of a ceasefire deal, saying he had made
enough concessions and was willing to let peace talks collapse if
necessary. Three Filipino soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded
in nearly two hours of fighting with about 150 Abu Sayyaf Muslim
militants in the south.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Romanians voted in
parliamentary elections that are forecast to see the
corruption-tainted left stage a remarkable comeback, a year after a
deadly nightclub fire forced them from office. Romania's leftist
Social Democrat Party (PSD) won 46% of the vote and the most seats
in both houses of parliament for a combined 221 deputies and
senators.
(AFP, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/12/16)(Reuters,
12/15/16)(Econ, 12/17/16, p.46)
2016 Dec 11, In Serbia several
hundred members of the police and army staged a protest complaining
of low wages and poor living standards. The gathering was the second
in two weeks.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, In Somalia more
than 20 people were killed in a suicide truck bombing in Mogadishu,
in a fresh strike claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group.
(AFP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, In Switzerland the
35-mile Gotthard base tunnel, the world’s longest tunnel, opened for
daily service.
(CSM, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 11, The Syrian army
and its allies made new gains in Aleppo, forcing rebels back into an
ever shrinking pocket crammed with civilians, but lost control of
the desert city of Palmyra to a swift Islamic State attack. Syria's
state news agency said at least 4,000 people fled Aleppo today. The
state TV channel said more than 70,000 of eastern Aleppo's estimated
275,000 residents have fled in recent days.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Venezuela’s Pres.
Maduro announced that the government would pull from circulation its
100-bolivar bill, the country’s largest-denominated. It was only
worth 3 US cents at the black market rate. They will eventually be
replaced with new ones in denominations as high as 20,000 bolivars.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)(Econ, 12/17/16, p.69)
2016 Dec 12, The US government
sanctioned two senior Democratic Republic of Congo officials for
human rights violations and targeting the opposition, a week before
the president's mandate is set to end. The US Treasury announced it
was targeting Deputy PM Evariste Boshab, also the nation's interior
and security minister, and Kalev Mutondo, head of the national
intelligence agency.
(AFP, 12/12/16)(Econ, 12/24/16, p.74)
2016 Dec 12, The US Supreme
Court upheld the broad reach of a federal law prohibiting bank
fraud, a ruling that gives the government more leeway to prosecute
financial crimes. The unanimous came in the case of a California man
who illegally siphoned about $307,000 out of a Taiwanese
businessman's Bank of America bank account.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, In Castro Valley,
Ca. Andrea St. John (59) was stabbed to death and her home set on
fire following a robbery. On May 2 Luckie Dacany (36) of Stockton
confessed to her killing while under custody for stealing a vehicle
and alleged child molestation.
(SFC, 5/9/17, p.C2)
2016 Dec 12, FlightAware said
190 US flights were canceled today after 1,800 were grounded a day
earlier, mostly at Chicago's two main airports.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, In New Jersey
Adele Dunlap, the oldest person in America, turned 114.
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 12, In Tennessee an
early morning fire killed 4 children in Springfield.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 12, British PM Theresa
May introduced an official definition for anti-Semitism in hopes of
curbing attacks against Jewish people. The definition states that
"Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be
expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical
manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or
non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish
community institutions and religious facilities."
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Britain jailed
Mohammed Ali Ahmed (27) and Zakaria Boufassil (26) for up to eight
years for giving money to Brussels and Paris terror attacks suspect
Mohamed Abrini when he visited Britain last year.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, British and Greek
authorities said they have dismantled an international ring
suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants to Britain and other
European countries using falsified travel documents. 24 suspects
were arrested last week in the Athens area, and another nine in
Glasgow, Northampton and Manchester in Britain.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, A London judge
sentenced Stefano Brizzi, a crystal meth addict, to life in prison
with at least 24 years to serve for killing police officer Gordon
Semple (59) during a bondage sex session and then attempting to cook
and eat his body parts. Semple was last seen on 1 April and his
dissolving body was found in an acid bath.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, China expressed
"serious concern" after US President-elect Donald Trump said the
United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-held
stance that Taiwan is part of "one China", calling it the basis for
relations.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, In CongoDRC the
Union for Peace in Central African Republic (UPC) rebels killed at
least 32 civilians in the town of Bakala, where they had been
fighting the Popular Front for the Renaissance of Central African
Republic (FPRC).
(Reuters, 2/16/17)
2016 Dec 12, It was reported
that Google is installing multiple servers in Cuba that will host
much of the company's most popular content.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, The European Union
imposed sanctions on seven Congolese officials it says illegally
suppressed anti-government protests in September, when dozens of
demonstrators were killed.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, French police
hunted for four men suspected of stealing gold dust worth an
estimated 1.5 million euros from an armored truck before setting
cars ablaze near a major highway and fleeing.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Hong Kong’s
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said 29 current and
former staff of five financial firms, including four banks, have
been arrested for alleged bribery related to the disclosure of
confidential customer information.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, A cyclone barreled
into the southeast coast of India, killing at least four people and
bringing down trees and power lines as authorities moved tens of
thousands of people from low-lying areas.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Italian energy
company Eni said it would sell a 30 percent stake in an offshore
Egyptian gas field to Rosneft. The Russian company will pay $1.125
billion for the holding in the Shorouk concession, which contains
the giant Zohr gas field, and $450 million to cover past
expenditures on the project.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, The International
Monetary Fund approved two loans totaling $658.9 million for the
Ivory Coast, while welcoming recent economic and financial reforms
made by the country.
(AFP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 12, In New Zealand PM
John Key stepped down. Key, a former currency trader, had lowered
income tax rates, trimmed the national debt to 25% of GDP and
partially privatized a batch of state utilities. The conservative
caucus of Parliament chose Bill English (54) as the next prime
minister.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.42)(SFC, 12/12/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 12, In Pakistan
thousands of Sunni Muslims marking the Prophet Muhammad's birthday
attacked a mosque outside Islamabad belonging to the Ahmadi
religious minority, wounding several people.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Pres. Rodrigo
Duterte of the Philippines boasted about having personally killed
criminal suspects when he was mayor of Davao City.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A3)
2016 Dec 12, Philippine Vice
President Leni Robredo said she was determined to lead a campaign
against President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs and did not
believe his assurances there was no plot to oust her.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, The Qatari
government vowed that labor law reforms to make it easier for
migrant workers to change jobs and leave the country would bring
"tangible benefits" and urged patience from critics who say the
proposed changes are inadequate.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Police in the
Saudi capital said they had arrested a woman for taking off her veil
in public and posting pictures of her daring action on Twitter.
Several websites identified her as Malak al-Shehri, who triggered a
huge backlash on social media after posing without the hijab in a
main Riyadh street last month.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, A Syrian military
official in Aleppo said the "operation in eastern neighborhoods is
entering its final phase", as fierce clashes were reported in the
few districts still under rebel control.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said there had been a suspected gas
attack in Islamic State-held territory near Palmyra, amid heavy
aerial bombardment of the same area which together killed at least
53 people.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Turkey detained
over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish
parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq in response to this
weekend's twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Venezuelans rushed
to spend their 100-bolivar notes after President Nicolas Maduro's
announcement they will be taken out of circulation to stop the
contraband smuggling "mafias" along the Colombian border that he
says hoard cash outside the country. An estimated third of
Venezuelans have no bank account and keep their savings in the
soon-to-be-worthless bills.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 13, Pres. Obama signed
the 21st Century Cures Act, legislation that makes new investments
in cancer research and battling drug abuse.
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 13, A US official said
the Obama government is terminating some sales of military arms to
Saudi Arabia over concerns about the killing of civilians in Yemen
by a Saudi-led coalition.
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 13, President-elect
Donald Trump announced he has picked Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson
to be secretary of state, calling the oil executive with close to
ties to Russia one of the most accomplished "international
dealmakers in the world." Trump chose former Texas Governor Rick
Perry to head the US Department of Energy.
(AP, 12/13/16)(Reuters, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, General Motors
delivered the first of its eagerly awaited Chevy Bolt electric
hatchbacks to three customers gathered at a Fremont, Ca.,
dealership, less than two miles from the Tesla Motors factory.
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.C1)
2016 Dec 13, St. Louis-based
Monsanto Co. shareholders overwhelmingly approved a $57 billion
merger with Bayer AG, a deal that would combine two of the world's
biggest agricultural companies.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Ohio Gov. John
Kasich vetoed a controversial bill that would have made the state’s
abortion rules some of the strictest in the nation, opting instead
to place a smaller, albeit significant, restriction on the practice.
(CSM, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 13, Alan Thicke, TV
host, writer, composer and actor, died in Los Angeles. He was best
known for his role in the TV series “Growing Pains” (1985-1992). He
composed the theme songs for the popular TV shows “The Wheel of
Fortune,” “The Facts of Life,” and Diff’rent Strokes.”
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 13, E.R. Braithwaite
(b.1912), the author of “To Sir With Love” (1959), died in
Rockville, Md. A film based on the book was released in 1967.
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.D12)
2016 Dec 13, In Afghanistan
Ahmad Ishchi (63), a political rival of VP Abdul Rashid Dostum, said
that he had been tortured and raped with an assault rifle over five
days after being abducted by Dostum last month.
(SFC, 12/14/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 13, Colombia's FARC
rebels said they have expelled five commanders for refusing to
demobilize and join a peace process with the government aimed at
ending more than five decades of war.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 13, In France the
Eiffel Tower, normally open every single day of the year, closed
because of a strike over salaries and working conditions.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, African leaders
urged Gambia's long-ruling President Yahya Jammeh to respect the
will of the people and step down following his defeat in an
election.
(Reuters, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, In Germany James
Anthony Oliver Corry (47), a British citizen, was arrested at
Frankfurt airport after being deported from Ireland. Prosecutors
said that Corry was part of an IRA unit that fired three mortar
shells onto the grounds of the Quebec Barracks in Osnabrueck on June
28, 1996. Buildings were damaged but no one was injured.
(AP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 13, Guyana says it
will expand a jungle prison to house violent convicts and ease
overcrowding at a city prison where 17 inmates died in riots earlier
this year.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Iran ordered its
scientists to start developing systems for nuclear-powered marine
vessels in response to what it calls a US violation of its landmark
2015 atomic deal with world powers. This marked Tehran's first
concrete reaction to a decision by the US Congress last month to
extend some sanctions on Tehran that would also make it easier to
reimpose others lifted under the nuclear pact.
(Reuters, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Italy convicted
Mohammed Ali Malek (28), a Tunisian man accused of being the captain
of a migrant boat that sank on April 18, 2015, killing almost 700
people. He was found guilty of multiple manslaughter and
people-smuggling and sentenced to 18 years in jail. The court also
sentenced Syrian Mahmud Bikhit (26) to five years in prison on
charges of people-smuggling. Survivors said Bikhit had been Malek's
cabin boy.
(Reuters, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Italy's largest
bank, UniCredit, said it will unload 17.7 billion euros ($18.8
billion) in soured loans, raise billions in new money and shed
thousands of jobs as it seeks to re-launch the company under new
management.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Kazakhstan and
Israel signed agreements on cooperation in scientific research,
civil aviation, medicine and agriculture following talks between
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev visiting PM Benjamin
Netanyahu. They also agreed to work more closely together in
fighting terrorism.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 13, Malaysia and
Singapore signed an agreement to build a high-speed railway that
would cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and the city-state to
just 90 minutes by 2026.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Mexico’s National
Statistics Institute released a study saying about 58 percent of
jobs in Mexico are in the informal sector including categories such
as unregistered vendors, artisans and domestic workers.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte arrived on a state visit to Cambodia,
where a meeting with PM Hun Sen will witness the signing of
memoranda of understanding on cooperation in sports and combating
transnational crime.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Romania's Pres.
Klaus Iohannis reiterated his refusal to appoint a prime minister
with legal problems, in an apparent swipe at convicted Social
Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea whose party scored a resounding
election win on the weekend. Dragnea is serving a suspended jail
sentence for electoral fraud, which in theory under Romanian law
bars him from office.
(AFP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Russian opposition
leader Alexei Navalny (40) announced he would run for president in
2018 after a court victory allowed the outspoken Kremlin critic to
be a candidate.
(AFP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Tanzania's
president, John Magufuli, vowed to root out corruption in his ruling
party, threatening "no mercy" for anyone giving or taking bribes.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 13, Tanzania arrested
Maxence Melo Mubyazi, the co-founder of a website where people can
post comments on officials they believe are corrupt. On Dec 16
Mubyazi was charged with offences including obstructing a police
investigation.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 13, Turkish police
detained two female pro-Kurdish lawmakers as a crackdown intensified
after a deadly Istanbul bombing that raised questions about Ankara's
strategy in fighting separatist militants. Turkey's Interior
Ministry said 568 people have been detained on account of their
alleged affiliation with the PKK.
(AFP, 12/13/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Rheal LeBlanc,
head of UN press and external relations, said the appointment of
Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador for the Empowerment of Woman
and Girls would end this week, a move that come less than two months
after a splashy ceremony at the UN.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, The UN said Syrian
pro-government forces executed 82 civilians in Aleppo including
women and children as the crucial battle for the city neared its
end.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 14, President-elect
Donald Trump announced that he would choose former Texas governor
Rick Perry to head the Department of Energy, calling him "one of the
most successful governors in modern history".
(CSM, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, US Pres. Barack
Obama signed into law the Northern Border Security Review Act. It
was introduced by Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.
(Econ 6/3/17, p.25)
2016 Dec 14, US and Polish
defense officials said the United States has decided to accelerate
the deployment of troops to Poland, the Baltic states and Romania as
part of raising the security of the region.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A US think tank,
citing new satellite imagery, reported that China appears to have
installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems,
on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in the South
China Sea.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The US Federal
Reserve raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point to the range of
0.5% to 0.75%, its 2nd raise in the past decade.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.C4)
2016 Dec 14, Joshua Samuel
Aaron (32), implicated in the theft of details of more than 100
million American bank accounts, was arrested in New York after being
extradited from Russia. He had moved to Russia in early 2015.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 14, California
regulators approved the nation’s first energy-efficiency standards
for computers.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A1)
2016 Dec 14, Harold Gilliam
(98), environmental journalist, died in San Francisco. His 1962 book
“Island in Time” played an important role in the creation of the
Point Reyes National Seashore.
(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.C13)
2016 Dec 14, Alaska Airlines
completed its purchase of Virgin America.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.C1)
2016 Dec 14, Lucid Motors of
Menlo Park, Ca., unveiled a prototype, luxury electric sedan in a
ceremony at the company’s Fremont workshop. The car has been
designed to challenge Tesla’s Model S.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.C1)
2016 Dec 14, Bosnia’s office
for expatriate affairs said Bosnia will expel more than 300
foreigners, most from the Gulf, as illegal residents after they
bought property for investment on which they may have evaded taxes.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, In Brazil Cardinal
Paulo Evaristo Arns (95) died after a long struggle with lung and
kidney problems. Arns, archbishop of Sao Paulo between 1970 and
1998, was one of the Catholic Church's most prominent pro-democracy
voices in Latin America.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The Unite union
said thousands of cabin crew working for British Airways have voted
overwhelmingly in favor of strike action in a pay dispute and could
walk out after Dec 21.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A court in eastern
China sentenced Yang Weize, the former Communist Party chief of the
major city of Nanjing, to 12-1/2 years in jail, after finding him
guilty of corruption.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, China said it will
seek the extradition of more than 200 of its citizens arrested in
Spain in a crackdown on gangs that ran call centers that swindled 16
million euros ($17 million) from compatriots at home.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A Chinese official
warned the government could slap a penalty on an unnamed US
automaker for monopolistic behavior sending shares downward of US
automakers General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The Czech
Republic's defense minister said the country's military has decided
to purchase Israeli-made radars for its military. The army will pay
2.9 billion koruna ($114 million) for a total of eight ELM 2084 MMR
radars made by the Israeli state-run IAI Elta company.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, In Ecuador
indigenous Shuar protesters attacked the Chinese owned Exploracobres
copper mine leaving at least one police officer dead.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 14, An Egyptian
judicial official said authorities have ordered the assets frozen of
the chief of a media company that releases two daily newspapers
including the English-language Daily News, over allegations of
belonging to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, Euro zone lenders
put on hold the implementation of a short-term debt relief deal for
Greece after the Greek government proposed to make a one-off payout
to pensioners in December.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, Two Finnish
journalists quit public broadcaster Yleisradio (YLE), saying the
company had suppressed critical reporting on politicians including
PM Juha Sipila.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, French police
detained dozens of Greenpeace protesters who were blocking the Paris
headquarters of EDF, the public electricity company that operates
the nuclear power plants in France.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, In East Jerusalem
a Palestinian youth wielding a screwdriver stabbed and lightly
wounded two Israeli police officers before being shot and killed.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, Italian PM Paolo
Gentiloni won the backing of the fragmented Senate, allowing his
government to formally take office as a new threat emerged to the
legacy of predecessor Matteo Renzi.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The defense
ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia renewed their call for a
strong US engagement in the Baltic region amid concerns over the
attitude of the incoming Trump administration.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, Montenegro's
defense minister said the small Balkan country will decide whether
to join NATO in a parliamentary vote and not a popular referendum as
sought by the opposition and Russia.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A Dutch court
ruled that a priceless collection of gold artifacts from Crimea that
was on loan to a Dutch museum when Russia seized the peninsula must
be returned to Ukraine and not Crimea.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, Pakistan's
military said it has successfully test-fired a revised version of a
locally developed medium-range cruise missile, which can strike
targets both on land and sea.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A Palestinian
court sentenced in absentia Mohammed Dahlan, a political foe of
President Mahmoud Abbas, to three years in prison for allegedly
embezzling $16 million as a Cabinet minister. Dahlan has lived in
exile since falling out with Abbas in 2010.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, Tens of thousands
of Palestinians rallied in Gaza on the 29th anniversary of the
founding of the militant Islamist group Hamas.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A3)
2016 Dec 14, Spain's
Constitutional Court blocked a resolution by the Catalan parliament
to hold an independence referendum next September.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, In Syria a
cease-fire deal between rebels and the government in the city of
Aleppo effectively collapsed, with fighter jets resuming deadly air
raids over the opposition's densely crowded enclave in the east of
the city.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The UN said that
Islamic State extremists have destroyed the ancient site of Nimrud
in Iraq almost beyond recognition.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 14, A team of UN
investigators said South Sudan is "on the brink of an all-out ethnic
civil war which could destabilize the entire region".
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The leader of
Yemen's rebel Huthi government accused Britain of war crimes by
supplying weapons that Saudi-led forces were using to "bomb the
people".
(AFP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 15, President Barack
Obama promised that the US will retaliate against Russia for its
suspected meddling in America's election process, an accusation the
Kremlin has vehemently denied.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 15, The Obama
administration launched its 15th challenge against Beijing at the
Word Trade Organization, escalating a long-simmering debate over
practices that US officials say limit American farmers' ability to
export rice, wheat and corn to the Asian powerhouse.
(AP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, The US said it had
deferred giving economic aid to the Philippines because of concerns
about the rule of law as the brutal campaign on drugs under Pres.
Rodrigo Duterte continues.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 15, The attorneys
general in 20 US states accused six generic pharmaceutical companies
of a scheme to artificially inflate the prices of an antibiotic and
a diabetes drug.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.C1)
2016 Dec 15, California
regulators approved 7,500 PG&E car-charging stations at a cost
estimated at $130 million.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.C1)
2016 Dec 15, Former Chicago
street gang member and death row inmate Nathan Fields was awarded
$22 million by a federal jury in a civil trial. He had been
convicted in 1986 of killing two rival gang members in 1984, but
claimed two city police officers had framed him. Fields was released
in 2003 and acquitted in 2009.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 15, In South Carolina
Dylann Roof (22) was convicted in the slaughter of nine black church
members on June 17, 2015, at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A10)
2016 Dec 15, In Azerbaijan a
490-foot section of a walkway fell into the Caspian Sea under heavy
winds sweeping away 10 offshore oil workers.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 15, Brazilian federal
prosecutors charged former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with
more corruption charges tied to the massive probe into graft at
state-run oil company Petrobras.
(Reuters, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Britain’s
fertility regulator approved controversial techniques allowing
doctors to create babies using DNA from three people. The techniques
were developed to help prevent some children from inheriting
potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 15, Canada, once the
world's top producer of asbestos, said it will ban the material
starting in 2018. The heat-resistant fibrous mineral that is woven
into building and other materials has been found to cause cancer.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, A Chinese naval
vessel seized an American underwater drone about 50 nautical miles
northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch
was about to retrieve the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). The
United States said the drone was operating lawfully. On Dec 17
China's Defense Ministry said it had been in talks with the United
States about returning the drone.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 15, Congo DRC internet
providers said authorities have ordered that social networks
including Facebook and WhatsApp be blocked as of 11:59 PM Dec 18,
before President Joseph Kabila's mandate expires on Dec 20.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Bloomberg News
agency reported that President Joseph Kabila and his family in the
Democratic Republic of Congo have created a personal economic empire
worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Europe's Galileo
satnav system went live after 17 years, numerous setbacks and three
times over budget, promising to outperform rivals and guarantee
regional self-reliance.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, The European Union
offered 610 million euros ($635 million) to Niger on for keeping a
lid on migration from Africa through the Mediterranean to Europe.
(Reuters, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, European Union
diplomats said Israel demolished 866 structures in 2016, leaving
1,221 Palestinians homeless, almost half of them children.
(AP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, In Israel
residents of the Amona outpost, a wildcat Jewish settlement in the
occupied West Bank, rejected a proposal to leave voluntarily. Some
40 families were under a High Court order to be evacuated by
December 25 since the settlement was found to have been built on
private Palestinian land.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Japan and Russia
agreed at a hot spring resort in southwest Japan to revive security
talks and start discussing economic cooperation on disputed islands
at the core of a row that has kept them from signing a peace treaty
formally ending WWII.
(Reuters, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Nintendo of Japan
released “Super Mario Run,” its latest video game.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.69)
2016 Dec 15, A Kosovo court
sentenced two former culture ministers and two movie producers for
misusing public funds by signing contracts for movies that never got
made.
(AP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Malawi launched
Africa's first drone-testing corridor as developing countries
explore how drones could be used during humanitarian crises such as
floods, or to deliver blood for HIV tests.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Serbia's PM
Aleksandar Vucic said Russia will arm Serbia with fighter jets to
boost its defenses amid a row with neighboring Croatia, a member of
NATO.
(AP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, In Somalia a bomb
blast killed five soldiers and injured a dozen other people in
Mogadishu, hours after a car bombing at a checkpoint. Al Shabaab
militants claimed the attack on the soldiers.
(Reuters, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, President Bashar
al-Assad congratulated Syrians on the "liberation" of Aleppo, as
civilians and fighters evacuated the last rebel pocket of the city.
(AFP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, In Syria US-led
coalition aircraft destroyed heavy weaponry seized by Islamic State
jihadists when they retook the city of Palmyra from regime forces
over the weekend.
(AFP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 15, Mohammed Alzoari
(Zawari) (49), an aerospace engineer and drone expert, was found
gunned down in his car near his home in Sfax, Tunisia. He had joined
the military wing of Hamas in 2006 and led the development of its
drones. Hamas accused Israel of assassinating him. Tunisian
authorities later said they had arrested 10 Tunisians but two
foreigners suspected of plotting the killing escaped. On May 15,
2018, Bosnian citizen Elvir Sarac, sought by Tunisia on terrorism
charges over his alleged role in the killing, was arrested. Police
in Croatia in March 2018 had arrested a Bosnian citizen wanted by
Tunisia on same charges.
(AP, 12/18/16)(Reuters, 5/16/18)
2016 Dec 16, President-elect
Donald Trump announced that he will nominate attorney David Friedman
as US ambassador to Israel, selecting an envoy who supports Israeli
settlements and other changes to US policies in the region. Friedman
already headed a settlement fundraising organization.
(AP, 12/16/16)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.41)
2016 Dec 18, In San Francisco
Eddie Tate (51) and Lindsay McCollum (27) were shot and killed at
16th and Shotwell in the wooden box that they lived in. The murders
were unsolved.
(SFC, 8/11/18, p.A8)
2016 Dec 16, North Carolina
Republican stripped incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of some of
his authority and were on the cusp of an even greater power grab.
(SFC, 12/17/16, p.A8)
2016 Dec 16, A blast of Arctic
air hammered the northeastern United States, bringing Boston the
coldest temperatures for this day in more than a century, prompting
schools closings and officials to warn residents to cover up or stay
indoors.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, The British Home
Office said that National Action, an organization that praised the
murderer of lawmaker Jo Cox, has become the first far-right group in
Britain to be banned as a terrorist organization. The government
described he group as a "virulently racist, anti-Semitic and
homophobic" neo-Nazi organization.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)(AP, 6/12/18)
2016 Dec 16, A London jury
found Ralph Clarke (101) guilty of 21 counts of indecency and
indecent assault on two girls in the 1970s and '80s. The former
truck driver had admitted nine other charges against a boy. On Dec
19 Clarke was sentenced to thirteen years in jail.
(AP, 12/16/16)(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 16, In England an
estimated 600 inmates seized control and launched a destructive
rampage at HMP Birmingham. Ordered was restored the next day.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, In northern
Burkina Faso at least 12 soldiers were killed after dozens of
Islamic extremists attacked an army barracks in Nassoumbou.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Cambodian
authorities found 1.3 metric tons of ivory, 10 cheetah skulls and 82
kg (180 pounds) of cheetah bones, and 137 kg (301 pounds) of
pangolin scales concealed in three containers shipped from
Mozambique.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 16, In Canada police
in Montreal raided six cannabis shops one day after they opened,
following a warning by PM Justin Trudeau that the government is
still at least one year away from legalizing pot use.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, China enacted a
five-day smog red alert for Beijing and other northern cities
banning half of all vehicles from city streets and ordering
factories, schools and construction sites closed.
(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 16, Chinese officials
said US assertions that China is the top source of the synthetic
opioids that have killed thousands of drug users in the US and
Canada are unsubstantiated.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 16, The Dubai Parks
& Resorts project after it formally opened. The park includes a
Legoland, a Bollywood-themed park, a movie-themed Motiongate park, a
hotel and a shopping district, a project estimated to be worth over
$3 billion.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 16, In France an
elderly electrician and his wife were convicted of illicitly
procuring hundreds of Picasso artworks that they kept for almost 40
years in the garage of their home. An appeals court in the southern
city of Aix-en-Provence gave a two-year suspended sentence to Pierre
Le Guennec (77), who carried out electrical work at the home of
Pablo Picasso's last wife in the early 1970s, along with his wife,
Danielle. The 180 paintings, other artworks as well as a book of 91
drawings were estimated at a combined worth of $63-$105 million.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, French and Spanish
police made five arrests after discovering a suspected weapons trove
for the Basque militant group ETA in southern France.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, German discount
supermarket group Lidl announced plans to create 5,000 new jobs in
London as part of a major investment program in Britain, where it is
enjoying rapid growth.
(AFP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, German airline
Lufthansa said it is launching a code-sharing agreement with Abu
Dhabi-based Etihad, a key financial backer of troubled rival Air
Berlin, from which Lufthansa will lease 38 aircraft for two of its
subsidiaries.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, It was reported
that Greenpeace and WWF have suspended their relationship with Asia
Pacific Resources International (April), one of Indonesia's leading
pulp and paper companies, saying it didn't live up to promises to
improve its environmental record.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, A World Trade
Organization dispute panel ruled that the EU had been largely within
its rights to impose anti-dumping duties on Indonesian fatty
alcohols, rejecting most of Indonesia's complaint at the
Geneva-based trade body.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, The governments of
Italy's two biggest cities came under judicial scrutiny, with
Milan's mayor suspending himself from his duties and a top aide in
Rome's administration put under arrest. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala
was under investigation in a case involving tender bids at last
year's Expo world fair. Raffaele Marra, an aide to Mayor Virginia
Raggi of the 5-Star Movement, was arrested on suspicion of
corruption linked to a 2013 real estate deal.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up two days of
talks, with numerous economic deals but no big breakthrough on a
territorial row that has overshadowed ties since World War Two.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Mali's national
assembly voted overwhelmingly to drop charges of high treason
against former president Amadou Toumani Toure in a decision that
should allow him to return from exile in Senegal.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, Myanmar government
forces started launching attacks on the northeastern headquarters of
the Kachin Independence Army, one of the country's ethnic rebel
groups.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, In Poland
opposition lawmakers, upset that the conservative ruling party plans
to limit reporters' access to lawmakers, protested in the lower
house of parliament, singing the national anthem and chanting "Free
media!" and "Democracy!"
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, In Syria a blast
in the Midan district of Damascus left at least one person dead.
State television said a young girl of about nine years of age blew
herself. The evacuation of eastern Aleppo stalled after an eruption
of gunfire, as the Syrian government and rebels threw accusations at
each other.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Thailand
prosecutors indicted 19 senior members of the anti-coup Red Shirt
movement for violating a ban on political activities when they
sought to open an office to monitor last August's referendum on a
new constitution.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Thailand's
military-appointed legislature approved a bill tightening the
country's already harsh Computer Crime Act, defying critics who said
it infringes on the right to free expression.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, The UN said it is
getting daily reports of rapes and killings of the Rohingya minority
in Myanmar and independent monitors are being barred from
investigating.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, At the Vatican
Pope Francis brought Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and his
main political opponent right-wing predecessor, Alvaro Uribe,
together to discuss the country's rebel peace deal.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, In Venezuela
protests and looting broke out in parts of the country due to a lack
of cash after the socialist government suddenly pulled the nation's
largest banknote from circulation in the midst of a brutal economic
crisis. Three deaths were reported amid violent scenes in the
southern mining town of Callao.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, A court in
northern Vietnam sentenced a former army officer and another
activist to more than 10 years in prison each for attempting to
overthrow the communist government. Tran Anh Kim (67) and Le Thanh
Tung were convicted of attempted subversion at a one-day trial
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 17, In the US freezing
wet snow and rain left at least nine people dead in the Midwest and
East Coast. Hundreds of accidents were blamed on slick roads.
(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.A10)
2016 Dec 17, In Little Rock,
Arkansas, Gary Eugene Holmes (33) fired into another driver's car
and killed Acen King (3), who was sitting in the back seat. In 2018
Holmes was sentenced to 50 years in prison without a chance for
parole.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6wh5w96)(SFC, 8/23/18, p.A5)
2016 Dec 17, In Afghanistan
five female guards working in the airport in southern Kandahar were
killed along with their driver by unknown gunmen as they were on
their way to work.
(AP, 12/17/16)(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 17, BP PLC signed a
$2.22-billion deal restoring its share of an onshore oil block in
Abu Dhabi by agreeing to give the emirate stock in the company worth
2 percent of the oil giant's overall value.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Beijing's city
government ordered 1,200 factories near the Chinese capital,
including a major oil refinery run by state oil giant Sinopec, to
shut or cut output after authorities issued the highest possible air
pollution alert.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Croatian police
found a van crammed with 67 people, including children, mainly from
Afghanistan. 42 migrants were hospitalized and some treated for
carbon-monoxide poisoning. Some said they hadn't eaten for five
days.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 17, Security officials
at Cairo International Airport denied entry to the country to Omar
bin Laden, son of the former leader of al-Qaida Osama bin Laden.
Both were allowed to leave for Turkey.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Rome's Mayor
Virginia Raggi was stripped by her populist Five Star Movement (M5S)
party of the power to make "important decisions" after a close
advisor was arrested for suspected corruption.
(AfP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Kashmir
militants attacked an Indian army convoy, killing 3 soldiers.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Montenegro
dozens of people in Podgorica participated in a gay pride event in
the highly conservative state where authorities have promised to
boost gay rights as part of efforts to join the European Union.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Nigeria African
leaders at the 50th summit of the 15-member Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) called for a swift resolution of the
political impasse in Gambia after disputed elections in which
long-term president Yahya Jammeh is refusing to concede defeat.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, A major
7.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea, but no
immediate casualties were reported.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Philippines’
President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to terminate a pact that allows
US troops to visit the Philippines, saying "bye-bye America" as he
reacted with rage to what he thought was a US decision to scrap a
major aid package over human rights concerns.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Poland several
thousand people protested outside the presidential palace in Warsaw
over alleged vote fraud and the rightwing government's plans to
impose new restrictions on media coverage of parliament.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, In South Korea
supporters of impeached President Park Geun-hye clashed with
anti-Park protesters, as large crowds of demonstrators again
gathered in Seoul to demand the scandal-ridden leader's immediate
ouster.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Syrian rebels
blamed Iran and its Shi'ite-backed militias of holding up a deal to
evacuate civilians trapped in the remaining rebel bastion in Aleppo.
Trapped civilians and rebels waited desperately for evacuations to
resume as the Red Cross pleaded for a deal to "save thousands of
lives".
(Reuters, 12/17/16)(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Turkey a
suicide car bomber set off an explosion that demolished a public bus
transporting off-duty soldiers in the central province of Kayseri,
killing 13 troops and wounding 56 others. In response dozens of
nationalist protestors stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri. Turkish authorities
detained seven people and searched for another five in relation to
the attack.
(AP, 12/17/16)(AFP, 12/17/16)(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Turkey’s military
said its warplanes have pounded Islamic State targets in northern
Syria in the last 24 hours, killing at least 20 militants.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 17, Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro suspended the elimination of the country's
largest denomination bill, which had sparked cash shortages and
nationwide unrest, saying the bill could continue in use until
January 2.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)(SFC, 12/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 17, In Zimbabwe the
ruling ZANU-PF endorsed President Robert Mugabe (92) for a 2018
election run.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 18, US officials said
Nigerian national Kelvin Onaghinor (37) has been charged in
connection with a hack of Los Angeles County emails that might have
exposed personal data from more than 750,000 people who had business
with county departments. Officials were not sure if Onaghinor was on
US soil.
(SFC, 12/19/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 18, Zsa Zsa Gabor
(99), Hungarian actress and celebrity, died of a heart attack in
southern California.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 18, Three groups of
Cuban refugees totaling 51 people landed in the Florida keys.
(SFC, 12/19/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 18, Afghan officials
in Farah province said at least 18 people have been killed and
around 80 others over the last 24 hours wounded in two separate
highway traffic accidents involving buses.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Chechnya
security forces killed 11 suspected militants in a series of
separate clashes that began overnight. Four suspected militants were
reported captured.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Chinese
authorities in Tianjin grounded dozens of flights and closed most
highways after severe smog blanketed the city, one of more than more
than 40 in China's northeast to issue pollution warnings in the past
48 hours.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Egypt's highest
court ordered the freeing of an author who was jailed for public
indecency when extracts from his sexually explicit novel were
published in a literary newspaper. A chapter from Ahmed Naji's novel
Istikhdam al-Hayat, or Using Life, had been serialized in a
state-owned literary publication.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, It was reported
that a species of ant living in ancient forests of Ethiopia has
begun exhibiting signs of supercolony formation. The country’s
Lepisiota canescens have formed one colony that stretches for 24
miles and could lead to its invasion of other parts of the world.
(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.C14)
2016 Dec 18, In Paris the
Eiffel Tower reopened to the public after a closedown of five
consecutive days due to workers' strike.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, An Indonesian
military transport plane crashed in bad weather in the country's
easternmost province of Papua, killing all 13 people on board.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Israel forces shot
and killed Ahmad Rimawi (19) after he hurled stones at Israeli
troops in Beit Rima, near Ramallah.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Israeli settlers
due to be evicted from the Amona outpost in the occupied West Bank
accepted a government-proposed deal to head off a forced evacuation
and confrontation with troops.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, An Israeli parole
board ordered the release of former president Moshe Katsav after
serving five years of a seven-year term for rape and other sexual
offences.
(AFP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Ivory Coast voters
cast their ballots in parliamentary polls as the main opposition
party sought to break President Alassane Ouattara's near monopoly of
the legislature in the West African nation.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Jordanian security
forces freed tourists trapped inside a medieval castle after
storming the building where armed men had taken shelter following a
shootout with police in Karak. Police found suicide belts and other
explosives in the hideout of suspected Islamic State group jihadists
behind an attack that killed ten people including a Canadian
tourist. Four militants were killed.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)(SFC, 12/19/16,
p.A4)
2016 Dec 18, Poland's President
Andrzej Duda met separately with opposition party leaders to help
solve a political crisis, as anti-government protests were held for
the third straight day.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, A Russian
Investigative Committee said that at least 18 people were poisoned
after consuming a bath lotion containing methanol in Irkutsk. Eight
of them have died and the 10 others have been hospitalized in grave
condition. By Dec 19 the death toll had reached 49.
(AP, 12/18/16)(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Somalia African
Union troops opened fire on a minibus in Qoryooley town in Lower
Shabelle region. All six passengers were killed. An AU armored
vehicle smashed into a home after a bomb attack targeted an army
convoy. A mother and four children were killed.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Spain several
thousand workers took to the streets of Madrid to protest the
government's labor policies of recent years as the country emerges
from a long economic downturn.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, Sudanese
opposition groups and activists pressed on with plans to hold a
"sit-at-home" strike against fuel subsidy cuts, despite a warning
from President Omar al-Bashir that anti-regime protests would be
crushed.
(AFP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Syria several
buses en route to evacuate ill and injured people from the besieged
villages of al-Foua and Kefraya were attacked and burned.
Evacuations from Aleppo resumed this afternoon.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 18, The Ukraine
Cabinet agreed to move PrivatBank into full state ownership,
following concerns over its stability in a move welcomed by the
International Monetary Fund and the European Union.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Ukraine a power
distribution station near Kiev unexpectedly switched off early
today, leaving the northern part of the capital without electricity.
The company's IT specialists soon found transmission data that had
not been included in standard protocols, suggesting that external
interference was the likeliest scenario.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Venezuela a
14-year-old boy was shot dead. The opposition said there has been
four other fatalities, all in the southern state of Bolivar. More
than 300 people have been arrested, dozens injured in several days
of protests and looting over the socialist government's elimination
last week of the largest currency bill.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 18, In Yemen a suicide
bomber blew himself up outside a military camp in the southern city
of Aden, killing at least 52 soldiers. The Islamic State group's
Yemen-based affiliate claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 19, The White House
said Pres. Obama has pardoned 78 people and shortened the sentences
of 153 others convicted of federal crimes. This was the greatest
number of clemencies by any president in a single day.
(SFC, 12/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 19, The US Interior
Department finalized a contentious rule to protect streams and
forests from the impact of coal mining, one of the Obama
administration's last major environmental regulations that the
incoming Trump administration is likely to target.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Glendon Scott
Crawford (52) of Galway, NY, was sentenced to 30 years in prison
followed by a lifetime of supervised release for trying to produce a
weapon of mass destruction to kill Muslims.
(SFC, 12/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 19, In Afghanistan
armed men in northern Kunduz province stopped a convoy of vehicles
from the International Committee of the Red Cross and snatched the
only foreigner, a Spanish citizen, leaving the Afghans behind. The
ICRC worker was reported released on Jan 15.
(AP, 12/20/16)(AP, 1/15/17)
2016 Dec 19, In Brazil a judge
ruled that former Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will face a fifth
corruption trial, as charges pile up against the man seen as a
front-runner to win the 2018 presidential election.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, British postal
workers began what could become the longest strike in the Post
Office's 300-year history as part of a wave of industrial action
that is also threatening Christmas travel chaos.
(AFP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, China and Norway
announced the resumption of diplomatic relations during a surprise
visit to Beijing by Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende. This
came six years after Beijing froze ties with Oslo over the awarding
of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident.
(AFP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In eastern Congo
DRC a South African soldier on a United Nations mission was killed
in a rebel attack on their positions, the final day of President
Joseph Kabila's mandated time in office. Four Mai Mai militiamen
were killed in the fire-fight and two were captured.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Congo DRC an
announcement just before midnight of the appointment of a new
government -- but with President Kabila still in ultimate control --
triggered cries of "treason", "provocation" and "confrontation".
(AFP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 19, Czech President
Milos Zeman blocked a bill limiting politicians' business interests,
returning to parliament a law that would clip the wings of
billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis if it came into effect.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, The European Union
extended economic sanctions against Russia by six months after
completing the legislative process for a decision endorsed last week
by national leaders at an EU summit.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, A draft report
released by a European Parliament probe accused France, Italy and
Spain of trying to slow down the introduction of tougher auto
emissions tests despite knowing that the old ones were causing more
pollution.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In France
Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing
director, was convicted without punishment of negligence by a
special French court for her role in a contentious and generous
arbitration award in 2008 to tycoon Bernard Tapie in 2008 over the
botched sale of sportswear maker Adidas in the 1990s.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Germany a truck
attack on a crowded Christmas market in West Berlin killed 12 people
and injured 48. A migrant (23) from Pakistan was arrested, but he
was released the next day for lack of evidence. Lukasz Urban (37), a
Polish driver from the western village of Roznowo, near the border
with Germany, was found dead in the cabin of the truck that was
hijacked and driven into the crowd. He was seemingly stabbed and
shot to death in the cabin of his truck.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)(AP, 12/20/16)(AVP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 19, In India five men
were sentenced to death by an Indian court for their role in two
deadly bombings in February 2013 in the city of Hyderabad. They
included Yasin Bhatkal, the co-founder of the outlawed Indian
Mujahideen Islamist group accused of involvement in a series of
attacks.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Human Rights Watch
said nearly 600 people have died in Indian police custody from
2009-2015, many of them after being tortured.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Israeli
authorities placed billionaire businessman Beny Steinmetz (60) under
house arrest over allegations of bribery and corruption in Guinea
linked to his mining company, BSG Resources (BSGR). Asher Avidan, a
top associate of Steinmetz, was also arrested in connection with the
international investigation into suspected bribery of an official in
Guinea.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 19, An Italian court
convicted an Italian woman and her Albanian husband in absentia on
terrorism charges for traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State
group. This was the first trial in Italy involving foreign fighters
operating inside the war zone.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Moldovan MPs
approved raising the retirement age to 63 years from the current
level of 57 for women and 62 for men, a reform that is part of a
three-year-old assistance program agreed with the International
Monetary Fund.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Pakistani movie
theaters began screening Bollywood films again, ending an 11-week
boycott in response to political and military tensions with India.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Polish President
Andrzej Duda scrambled to defuse a political crisis as opposition
lawmakers occupied parliament for a fourth day of anti-government
protest.
(AFP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Puerto Rico
eight people were shot outside a popular restaurant in San Juan. One
person died of his wounds on Dec 21.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 19, Senegal police
arrested Lieutenant Aboubacar "Toumba" Diakite, a Guinean soldier
linked to a Sep 28, 2009, massacre in Conakry where at least 150
people were killed and dozens of women raped.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 19, Serbia said that
it will purchase six Russian MiG-29 combat jets in a move likely to
add to tensions in the Balkans amid Moscow's apparent efforts to
prevent the volatile European region from joining Western
institutions.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In South Africa
the last board member at state broadcaster, the SABC, quit after a
parliamentary investigation into the board's failure to look into
allegations of misspending and censorship. Professor Mbulaheni
Maguvhe had been the sole board member following the resignation of
his colleagues this year in the wake of a string of scandals. A
court ruled earlier this month that former SABC chief operating
officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who introduced a ban on airing violent
protest footage, should not hold any position at the broadcaster and
barred him from entering the premises.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In South Korea
high-profile North Korean defector Thae Yong Ho told South Korean
lawmakers that he fled because of disillusionment with what he
describes as a "tyrannical reign of terror" by leader Kim Jong Un.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Syria thousands
were evacuated from the last rebel-held enclave of the Aleppo after
a deal was reached to allow people to leave two besieged
pro-government villages in nearby Idlib province.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Thailand’s Defense
Ministry website went temporarily offline as hackers protested the
Dec 16 passage of a bill restricting internet freedom. They have
been attacking Thai government computer servers, temporarily
disabling public access and reportedly copying restricted documents.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Turkey Russian
ambassador Andrey Karlov was shot and killed by Mevlut Mert Altintas
(22) at an art gallery in Ankara. Altintas, who had worked for
Ankara riot police, was killed minutes later by Turkish special
forces. Turkish authorities later alleged that Karlov's killer had
links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, accused of
masterminding the failed July 2016 coup. On Nov 23, 2018, a Turkish
prosecutor charged 28 suspects including US-based Muslim preacher
Fethullah Gulen, over the murder of the Russian ambassador.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)(AP, 4/2/18)(AFP, 11/23/18)
2016 Dec 19, The UN Security
Council approved the deployment of UN monitors to Aleppo as the
evacuation of fighters and civilians from the last remaining
opposition stronghold in the northern city resumed after days of
delays.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 20, Pres. Obama
designated the bulk of US owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and
certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to
future oil and gas leasing.
(SFC, 12/21/16, p.A8)
2016 Dec 20, The US said it has
concluded its campaign against the Islamic State group's affiliate
in Libya after the downfall of the group in its only remaining
foothold in the chaotic North African country.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Michigan
prosecutors charged four former Flint government officials with
criminal conspiracy to violate safety.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Utah’s Deseret
News reported that federal agents last week arrested two Utah
sisters accused of using their money order businesses in the Salt
Lake City area to launder an estimated $1 million for Mexican drug
traffickers.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Afghan authorities
destroyed 98 tons of seized narcotics, mostly raw opium but also
heroin and hashish, as well as liquor. 702 people were reported
arrested in 579 cases for trafficking, including 28 women.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, British-based
Lloyds of London said it would buy MBNA, a credit card firm, for $2
billion.
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.52)
2016 Dec 20, China handed back
to the United States an underwater drone it had seized last week in
an incident that raised tensions in a relationship that has been
tested by President-elect Donald Trump's signals of a tougher policy
toward Beijing.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In Congo DRC black
smoke rose over Kinshasa and angry young men waving red cards
blocked roads as Pres. Joseph Kabila, clung to power. Security
forces killed at least three demonstrators in Kinshasa and arrested
scores more amid protests against Kabila's hold on power. The UN
human rights director for the Democratic Republic of Congo said that
there were "solid" reports that 20 civilians had been killed in
confrontations with security forces in Kinshasa.
(AFP, 12/20/16)(AP, 12/20/16)(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In southeastern
Congo at least six people were killed and 150 wounded as clashes
broke out between Pygmies and Bantus.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 20, EU nations backed
measures to strengthen new on-road emissions tests to supplement
laboratory-based ones, whose flaws were laid bare by the Volkswagen
scandal.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh vowed to stay in power when his mandate ends in
January, defying calls from West African leaders to hand over to the
winner of a Dec. 1 election.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 20, In northern Iraq a
bombing killed five Iranian Kurdish fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish
policeman in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil. An Iranian Kurdish armed
opposition group the next day accused Iran of the bombing.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 20, In central Jordan
four policemen were killed in an exchange of fire with wanted men in
Karak province where assailants had killed 10 people in a series of
ambushes earlier this week.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In Mexico a
powerful chain-reaction explosion ripped through the stalls of the
San Pablito fireworks market on the northern outskirts of Mexico
City, killing at least 35 people and leaving dozens more badly
burned. 12 people were missing. The death toll soon rose to 36 after
a woman died with burns on 90 percent of her body.
(AP, 12/21/16)(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A3)(AFP,
12/24/16)
2016 Dec 20, In the Philippines
four Filipino fishermen were believed kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf
militants in the Celebes Sea.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Sao Tome and
Principe severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan. On Dec 22 PM
Patrice Trovoada said this was the correct decision given China's
importance as a strategic partner and the need to improve the lives
of Sao Tomeans.
(AP, 12/22/16)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 20, Swiss police said
a gunmen (24) who wounded three people attending prayers at an
Islamic center has been found dead. The Swiss citizen of Ghanaian
descent was already wanted for the fatal stabbing of a friend who
was found at a playground in Zurich on Dec 19.
(SFC, 12/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 20, In Syria President
Bashar al-Assad's army closed in on the last rebel enclave in
Aleppo. Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker
a Syrian peace deal. They adopted a document they called the "Moscow
Declaration", which set out the principles that any peace agreement
should follow.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Turkish officials
inaugurated the Eurasia Tunnel, crossing the Bosporus Strait,
linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, The UN human
rights chief asked Philippine authorities to investigate President
Rodrigo Duterte for murder after he claimed to have killed people in
the past and also to examine the "appalling epidemic of
extra-judicial killings" committed during his anti-drug crackdown.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 21, Lawyers of three
US families said Ikea has reached a tentative settlement to pay them
$50 million for the deaths of three children, all around age two,
killed when the company’s furniture fell on them.
(SFC, 12/23/16, p.C2)
2016 Dec 21, Police in Bahrain
clashed with residents of the besieged town of Diraz that is home to
Shiite cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim, arresting at least two youths and
fueling protests throughout the day. Qassim lost his citizenship in
June over the Sunni-ruled government's allegations that he fueled
extremism.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Brazilian
construction firm Odebrecht SA and affiliated petrochemical company
Braskem SA pleaded guilty in a US court to violating American
foreign bribery laws as part of a deal resolving a sweeping
corruption probe of Brazil's state oil company. Odebrecht admitted
that it had paid bribes to win contracts across Latin America
including Peru. It said that it had paid $29 million in Peru between
2005 and 2014 to secure concessions.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)(Econ, 3/25/17, p.29)
2016 Dec 21, China's Ministry
of Public Security unveiled a list of areas where foreign
non-governmental organizations (NGO) are allowed to operate, from
legal advice to equality of the sexes, ahead of the enforcement of a
new law.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, In China four
people were killed when a minibus drove into a market in a northern
part of Beijing and many others have sustained injuries.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, China's smoggiest
city Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, closed schools as
much of the country suffered its sixth day under an oppressive haze,
sparking public anger about the slow response to the threat to
children's health.
(AFP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Congolese security
forces killed eight civilians and wounded 35 others in the
southeastern mining hub of Lubumbashi over the last 24 hours during
protests against President Joseph Kabila.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, The European
Union's high court said that EU agreements on closer ties and trade
with Morocco should not apply to the disputed Western Sahara region.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, German police
launched a manhunt for a Tunisian suspected of driving the truck
that ploughed through a Berlin Christmas market on Dec 19 in a
deadly assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. German
authorities issued a wanted notice for Anis Amri, describing him as
potentially violent and armed.
(AFP, 12/21/16)(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 21, A Greek state food
safety agency said several soft drinks and food products mostly made
by multinational companies have been withdrawn from sale in greater
Athens after an anarchist group said it had injected packages and
plastic bottles with chlorine and hydrochloric acid. A group calling
itself "Green Nemesis" posted the threat on the internet on Dec 19,
saying it intended to cause financial damage to the companies.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, In India leading
opposition figure Rahul Gandhi demanded an investigation into
allegations that two Indian conglomerates paid millions of rupees as
bribes to PM Narendra Modi in 2013-14 when he was governing a
western state.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Indonesian
anti-terrorism police killed three suspects in a gunfight on the
outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, and foiled a suicide bomb plot.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Israeli
ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison after prosecutors
declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he
served five years of a seven-year term for rape.
(AFP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Japan's government
announced that it will bolster its coast guard capabilities to
defend East China Sea islands that China also claims and regularly
patrols.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Save the Children
and the International Federation of the Red Cross said that this
winter will likely see vast swathes of the Mongolian steppe affected
by the extreme weather phenomenon known in Mongolia as "dzud".
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin demanded restrictions on the sale of surrogate
alcohol. At least 77 people died in the Irkutsk region of Siberia
from drinking bath oil laced with methylated spirit in search of
alcoholic highs.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A2)(Reuters,
12/27/16)
2016 Dec 21, The Kremlin said
it did not expect the incoming US administration to reject NATO
enlargement overnight and that almost all communications channels
between Russia and the United States were frozen.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Spanish banks
faced the prospect of having to pay back several billion dollars to
clients following a European Court of Justice ruling over mortgage
agreements that insured that interest rates did not fall below a
certain level.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, Aron Anderson of
Sweden reached the South Pole following a 21-day journey in a
wheelchair on skis.
(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 21, In Syria buses
loaded with Syrian civilians have begun leaving the last rebel-held
enclave of eastern Aleppo again, after being stalled for a day.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, In northern Syria
clashes escalated around the town of al-Bab with Turkish soldiers
and 138 jihadists killed.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 21, Ukraine officials
said at least two Ukrainian troops have been killed in the past 24
hours in renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine. At least 7 Ukrainian
troops have been killed in fighting since Dec 18 with dozens more
injured and shell-shocked.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 22, The Obama
administration said it is officially scrapping a post-9/11
requirement for immigrant men from predominantly Muslim countries to
register with the federal government.
(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 22, US Pres.-elect
Donald Trump named Kellyanne Conway as his White House counselor.
(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 22, Congo DRC soldiers
sealed part of the Matshipisha-Gbadolite neighborhood of Lubumbashi
and carried out mass arrests of young men, as talks to defuse the
country's explosive political crisis were set to continue.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, In eastern Congo
DRC fighting between Hutu and Nande ethnic militias killed left at
least 20 people dead in Bwalanda, North Kivu province.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)(SFC, 12/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 22, Democratic
Republic of Congo troops killed 10 soldiers from neighboring Burundi
after they crossed the border overnight in pursuit of rebels.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Iraq three
suicide car bombs killed at least 15 civilians and eight Iraqi
policemen in Kokjali (Gogjali), an eastern suburb of Mosul. The
Islamic State claimed responsibility. Mortar fire also killed 11
people including four aid workers as civilians gathered to receive
assistance in Mosul city.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Israel Basel
Ghattas, an Arab lawmaker in the Knesset, to have his parliamentary
immunity stripped amid an investigation into suspicions he smuggled
cellphones to Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, Japan and the US
marked a partial return of the land used by American troops to
Okinawa in a ceremony on the southern island, but there was no sign
the move was helping to lessen protests against the island's heavy
US military presence. Nearly 10,000 acres was returned to Okinawa in
exchange for six helipads for Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft being built
nearby. Locals protested the ceremony.
(AP, 12/22/16)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 22, In Japan a huge
fire in Itoigawa city spread to about 140 buildings. It was brought
under control after authorities called in extra firefighters to
fight the blaze.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, Two overcrowded
inflatable dinghies capsized in the Strait of Sicily after leaving
Libya for Italy. Some 100 people, mainly West Africans, were feared
dead.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Nigeria a
faction of Boko Haram allied to the Islamic State group attacked an
army barracks in northeastern Yobe state. President Muhammadu Buhari
said troops defeated Boko Haram in its Sambisa Forest stronghold in
Borno state.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 22, Russian Defense
Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian air strikes in Syria have killed
35,000 rebel fighters since the start of operations there and
prevented the collapse of the Syrian state.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, Saudi Arabia
projected another budget deficit of 198 billion riyals ($53 billion)
in 2017 but reported a less-than-expected shortfall for this year
after cutbacks in the face of lower oil prices.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, Spain's annual
Christmas lottery showered some 56 million euros ($58 million) on
residents of the struggling town of Pinos Puente in the southern
region of Andalucia where nearly a third of the population is out of
work.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, The Islamic State
released the video late today which purports to show the burning of
two Turkish soldiers captured near the northern Syrian town of
al-Bab. The two soldiers went missing in the area of al-Dana,
northwest of al-Bab, in late November.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Thailand
pro-democracy activist Jatupat 'Pai' Boonpattararaksa was
re-arrested after his bail was revoked in a case accusing him of
sharing online a Thai-language BBC story about the country's new
king.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, Turkey's defense
minister said the number of Turkish soldiers killed in recent
attacks by Islamic State militants near the northern Syrian town of
al-Bab has risen to 16, adding that three other soldiers were
seriously wounded. He said a total of 35 Turkish soldiers have been
killed since the start of Turkey-backed rebels' incursion into
northern Syria that began on August 24.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, Pope Francis told
Vatican officials to start appointing women and lay people to top
jobs in the Curia, the Holy See bureaucracy that he is seeking to
shake-up.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, The UN Security
Council postponed a vote on a draft resolution demanding that Israel
halt its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories and
east Jerusalem. Egypt requested the delay to allow time for
consultations on the measure.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 23, The US Energy
Dept. authorized its contractor to resume the disposal of
radioactive waste at an underground repository outside Carlsbad, NM.
A radioactive release had force the facility to close nearly three
years ago.
(SFC, 12/24/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 23, The US FDA
announced that it has approved Spinraza for spinal muscular atrophy,
making it the first-ever approved therapy for SMA. The drug was
developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Inc.
(http://www.curesma.org/spinraza.html)(SSFC,
12/25/16, p.A8)
2016 Dec 23, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown granted pardons to 112 people and reduced the sentence a
Louis Calderon by ten years for a gang shooting in 1999.
(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.C10)
2016 Dec 23, In Afghanistan a
member of a state-backed militia shot and killed five fellow
militiamen in Kunduz province. The gunman then made off with weapons
and ammunition.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Albanian police
said they have seized 1.24 metric tons (1.37 tons) of cannabis found
in a vehicle on its southwestern coast.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Australian
officials said they have detained five suspects who were allegedly
planning a series of Christmas day bombings in the heart of
Melbourne.
(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 23, In Bahrain Eman
Salehi (28), a sports journalist for state-run TV, was killed by an
officer in the Bahraini Defense Force, who was also identified as a
member of the ruling Al Khalifa family.
(SFC, 12/30/16, p.A5)
2016 Dec 23, Burundi's
parliament passed a law imposing strict controls on international
non-governmental organizations after President Pierre Nkurunziza
accused such groups of backing an insurrection against him.
(AFP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 23, Chinese
authorities confirmed that prominent legal activist Jiang Tianyong
has been detained on suspicion of inciting subversion of state
power.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, China fined
General Motors Co.'s main joint venture in China $29 million on
charges it suppressed competition by enforcing minimum sales prices
for dealers, the latest in a string of penalties against foreign
auto brands under the country's anti-monopoly law.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, In Congo DRC
opposition leaders said politicians have agreed in principle to a
deal under which President Joseph Kabila leaves office by the end of
2017, an unexpected breakthrough after dozens were killed in
anti-government protests this week.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Czech airline
Travel Service signed a deal to buy five more new Boeing 737 MAX
jets. This brought to 30 the total number of such Boeing aircraft
that Travel Service has recently agreed to buy.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2016 Dec 23, Marcel de Souza,
the president of the Economic Community of West African States, said
West African leaders will send troops into Gambia if its longtime
ruler who lost elections does not step down next month.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, In India an
18-month study, led by the My Choices Foundation in partnership with
major anti-trafficking groups across India, found the average age of
girls being trafficked had fallen to age 10 to 14 in recent years
from 14 to 16 in the past.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Iran and six world
powers released previously restricted documents about their nuclear
deal to enforce their view that Tehran is not circumventing limits
on its limit of enriched uranium, which could be used to make
nuclear weapons.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, In southern Iran a
man (26) gunned down 10 relatives in a rare shooting rampage.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, In Italy
Anis Amri, the Tunisian man suspected in a deadly attack on a
Christmas market in Berlin, was killed early today in a shootout
with police in Milan during a routine patrol outside a train
station.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Kosovo's
government decided to create a commission of experts to measure the
country's territory, an effort to convince the opposition they are
not losing land in a deal with neighboring Montenegro.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 23, An Airbus A320 on
an internal flight in Libya was diverted to Malta. Hijackers forced
the airliner to land in Malta then freed all their hostages unharmed
and surrendered after declaring their loyalty to Libya's late leader
Muammar Gaddafi.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, In Nigeria three
convicted criminals on death row for about two decades were secretly
executed in the first hangings in the country since 2013. The
executions were said to breach a seven-year moratorium on the death
penalty.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 23, Philippine
authorities seized more than half a metric ton of suspected
methamphetamine in suburban Manila and arrested six people in what
could be one of the largest drug seizures under President Rodrigo
Duterte.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Syrian government
airstrikes on villages near Aleppo killed three rebels.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 23, Turkish warplanes
pounded the extremist-held Syrian town of al-Bab.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, A Ukrainian
official said at least two Ukrainian troops have been killed and
three injured in the past 24 hours in renewed fighting in eastern
Ukraine.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, The UN Security
Council passed a landmark resolution condemning Israeli settlements
in east Jerusalem and the West Bank after the United States
refrained from using its veto. A resolution needs nine votes in
favor and no vetoes by the US, France, Russia, Britain or China to
be adopted. New Zealand, along with Senegal, Venezuela and Malaysia,
co-sponsored the UN Security Council resolution.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)(AFP, 12/24/16)(AP, 6/13/17)
2016 Dec 23, The United Nations
Security Council failed to adopt a US-drafted resolution to impose
an arms embargo and further sanctions on South Sudan despite
warnings by UN officials of a possible genocide in the world's
newest state.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said a prototype vaccine for Ebola may be "up to
100 percent effective" in protecting against the deadly virus. The
new vaccine was initially developed in Canada by public health
authorities before being taken over by pharmaceutical giant Merck.
(AFP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 24, In western
Afghanistan Taliban insurgents attacked a checkpoint, killing at
least three police and wounding four others in Farah province.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, In Bangladesh a
woman and a teenager, believed to be linked to the banned Jumatul
Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) Islamist militant group, blew themselves
up during a police raid on a two-story house in Dhaka.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Bolivian President
Evo Morales pardoned around 1,800 prisoners, including pregnant
women, handicapped people, inmates with minor sentences and those in
custody awaiting trial.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 24, British author
Richard Adams (96), author of Watership Down (1972), died in
Oxfordshire. In 1978 the book was made into a movie.
(SFC, 12/28/16, p.D3)
2016 Dec 24, In Cameroon a
suicide bomber in the northern town of Mora killed a young student
and a woman in an attack on a market full of Christmas shoppers.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 24, In China a
firework explosion in Yanzihe village, Hebei province, killed or
left missing eight people and injured 16.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 24, In northeastern
Congo DRC rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), dominated
by puritanical Ugandan Muslims, killed at least 25 Hutu people after
storming several villages.
(AFP, 12/26/16)(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 24, Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that the military's economic activity
accounted for no more than two percent of the country's output,
dismissing suggestions that the military could control as much as
half of the economy.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Indian PM Narendra
Modi laid the foundation stone for a massive memorial of a medieval
warrior king that's expected to cost $530 million and has come under
criticism from environmental activists and others. The memorial
includes a proposed 192-meter (630-foot) -tall statue of Shivaji, a
16th century ruler from western India and will be built off the
coast of Mumbai on land reclaimed from the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, In northern Mali
Sophie Petronin, a Frenchwoman who runs an organization for
malnourished children, was kidnapped in Gao.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 24, In Myanmar Baptist
ministers Langjaw Gam Seng (35) and Dumdaw Nawng Lat (65)
disappeared after they were summoned to an army base in northern
Shan state. On Jan 20, 2016, media reported that the two men were
suspected of recruiting and spying for Kachin ethnic rebels, as well
as spreading false information on their behalf.
(AP, 1/17/17)(AP, 1/20/17)
2016 Dec 24, Nigeria’s Pres.
Muhammadu Buhari declared that the Boko Haram extremist group has
finally been crushed, driven from its last forest enclave with
fighters on the run and no place to hide.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Philippine
authorities evacuated thousands in coastal villages in the country's
central region where the category 4 typhoon Nock-ten is expected to
make landfall later this weekend, bringing strong winds and heavy
rains.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Officials said
engineers have restored service in the vast majority of homes in
northern Scotland that lost power during the intense winds of Storm
Barbara.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, A large crowd of
South Koreans took to the streets of central Seoul for the ninth
weekend in a row to demand the immediate resignation of President
Park Geun-hye, who has been impeached by parliament over a
corruption scandal.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Spain's Film
Academy announced the death of art director Gil Parrondo (95), the
winner of Oscars for "Patton" and "Nicholas and Alexandra”.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 24, In Syria an
explosion rocked eastern Aleppo as some residents were returning to
their homes after the government assumed full control of the city
earlier this week. Two people were killed in a blast at an
ammunitions warehouse formerly used by rebels. An airstrike on the
town of Atareb, west of Aleppo, killed five people including a man,
his daughter and daughter-in-law.
(AP, 12/24/16)(AFP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Tunisian security
forces said they have arrested three suspected militants after
uncovering their links to Anis Amri, the Tunisian national believed
responsible for the Dec 19 Berlin Christmas market attack that
killed 12 people.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Turkish
authorities said they are investigating some 10,000 people on
suspicion of using social media to support terrorism. Turkish
authorities have formally arrested 1,656 people in the past six
months for allegedly supporting terrorist organizations or insulting
officials on social media.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Turkey’s military
said 68 Islamic State militants have been "neutralized" in fighting
and air strikes near al-Bab over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Both the Ukrainian
government and Russia-backed rebels in the east of the country said
a new cease-fire that was to come into effect midnight last night
has been violated.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 25, Almost all of
North and South Dakota were under blizzard, ice storm or winter
storm warnings as wintry weather was forecast to hit the Central US.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Vera Rubin
(b.1928), American astronomer, died in New Jersey. She transformed
modern physics and astronomy with her observations showing that
galaxies and stars are immersed in the gravitational grip of vast
clouds of dark matter.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Rubin)(Econ,
1/7/17, p.70)
2016 Dec 25, The Afghan defense
ministry confirmed that Captain Niloofar Rahmani (25) had sought
asylum. The Wall Street Journal had quoted her as saying that she
feared her life would be in danger if she returned home. Rahmani had
been in the United States on a training course and had been due to
return home on Dec 24.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, At least two
Afghan civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Laghman
province.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, British gay pop
star George Michael (53) died of apparent heart failure. He had
rocketed to stardom with WHAM! and went on to enjoy a long and
celebrated solo career lined with controversies.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, In southern Chile
thousands of people were evacuated from coastal areas following a
powerful 7.6 magnitude Christmas Day earthquake.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, China's largely
rubber-stamp parliament passed a law that will levy specific
environmental protection taxes on industry for the first time from
2018, as part of a renewed focus on fighting the country's pollution
woes. A law that levies taxes on pollution ignored carbon dioxide,
one of the major contributors to global warming.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, China’s state
media reported that three doctors in Shanghai and one in Hunan
province have been suspended pending investigations over allegations
they took kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, China’s Beijing
police said they had investigated hundreds of cases of suspected
prostitution, in a rare public announcement on a crackdown against
illegal vice.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, The Chinese city
of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, said it will suspend trade of live
poultry as of midnight in the interests of public health after
neighboring provinces reported cases of human bird flu infections.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Congo DRC an
ethnic Nande militia killed at least 13 Hutu civilians with guns and
machetes in an apparent revenge attack for the deaths of Nande
civilians last week.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Egypt ordered the
detention for 15 days of Al-Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein (51)
accusing him of incitement and fabricating news. In November,
Al-Jazeera broadcast a documentary called "The Soldiers" in which
former conscripts spoke about compulsory military service in Egypt,
drawing criticism from the media.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In southern
Germany 54,000 people were forced from their homes In Augsburg for
the defusing of a British bomb dating from World War II. The 1.8-ton
explosive had been found on Dec 20 during work at a construction
site.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Indonesia
members of the elite anti-terrorism squad fatally shot two suspected
militants and arrested two others during a raid on the main island
of Java.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Iran's currency
plumbed new lows against the dollar, continuing a six-month decline
that has seen the rial lose some 19 percent of its value despite the
lifting of sanctions.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Israel summoned
representatives of states that supported a UN resolution demanding
it halts settlement activity, while cutting civilian coordination
with Palestinians by way of rebuke.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Israeli ministers
approved a bill that would allow a court to order sites such as
Facebook and YouTube to remove material found to be "incitement,"
which they say contributes to Palestinian violence.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Israel a fire
erupted in a fuel tank at Oil Refineries Ltd in Haifa, sending thick
black smoke into the sky above the northern port city.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Iraq separate
bombings in and around Baghdad killed at least 11 civilians and
wounded 34 others.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Macedonia
residents of the northwestern village of Tearce voted in an election
rerun that could tilt the national election result. Only 307 votes
separated the country's two main rivals nationally.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Mali at least
20 people died after a boat capsized in the Timbuktu region.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 25, In western Mexico
six decapitated heads were discovered in Jiquilpan, Michoacan state.
In Guerrero state gunmen shot to death seven people in the Atoyac de
Alvarez. In Chihuahua nine people were killed during Christmas
celebrations.
(http://tinyurl.com/gwdo2a6)(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 25, In Myanmar a man
was found dead with stab wounds in Rakhine State. The government
said the next day that this was the second murder in under a week of
a Rohingya who cooperated with authorities as they crack down on
suspected insurgents.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Nigeria two
people were killed when part of a two-storey building in a police
training college collapsed in Lagos.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Voters in Oman
headed to the polls to choose municipal councilors in only the
second local election held in the Gulf sultanate.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Pakistani
officials said 220 Indian fishermen have been released from a jail
in Karachi and will be handed over to Indian authorities on Dec 26.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Typhoon Nock-ten
slammed into central Philippines late today, bringing strong winds
and heavy rains and cutting off power, but there were no immediate
reports of casualties.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, A Russian military
Tu-154 plane carrying members of the world-famous Russian army choir
to Syria crashed into the Black Sea killing 92 people on board.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, A Saudi soldier
was killed overnight in a cross-border firefight with Yemeni Huthi
rebels. A Yemeni military official said that five rebels were killed
in a coalition air raid in the southern Shabwa province. Also in
Shabwa, 3 armed tribesman were killed in an ambush by fighters
belonging to the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Somalia's
semi-autonomous Puntland region Al Shabaab Islamist militants in
Bosasso shot dead military prosecutor Abdikarim Hassan Firdiye.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, Sudan freed 20
political opponents detained since last month after they called for
protests against rising fuel prices.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Syria residents
of Damascus faced their third consecutive day of water shortages,
with authorities accusing "terrorist groups" of deliberately
poisoning water resources.
(AFP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Syria at least
30 civilians were killed and many others were wounded after Islamic
State launched an attack in the town of al-Bab to prevent people
from fleeing.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Uganda at least
30 members of a village football team and their fans drowned when
their boat capsized on Lake Albert during a party.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Rhode Island
the occupation of a tribal government building by a faction of the
Narragansett tribe entered its seventh day. Occupiers included
council members who impeached Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and want
him to step down.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at
least one police officer was killed after a car bomb exploded near
the convoy of the deputy provincial police chief of southern Helmand
province.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Argentine
President Mauricio Macri sacked his finance minister Alfonso
Prat-Gay, shaking up his economic team amid a stubborn recession
that has made his center-right reforms deeply unpopular.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Bosnia a ban
went into effect in Sarajevo on half of the city's cars from driving
on city streets in an attempt to ease air pollution.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Brazil Kyriakos
Amoiridis (59), the Greek ambassador to Brazil, was last seen. His
wife Francoise reported him missing on Dec 28. On Dec 29 his
burned-out rental car was found with a body inside. On Dec 30 police
said Françoise and police officer Sergio Moreira had arranged and
possibly carried out the killing of Amiridis in a home where the
diplomat and his wife were staying in a poor section in the northern
suburb of Rio as Officer Sergio Moreira (29) confessed that he
killed the ambassador.
(AFP, 12/30/16)(Reuters, 12/30/16)(Reuters,
12/31/16)
2016 Dec 26, A court in central
China jailed Xiao Tian, a former deputy sports minister who once sat
on China's Olympics committee for 10 and a half years, after finding
him guilty of bribery.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Chinese
authorities handed down prison sentences to nine protesters in
Wukan, a fishing village that's received international attention for
its demonstrations against land seizures.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, China and Sao Tome
and Principe officially resumed diplomatic relations in a triumph
for Beijing over rival Taiwan after the African island nation
abruptly broke away from the self-ruled island last week.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Frenchman Thomas
Coville sailed into the Brittany port of Brest completing his sail
around the world alone, to set a new world record: 49 days, 3 hours,
7 minutes and 38 seconds.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Germany several
hundred peace activists started what they say will be a months-long
protest march from Berlin to war-ravaged Syria to urge an end to the
fighting there.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Iranian officials
said hundreds of thousands of birds have been killed in recent weeks
as avian flu spread across seven provinces of the country. State
news said 63,000 chickens, along with 800,000 fertilized eggs and
day-old chicks, were culled at a farm in Qazvin province in recent
days after an outbreak of the deadly H1N8 and H1N5 strains of the
disease.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Officials said
Japan and the US have agreed in principle on guidelines for limiting
immunity from Japanese prosecution for civilian workers at American
military bases, following a murder case this year on a southern
Japanese island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe stopped at several memorials in Hawaii, one day before he visits
the site of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor during a trip intended
to show a strong alliance between his country and the United States.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, A Kuwaiti criminal
court sentenced a Filipina to 10 years in prison for pledging
allegiance to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, Forces loyal to
Libya's eastern government carried out an air strike against
opponents in the central Jufra region.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Hundreds of
Mongolians braved frigid weather to stage a protest in the country's
capital demanding that the government do more to address worsening
air pollution that they fear is sickening their children and
shortening their lives.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Nigerian troops
foiled an attempt by two female suicide bombers to attack a cattle
market in the restive city of Maiduguri. One of the bombers was
killed, while the other was arrested.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Oman an appeals
court lifted a ban on the Azamn (al-Zaman) newspaper which was
forced to close in August after it published an article alleging
government corruption. The court also decided to acquit journalist
Zaher al-Abri and reduced prison sentences handed down by a lower
court to editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Maamari and his deputy Yousef
al-Haj.
(AFP, 12/26/16)(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Typhoon Nock-ten
blew out of the northern Philippines after killing at least six
people and spoiling Christmas in several provinces, where more than
380,000 people abandoned celebrations at home to reach emergency
shelters and other safer grounds.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In the Philippines
18 crewmen were missing from the cargo ship M/V Starlite Atlantic
after it sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten. 14 other crewmen
were rescued and one died after the ship sank off Mabini town in
Batangas province.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, Russia’s Defense
Ministry said its troops have found mass graves in Syria’s Aleppo
with bodies showing signs of torture and mutilation.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A3)
2016 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia’s
interior minister said more than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad
with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Serbian
authorities arrested three men on suspicion of people trafficking
after 77 migrants were found hidden in cargo vehicles.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Syria a US
coalition airstrike killed Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti, a member of
Islamic State's war committee, by the Tabqa Dam, a strategic
objective in Raqqa city.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 26, Thailand said
police have detained nine people suspected of hacking government
websites to protest against amendments to a cyber security law that
critics say strengthens the authorities' oversight of the internet.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 27, US President-elect
Donald Trump announced that Thomas Bossert, former deputy homeland
security adviser to President George W. Bush, would be his White
House adviser on security and counterterrorism issues.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, In Hawaii Japanese
PM Shinzo Abe met with President Obama to pay their respects at the
site of the surprise Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor over 75
years ago that drew the United States into World War II.
(CSM, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 27, US electric car
maker Tesla and Japanese electronics company Panasonic said they
plan to begin production of solar cells at a factory in Buffalo, NY.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Carrie Fisher
(b.1956), the 1977 "Star Wars" character Princess Leia, died in Los
Angeles following a massive heart attack. An autopsy later revealed
that Fisher had cocaine and other drugs in her system.
(AP, 12/28/16)(SFC, 6/20/17, p.A5)
2016 Dec 27, In Argentina
former Pres. Cristina Fernandez was indicted in a corruption case
involving public works. Two aides and businessman Lazaro Baez were
also named.
(SFC, 12/28/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 27, The British
government announced plans to crack down on voter fraud by requiring
voters to show official identification at polling stations,
tightening rules on absentee ballots and preventing political
activists from handling absentee ballots.
(SFC, 12/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 27, Research led by
the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said the Cheetah, the world's
fastest land animal, is in danger of extinction because it is
running out of space. The study said there are now just 7,100
cheetahs in the world.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Brazil's Foreign
Ministry said it's trying to find Brazilian migrants who disappeared
during an attempt to reach the United States by way of the Bahamas.
Families of the missing migrants lost contact with them on Nov 6,
and reported the issue to authorities on Nov 15.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, A court in
Cambodia sentenced the exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy to five
years in prison after finding him guilty of conspiring to incite
chaos by posting misleading documents on his Facebook page.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, In southwestern
Congo floods triggered by two days of heavy rains and a river
bursting its banks killed at least 50 people and left thousands more
homeless.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 27, Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved a law, passed a day earlier, to set up
a council headed by his appointees that oversees the media and
ensures compliance with "national security" requirements.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, In Estonia US Sen.
John McCain pledged US support to the security of Russia's three
Baltic neighbors amid worries that the US may not be fully committed
to the defense of NATO allies following statements by
President-elect Donald Trump.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Iran’s media said
Mehdi Karroubi (79), a leading member of the opposition National
Trust, announced he is quitting his party. He has been under house
arrest for almost six years.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Iraqi journalist
Afrah Sawqi al-Qaisi was kidnapped after gunmen broke into her
Baghdad home. The veteran journalist and employee of the Iraqi
Culture Ministry is a leading critic of the country's endemic
corruption. Al-Qaisi was released on Jan 3.
(AP, 12/27/16)(AP, 1/4/17)
2016 Dec 27, In Iraq an air
strike disabled the last bridge linking eastern and western Mosul, a
city Iraqi forces are fighting to retake from jihadists.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 27, Israel's foreign
ministry said the country was "reducing" ties with nations that
voted for last week's UN Security Council resolution demanding a
halt to settlement building in Palestinian territory.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Mozambique's
opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama said Renamo will cease all
military operations against government forces for the next seven
days to allow the public to enjoy New Year festivities.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Nigerian minister
Mohamed Bazoum said 31 young people from Diffa, who were enrolled a
few years ago in Boko Haram, have decided to surrender.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 27, Pakistan reported
that at least 31 people have died from drinking tainted liquor over
the Christmas holiday. A total of 19 people died today, and 12 a day
earlier in eastern Punjab province.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Philippine
authorities said they have seized about 6 billion pesos ($120
million) worth of methamphetamines in a series of anti-narcotics
operations this month that have yielded the biggest haul in the
country's history. The anti-narcotics operations have led to the
arrest of 10 suspects, including three Chinese nationals.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Romania's
president sparked fresh political turmoil after blocking a proposal
by the leftist Social Democrats (PSD) party that won elections this
month to appoint Sevil Shhaideh (52), as the EU country's first
female and first Muslim prime minister.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Representatives of
Russia, China and Pakistan met in Moscow and warned that the
influence of Islamic State (IS) was growing in Afghanistan and that
the security situation there was deteriorating.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Russian rescuers
the clock found the main black box from the Syria-bound military
plane that crashed Dec 25 into the Black Sea with 92 people on
board.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Russia activated a
pipeline carrying Russian gas to Crimea with President Vladimir
Putin hailing it as a step that would power economic growth on a
peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Russia said that a
US decision to ease restrictions on arming Syrian rebels had opened
the way for deliveries of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, a
move it said would directly threaten Russian forces in Syria.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Somalia swore in
new lawmakers after weeks of voting in a complex political process
seen as its most democratic election in nearly five decades, despite
significant flaws.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, South Korea said
26 million head of poultry will be culled over the next 24 hours
after the H5N6 strain of avian influenza was found in farms and
parks.
(SFC, 12/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 27, In Syria a
US-backed alliance of militias said it has made unexpectedly rapid
gains against Islamic State near its Syrian headquarters in Raqqa,
advancing to within a few kilometers of a major dam.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Thai police put
more pressure on the wealthy, politically influential Buddhist
Dhammakaya temple where the leader is wanted for alleged money
laundering and related crimes involving millions of dollars of
embezzled funds.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Ukrainian female
combat pilot Nadya Savchenko, who served time in a Russian prison,
launched her own opposition movement: RUNA, an acronym for the
Movement of Ukraine's Active People. She said the movement would be
transformed into a political party when the time was right.
Ukraine's pro-Moscow insurgents released two women they had held
captive thanks to the intervention of Nadya Savchenko.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, In southern Yemen
at least 28 Huthi insurgents and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed in
Shabwa province as government forces pushed to capture a rebel
enclave.
(AFP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 28, Pres. Obama
designated two new national monuments. The Bears Ears National
Monument in Utah encompassed 300,000 acres. Gold Butte National
Monument in Nevada protected 1.35 million acres.
(SFC, 12/29/16, p.A5)(Econ, 1/14/17, p.27)
2016 Dec 28, The New York City
Police Dept. announced new rules allowing Sikh officers to wear
turbans and grow beards up to a half-inch long.
(SFC, 12/30/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 28, Debbie Reynolds
(84), the "Singin' in the Rain" actress who tap-danced her way into
American hearts as a star of Hollywood's Golden Age, died in Beverly
Hills of a stroke, grief-stricken over daughter Carrie Fisher's
death a day earlier.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Bahrain Nabeel
Rajab, a leading human rights activist on trial for tweets alleging
rights abuses, was freed on bail after months in detention, but was
immediately re-arrested in a separate case.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, The British Home
Office said immigration officers have raided nearly 300 nail salons
and arrested 97 people, mostly from Vietnam, for suspected
immigration offences as part of a drive to tackle modern slavery.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Oil company BP
said it has agreed to buy the fuel business of Australian
supermarket chain Woolworths Ltd for $1.3 billion as part of its
efforts to rebuild itself.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In China attackers
drove a car into a government building in the far western region of
Xinjiang and set off an explosive device killing one person. All
four of the attackers were shot dead.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In China companies
running 605 coal-fired power plants were fined a total of 328
million yuan ($47 million) by the country's economic planning agency
for breaching environmental rules and falsifying data to claim green
subsidies.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, Colombia's
Congress passed a law granting amnesty to Marxist FARC rebels as
part of the country's peace deal.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, French President
Francois Hollande pardoned Jacqueline Sauvage, who had been
convicted for the murder of her violent husband. She had been
sentenced to 10 years in jail for shooting dead her husband in 2012
after he beat her up for decades.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, German authorities
approved government funding for more than 54,000 migrants to return
to their homelands this year, paving the way for a significant
increase in voluntary departures.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Israel released
some 200,000 documents online from past government inquiries into
the disappearance of about 1,000 children, mostly Jewish immigrants
from Yemen and other Arab countries who disappeared in the late
1940s and early 1950s.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Israel a
Jerusalem municipal panel approved construction of a four-storey
building for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem after postponing a
vote on permits for hundreds of other homes in the Israeli-annexed
area.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Japan
government authorities filed papers demanding prosecutorial charges
against an unidentified Dentsu employee suspected of driving Matsuri
Takahashi (24) to suicide from overwork. Takahashi was clocking 100
hours of overtime a month before she jumped from her company dorm
balcony in December 2015.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Latvia US
senators visiting eastern European allies to discuss security issues
called for sanctions against Russia for interfering in the
presidential election by hacking American political sites and email
accounts.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, Lebanon's
parliament overwhelmingly approved a national unity Cabinet headed
by PM Saad Hariri.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Mexico’s federal
consumer protection agency announced that it was investigating
whether some gas stations may be hoarding fuel until January, as is
widely rumored. Gasoline shortages in many parts of the country have
forced grumbling customers to contend with hours-long lines.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 28, In southwest Nepal
a herd of elephants attacked a village, killing one person and
wounding two others. The elephants attacked Praseni village at dawn,
when there was not much light and poor visibility due to winter fog.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Nigerian police
said a plot to blow up a major bridge in Lagos has been foiled
following the arrest of a 43-year-old man suspected of being part of
a gang that planned to carry out the attack.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, International
observer body the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) confirmed being the victim of a "major" cyber-attack
in early November. The Russian hacker’s group APT28 was believed to
be behind the attack.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Pakistan's PM
Nawaz Sharif inaugurated a 340 MW nuclear power plant built with
Chinese aid, the third of four such projects aimed at addressing
longtime energy shortages.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Qatar Airways said
it has purchased a 10-percent stake in Chile's LATAM Airlines Group
for $608 million.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, Russian
investigators said they had opened a criminal case into a group of
men who filmed themselves crushing a bear to death by repeatedly
driving over it in off-road vehicles in the Siberian tundra.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, South Korea's
antitrust regulator slapped a 1.03 trillion won ($865 million) fine
on Qualcomm Inc. for allegedly violating competition laws.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Madrid said all
privately-owned cars with even-numbered registration plates will be
banned from the Spanish capital's roads tomorrow to curb rising air
pollution.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Sudanese lawmakers
voted to bring back the post of prime minister, a position abolished
after President Omar al-Bashir came to power in a 1989
Islamist-backed coup.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In eastern Syria
air strikes carried out by unidentified aircraft killed at least 22
civilians, including 10 children, in a village held by the Islamic
State group.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Syria Leila
Shuweikani, a Syrian-American woman, died shortly after being
detained. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported her death
in 2018 and said that she had been tortured.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2016 Dec 28, In Tunisia at
least five people were killed and more than 50 injured on when a
train slammed into a public bus before dawn near Tunis.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish state
media said Turkey and Russia have agreed a ceasefire for all of
Syria that should come into force at midnight, but rebel groups said
no such official truce had been agreed.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish security
said one Turkish soldier and two Kurdish militants died as a result
of clashes overnight in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Uruguay's last
military dictator, General Gregorio "El Goyo" Alvarez (91), died of
heart failure. He was serving a 25-year prison sentence for human
rights violations committed during his 1981-1985 dictatorship.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Pope Francis sent
a letter to bishops around the world saying they must adhere to a
policy of zero tolerance for clergy who sexually abuse children.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2016 Dec 29, Pres. Obama
sanctioned Russian intelligence services and their top officials,
kicked out 35 Russian officials and shuttered two Russian-owned
compounds in the US in response to Russian election hacking.
(SFC, 12/30/16, p.A1)
2016 Dec 29, Michael Flynn, the
national security advisor to US Pres.-elect Donald Trump, spoke on
the phone in Washington to Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Flynn
later denied having discussed the new US sanctions against Russia,
but it turned out that he did. On Feb 13, 2017, Pres. Donald Trump
removed Flynn as national security advisor.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.10, 21)
2016 Dec 29, In Ohio a small
plane carrying six people vanished over Lake Erie. The plane was
piloted by John T. Fleming, the executive chief of a Columbus-based
beverage company.
(SFC, 12/31/16, p.A7)
2016 Dec 29, Albania's Central
Election Commission canceled the mandates of two members of
Parliament and a mayor because of their criminal records.
Prosecutors said Dashamir Tahiri of the main opposition Democratic
Party, Shkelqim Selami of the Socialist Movement for Integration,
and of Kavaja Mayor Elvis Roshi had convictions in Italy and
Switzerland for crimes that included money laundering, drug
distribution and human trafficking.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, At least three
soldiers were reported killed in a border skirmish between Armenian
and Azerbaijani troops.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Bangladesh said
some 50,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to its territory from
Myanmar, seeking shelter from a bloody crackdown by the army.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Prosecutors in
Bosnia charged Dragan Vikic, the commander of special police units
in Sarajevo during the 1992-95 siege of the city by Bosnian Serb
forces, along with three other former officers, with war crimes over
the execution of eight captured enemy combatants.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Egypt's Cabinet
approved the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia despite
protests earlier this year and a court ruling the transfer
unconstitutional.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 29, A Finnish court
sentenced Jari Aarnio (59), the former chief detective of the
Helsinki police drug squad, to ten years in prison for taking part
in a drug smuggling ring. He reportedly played a key role in helping
a gang smuggle nearly 800 kg (1,750 pounds) of hashish from the
Netherlands into Finland in 2011 and 2012.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Gambia's president
ordered the electoral commission building taken over by police on
December 13 to reopen, saying it had been shut for safety reasons.
Gambia is facing prolonged political deadlock as Pres. Jammeh has
said he will await a Supreme Court ruling, delayed until January 10,
before ceding power.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, In eastern India a
coal mine collapse killed at least 10 workers and 13 others may be
trapped by the mound of fallen earth at the Rajmahal Open Cast Mines
in Jharkhand state. By Dec 31 the bodies of 16 of 23 trapped workers
were recovered.
(AP, 12/30/16)(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 29, Iraqi security
forces began the second phase of their offensive against Islamic
State militants in Mosul, pushing from three directions into eastern
districts where the battle has been deadlocked for nearly a month.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Israeli media
reported that the attorney general Avichai Mandelblit has decided to
order a criminal probe against PM Benjamin Netanyahu and he is to
soon be questioned by police.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Kosovo's
Parliament voted to demolish a concrete wall erected by the Serb
ethnic minority in the northern city of Mitrovica that the
government sees as a statement of defiance.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, In a video posted
on YouTube, Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced:
"I am here, well and alive" and that "the battle is just beginning."
He urged his followers, in graphic terms, to continue the campaign.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 29, A Polish court
handed prison sentences to a businessman and two waiters convicted
in the illegal wiretapping of top Polish politicians in expensive
Warsaw restaurants.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Puerto Rico said
it has been awarded more than $2 million in US federal funds to
fight Zika across mountain communities in the territory's interior.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Russia's security
agencies said they have arrested seven people in Dagestan suspected
of preparing New Year's terror attacks in Moscow on orders from the
Islamic State group in Syria. One police officer and two suspected
militants were killed in a shootout outside the city of Khasavyurt,
Dagestan.
(AP, 12/29/16)(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 29, Serbia signed a
deal to buy nine light choppers from Airbus Helicopters amid
tensions in the region triggered by Russia's donation of jet
fighters to the Balkan state.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, In Spain Madrid's
town hall said smog levels have dropped enough to allow the city to
end unprecedented restrictions it had announced on vehicle
circulation.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Syria's army and
key ally Russia announced a nationwide ceasefire to take effect at
midnight, in a major potential breakthrough after nearly six years
of civil war. The ceasefire did not include Islamic State or the
Kurdish YPG militia.
(AFP, 12/29/16)(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Syrian Kurdish
groups and their allies said they have approved a blueprint for a
system of federal government in northern Syria, reaffirming their
plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil
war.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Thailand's
military government granted the king power to appoint the Buddhist
country's top monk, a move aimed at resolving a bitter power
struggle over the venerated post.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Tunisian security
forces said that they had broken up an al Qaeda-linked militant cell
with 10 members that was active near the coastal city of Sousse.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, An Istanbul court
ordered the release of Asli Erdogan, one of Turkey's most celebrated
novelists after over four months in jail on charges of terror
propaganda, along with Necmiye Alpay, an internationally prominent
linguist and author of widely praised translations of Western novels
into Turkish. She has been held behind bars for 120 days. Zana Kaya,
editorial director of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem was
also ordered released. Authorities detained prize-winning journalist
Ahmet Sik in a separate case over a succession of tweets and
articles for an opposition daily.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, Venezuela’s Pres.
Maduro again extended the deadline to stop using 100-bolivar bills.
People will now have until Jan 20 to stop using the old bills.
(SSFC, 1/1/17, p.A5)
2016 Dec 30, Huston Smith
(b.1919), renowned scholar of religion, died at his home in
Berkeley, Ca. He is best known for his book “Religions of Man”
(1958). It was later abridged and retitled “The World’s Religions”
(1991).
(SFC, 1/3/17, p.A10)
2016 Dec 30, A divided
Connecticut Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction of
Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel in the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley.
(SFC, 12/31/16, p.A7)
2016 Dec 30, Hawaii’s last
sugar mill shut down after 145 years of state production. The
refinery will remain open, but the sugar will come from foreign and
domestic cane fields other than Hawaii.
(SSFC, 1/15/17, p.A2)
2016 Dec 30, Massachusetts Gov.
Charlie Baker signed a bill aimed at delaying the opening of
marijuana shops by six months to mid-2018.
(SFC, 12/31/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 30, Pennsylvania state
Trooper Landon Weaver (23) was shot and killed while responding to a
domestic complaint in Huntingdon County. Jason Robison (32) was
arrested the next day at a mobile home in the area.
(SSFC, 1/1/17, p.A7)
2016 Dec 30, Vermont’s
Burlington Electric Department confirmed it had found on one of its
laptops the malware code used in Grizzly Steppe, the name Homeland
Security has applied to a Russian campaign linked to recent hacks.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, Austrian police
said they have arrested 50 people and seized cocaine, heroin,
marijuana and amphetamines following a three-year investigation into
a suspected drug-smuggling ring.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, Former British pub
owner Allan Williams (86), the first manager of The Beatles, died.
He drove the band on their formative trip to Hamburg in 1960.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, China’s government
said it will ease restrictions on foreign investment in sectors
ranging from banking and internet services to rail equipment and
motorcycles, in response to mounting complaints from foreign
business groups and governments.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, Central China
Television (CCTV) unveiled several new mobile apps under the China
Global Television Network (CGTN) brand, and visitors to CCTV's
non-Chinese language websites were directed to a new
http://www.cgtn.com site. The broadcaster says it made the move to
"integrate resources and to adapt to the trend of media
convergence," with foreign language channels, video content and
digital media falling under the new group.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, China’s government
said it will ban all ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017,
in a move hailed by conservationists as a "game changer" for African
elephants.
(AFP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, A Chinese court
said Disney has won a copyright dispute over a Chinese knock-off of
its animated movie 'Cars', a rare victory for a foreign firm in a
country famous for counterfeits.
(AFP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In China the
Beipanjiang Bridge, the world's highest, opened to traffic,
connecting two provinces in the mountainous southwest. The bridge
cut travel times between Xuanwei in Yunnan to Shuicheng in Guizhou
from more than four hours to around one.
(AFP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, Indian PM Narendra
Modi announced a slew of incentives to the poor, farmers, women and
small businesses in a special New Year's address. He defended his
shock decision to abolish high denomination bank notes as the window
to exchange old notes closed.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.53)
2016 Dec 30, In western India
six migrant workers, who had been locked inside a bakery by their
employer, suffocated to death in a fire. This triggered calls for
decades-old labor laws to be implemented to crack down on worker
exploitation and abuse.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2016 Dec 30, Iraqi forces faced
car bombs and fierce resistance from Islamic State militants in
southern Mosul, the second day of a renewed push to take back the
city after fighting stalled for several weeks.
(Reuters, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In Israel a
Palestinian woman was shot and wounded after approaching an Israeli
security checkpoint near Jerusalem with a knife.
(AFP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, Italy said it will
seek to deport more migrants who have no right to be in the country
and will open new detention centers to hold them before their
expulsion.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, Puerto Rico
Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla came under fire for pardoning
several convicted criminals including two politicians found guilty
of lewd acts and sexual harassment against female employees. Padilla
urged Governor-elect Ricardo Rossello to demand that a federal
control board overseeing government finances move immediately to
restructure much of its nearly $70 billion in debt.
(AP, 12/30/16)(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, Romania's Pres.
Klaus Iohannis named social-democrat Sorin Grindeanu (43) as the
nation's new prime minister, bringing to a close weeks of
uncertainty since the left won a parliamentary vote on December 11.
(AFP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In western Syria
clashes shelling and air raids marred a Russian- and Turkish-backed
ceasefire. Syrian government warplanes carried out nearly 20 raids
against rebels in several towns along the provincial boundary
between Idlib and Hama. Warplanes and helicopters also struck
northwest of Damascus in the rebel-held Wadi Barada valley, where
government troops and allied forces clashed with rebels.
(Reuters, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, A Turkish
parliamentary commission cleared a set of draft constitutional
amendments that would greatly expand the powers of Pres. Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In southern Turkey
police detained some 40 suspected Islamic State group militants in
raids in Adana.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, The Turkish
military said Russian fighter jets have hit three Islamic State
targets around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab over the past 24
hours.
(Reuters, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 31, In southern
California “MASH” actor William Christopher (84) died in Pasadena.
He played the role of Father Francis Mulcahy on the TV series.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2016 Dec 31, David Meltzer
(b.1937), poet and musician, died at his home in Oakland, Ca. His
books included more than 40 volumes of poetry and the non-fiction
works such as “Reading Jazz” (1993).
(SFC, 1/3/17, p.A4)
2016 Dec 31, In Chicago
hundreds of people marched carrying crosses for each of 762 people
slain in the city this year.
(SSFC, 1/1/17, p.A7)(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2016 Dec 31, In Texas a federal
judge granted a temporary injunction that stope federal health
officials from enforcing rules that are intended to ban
discrimination by doctors and hospitals against transgender people.
(SSFC, 1/1/17, p.A8)
2016 Dec 31, In Texas three
people were killed when two small planes collided near McKinney.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2016 Dec 31, In Bangladesh
Manzurul Islam Liton, a national legislator from PM Sheikh Hasina's
Awami League party, was shot at his home in Gaibandha district.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2016 Dec 31, In Brazil a gunman
stormed a house party and killed 13 people and himself late today
during New Year celebrations in the southeastern city of Campinas.
The shooter was believed to have been angry over a separation from
his former wife, who was among those killed. The couple's 8-year-old
son also died.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A2)
2016 Dec 31, In southern
England the RMT union launched a three-day strike on Southern Rail,
which runs commuter services from the south coast into London, as
part of a long-running dispute over plans to downgrade the role of
the train guard.
(AFP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, Chinese media
reported that Gao Baoyu, the chairman of China's Ying Kou Port
Group, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting around 26.8
million yuan (3.13 million pounds) in bribes. China’s corruption
watchdog said it has recovered 2.3 billion yuan ($331.27 million) in
losses from graft in the first 11 months of this year from across
more than 70 different regions and countries.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that 16 people, including two surgeons,
have been jailed for between two and five years for trafficking in
human organs, a practice still widespread in the country.
(AFP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, Colombia's
National Liberation Army, which has been fighting the government for
more than five decades, freed businessman Octavio Figueroa. He had
been held since March.
(AFP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, An Egyptian
appeals court upheld an agreement to give control of two islands in
the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, In Egypt an
explosion targeting a security vehicle in the Sinai peninsula killed
one junior officer and one soldier and injured another soldier.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh accused the West African regional bloc ECOWAS of
declaring war after demanding that he stand down following his
defeat at the ballot box.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2016 Dec 31, In Germany police
detained hundreds of North African men in Cologne in an effort to
prevent a repeat of sexual assaults during New year’s festivities
there a year ago.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A2)
2016 Dec 31, In India several
women were groped and assaulted by a mob in the Bangalore central
business district as they celebrated New Year's Eve. The assaults
spurred women's rights activists to demand that police investigate.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2016 Dec 31, In Iraq three
bombs killed 29 people in Baghdad as fighting intensified in the
northern city of Mosul, where Iraqi government forces are trying to
rout Islamic State militants from their last major stronghold in the
country.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, In northeastern
Nigeria one person was seriously injured when a suicide bomber aged
around 10 blew herself up in a New Year's Eve attack in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2016 Dec 31, In Poland Daniel
R. and another Pole took two bottles of a beverage from the Prince
Kebab restaurant in Elk, without paying. In the ensuing brawl, a
26-year-old Tunisian cook stabbed Daniel R. twice with his knife.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2016 Dec 31, A South Korean
court issued an arrest warrant for Moon Hyung-pyo, the head of the
national pension fund, the world's third largest, in a corruption
scandal that has led to President Park Geun-hye's impeachment.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, In South Korea
large crowds gathered to join another rally demanding the ouster of
impeached President Park Geun-hye, who's determined to restore her
powers through a court trial.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, Sudanese President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir announced a one-month extension of his
unilateral ceasefire in fighting with rebels in the country's war
zones.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2016 Dec 31, Syrian rebel
groups threatened to abandon a two-day-old truce if violations
continued, and urged the UN Security Council not to endorse the deal
until the Syrian government and its ally Russia had shown they would
respect it.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, Venezuela's
government freed former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales along
with five other activists who were jailed during anti-government
protests in 2014.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec, An eight-satellite
swarm of microsatellites called CYGNSS (Cyclone Navigation Satellite
System) was launched monitor storms as they roll in towards the east
coast of the US.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.77)
2016 Dec, In North Dakota a
rupture of the Belle Fourche Pipeline near Belfield was later
believed to have been caused by a slumping hillside. On March 24,
2017, estimates of the spill were tripled to about 530,000 gallons.
(SFC, 3/25/17, p.A5)
2016 Dec, Video streaming firm
BAMTech, a technology subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company located
in Manhattan, NY, agreed to pay $300 million for the rights to
stream tournaments for a game called “League of Legends” until 2023.
The game was owned by Tencent, a Chinese Internet giant.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAMTech)(Econ,
8/19/17, p.56)
2016 Dec, Astronomers reported
that several craters on the dwarf planet Ceres contain ice. Ceres is
the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
(SFC, 12/19/16, p.C2)
2016 Dec, Congo DRC’s President
Joseph Kabila's regime drafted in fighters previously active in the
M23 rebel group from neighboring Uganda and Rwanda to help suppress
demonstrations, which erupted when he refused to step down at the
end of his constitutional mandate according to a Dec. 4, 2017,
report by Human Rights Watch.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2016 Dec, Ecuador’s
environmental ministry said it would shut down Accion Ecologica, a
group that backed the Shuar people in a fight over the opening of a
copper mine.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.29)
2016 Dec, Haki Africa, a
Kenya-based human rights group, published the names of 81 people,
almost all young Muslim men, who it said were killed or disappeared
by police since 2012.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.39)
2016 Dec, In Puntland six
teenage boys forced the girls, aged 14 and 16, into a car and drove
them close to the Ethiopian border where they stripped and raped
them, taking photographs and video. Clan elders initially proposed
that the perpetrators' families pay each of the girls' families 100
camels in compensation - an offer they rejected.
(Reuters, 1/19/17)
2016 Dec, In Russia Ruslan
Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky Labs computer incidents investigations
unit, was arrested. Stoyanov was arrested along with a senior
Russian FSB intelligence officer and both faced charges of treason.
Kaspersky later said the investigation dated back to the time before
Stoyanov was hired by Kaspersky.
(AP, 1/25/17)
2016 Dec, Foreign analysts
estimated that as many as 60% of workers in Turkmenistan are in
effect unemployed.
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.36)
2016 Dec, In Uganda the number
of refugees since last July from South Sudan has increased from
250,000 to almost 600,000. New arrivals were crossing the border at
a rate of 25,000 a week.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.49)
2016 Dec, Venezuela was
suspended from Mercosur, a South American trade block, for violating
its democratic principles.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.12)
2016 Timothy Garton Ash
authored “Free Speech.”
(Econ, 6/4/16, p.55)
2016 Richard Askwith authored
“Today We Die a Little! The Inimitable Emil Zatopek, the Greatest
Runner of All Time.” The Czech runner won four golds and one silver
at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic games in 1948 and 1952.
(Econ, 6/11/16, p.84)
2016 Sarah Bakewell authored
“At the Existential Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails.”
(Econ, 3/26/16, p.94)
2016 Richard Baldwin authored
“The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New
Generation.”
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.71)
2016 Philip Ball authored “The
Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China.”
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.69)
2016 Jason Barr authored
“Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s
Skyscrapers.”
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.72)
2016 Daniel Beer authored “The
House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars.”
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.71)
2016 Benjamin Bergen authored
”What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains,
and Ourselves.”
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.77)
2016 John Bloom authored
“Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story.”
(Econ, 7/2/16, p.73)
2016 British China-watcher
Kerry Brown authored “CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping.”
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.66)
2016 Heather Boushey authored
“Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict.”
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.65)
2016 Samuel Buell authored
“Capital Offenses: Business Crime and Punishment in America’s
Corporate Age.”
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.60)
2016 Sanjoy Chakravorty
authored “The Other One Percent: Indians in America.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.77)
2016 Derek Cholet authored “The
Long Game: How Obama Defied Washington and Redefined America’s Role
in the World.”
(Econ, 7/30/16, p.66)
2016 Duncan Clark
authored “Alibaba: the House That Jack Built.”
(Econ, 4/9/16, p.82)
2016 Charles Clover authored
“Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia’s New Nationalism.”
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.72)
2016 Lucy Crehan authored
“Cleverlands: The Secrets Behind the Success of the World’s
Education Superhighways.”
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.74)
2016 Alex Cuadros authored
“Brazillionaires The Godfathers of Modern Brazil.”
(Econ, 6/11/16, p.85)
2016 Minoo Dinshaw authored
“Outlandish Knight: The Byzantine Life of Steven Runciman.”
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.70)
2016 Angela Duckworth authored
“Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.”
(Econ, 6/4/16, p.82)
2016 Ben Ehrenreich authored
“The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine.”
(Econ, 6/11/16, p.82)
2016 Stephen Ellis, a British
expert on African affairs, authored “This Present Darkness: A
History of Nigerian Organized Crime.”
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.76)
2016 Anders Ericsson and Robert
Pool authored “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.”
(Econ, 4/2/16, p.81)
2016 Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn
Weigel authored “The Innovation Illusion: How So Little Is Created
by So Many Working So Hard.”
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.60)
2016 Richard Evans authored
“The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914.”
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.71)
2016 Dennis Feeney authored
“Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature.”
(Econ, 2/6/16, p.76)
2016 Cal Flyn authored “Thicker
Than Water: History Secrets and Guilt.” Here she covered the 19th
century massacres of Australian indigenous people.
(Econ, 6/25/16, p.74)
2016 Charles Foster authored
“Being a Beast.”
(Econ, 2/27/16, p.74)
2016 Timothy Garton authored
“Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World.”
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.76)
2016 Kaya Genc authored “Under
the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey.”
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.74)
2016 Ted Gioia authored “How to
Listen to Jazz.”
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.71)
2016 David Goldblatt authored
“The Games: A Global History of the Olympics.”
(Econ, 7/30/16, p.67)
2016 Robert Gordon authored
“The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The US Standard of Living
since the Civil War.”
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.69)
2016 Christopher Goscha
authored “Vietnam: A New History.”
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.67)
2016 Anthony Gottlieb authored
“The Dream of Enlightenment.” This was his second book of a planned
trilogy.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.72)
2016 Berenice Guyot-Richard,
historian at London’s King’s College, authored “Shadow States:
India, China and the Eastern Himalayas: 1910-1962.”
(http://tinyurl.com/ybwfkqkb)(Econ 7/29/17, p.34)
2016 Christopher de Hamel
authored “Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts”
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.78)
2016 Andrew Harding authored
“The Mayor of Mogadishu: A Story of Chaos and Redemption in the
Ruins of Somalia.”
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.72)
2016 Yuval Noah Harari authored
“Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.”
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.80)
2016 Arley Russell Hochschild
authored “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the
American Right.”
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.70)
2016 David Howell, former Tory
energy secretary, authored “Empires in Collision.”
(www.gilgamesh-publishing.co.uk/empires-in-collision.html)
2016 Wang Jianlin (b.1954), the
head of Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda, authored “The Wanda Way:
The managerial philosophy and values of one of China's largest
companies.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Jianlin)
2016 Dennis Johnson authored
“Democracy for Hire: A History of American Political Consulting.”
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.72)
2016 Dominic Johnson, Oxford
professor, authored “God Is Watching: How the Fear of God Makes Us
Human.”
(Econ, 1/23/16, p.76)
2016 Chris Jennings authored
“Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism.”
(Econ, 2/20/15, p.74)
2016 Gareth Stedman Jones
authored “Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion.”
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.63)
2016 Ben Judah authored “This
Is London: Life and Death in the World City.”
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.77)
2016 John Judis authored “The
Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and
European Politics.”
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.71)
2016 David Kilcullen authored
“Blood Year: Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror.”
(Econ, 3/19/16, p.89)
2016 Mervyn King, former
governor of the Bank of England (2003-2013) authored “The End of
Alchemy: Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy.”
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.78)
2016 Maria Konnikova authored
“The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for
It Every Time.”
(Econ, 2/13/16, p.82)
2016 Arthur Kroeber, adjunct
professor at the Columbia University School of International and
Public Affairs, authored “China’s Economy: What Everybody Needs to
Know.”
(Econ, 4/22/17, SR p.9)
2016 Jeremy Lewis authored the
biography “David Astor.” Astor (1912-2001) had edited the Observer,
Britain’s principal source of information from 1948 to 1975. His
father had purchased the paper in 1911.
(Econ, 2/27/16, p.74)
2016 Michael Lewis authored
“The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds.” Here
Lewis tells the story of the friendship between Amos Tversky and
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman.
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.78)
2016 Shiraz Maher authored
“Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea.”
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.73)
2016 Scott Malcomson authored
“Splinternet: How Geopolitics and Commerce are Fragmenting the world
Wide Web.”
(Econ, 3/26/16, p.93)
2016 Sebastian Mallaby authored
“The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan.”
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.81)
2016 Oscar Martinez,
Salvadorean journalist, authored “A History of Violence: Living and
Dying in Central America.”
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.72)
2016 Jane Mayer authored “Dark
Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the
Radical Right.”
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.75)
2016 Catherine Merridale
authored “Lenin on the Train.”
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.74)
2016 Branko Milanovic, a
Serbian-American economist, authored “Global Inequality: A New
Approach for the Age of Globalization.”
(Econ, 4/2/16, p.79)
2016 Joel Mokyr authored “A
Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy.”
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.73)
2016 Nandian Nilekani a
co-founder of IT giant Infosys, and Viral Shah authored “Rebooting
India: Realising a Billion Aspirations.”
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.79)
2016 Johan Norberg authored
“Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future.”
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.71)
2016 Nicholas Ostler authored
“Passwords to Paradise: How Languages Have Re-invented World
Religions.”
(http://tinyurl.com/hyqgb5b)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.72)
2016 Suzanne O’Sullivan
authored “It’s All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness.”
(Econ, 6/11/16, p.83)
2016 Joshua Partlow authored “A
Kingdom of Their Own: The Family of Karzai and the Afghan Disaster.”
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.78)
2016 Helen Pearson authored
“The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of Our Ordinary Lives.”
Here she has charted the 1946 British cohort along with four other
that followed in 1958, 1970, 1991 and 2000.
(Econ, 4/9/16, p.85)
2016 Minxin Pei authored
“China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay.”
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.77)
2016 John Pomfret authored “The
Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China.”
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.72)
2016 Tuesday Reitano and Peter
Tinti authored “Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Savior.”
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.74)
2016 Paul Richards authored
“Ebola: How a People’s Science Helped End an Epidemic.”
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.81)
2016 Nancy Jo Sales authored
“American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers.”
(Econ, 4/2/16, p.80)
2016 Marcus du Sautoy (b.1965),
British professor at Oxford, authored “What We Cannot Know.”
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.84)
2016 A.O. Scott, film critic
for the NY Times, authored “Better Living Through Criticism: How to
Think about Art, Pleasure, beauty, and Truth.
(Econ, 4/16/16, p.70)
2016 Roger Scruton authored
“The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung.”
(Econ, 6/25/16, p.73)
2016 Simon Sebag Montefiore
authored “The Romanovs: 1613-1918.”
(Econ, 2/20/16, p.73)
2016 Somini Sengupta authored
“The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India’s Young.”
(Econ, 3/19/16, p.89)
2016 Sonia Shah authored
“Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond.
(Econ, 2/13/16, p.81)
2016 David Shambaugh, American
political scientist, authored “China’s Future.”
(Econ, 3/26/16, p.95)
2016 James Sharpe authored “A
Fiery and Furious People: A History of Violence in England.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.79)
2016 Jack Shenker authored “The
Egyptians: A Radical Story.”
(Econ, 2/6/16, p.76)
2016 Peter Singer authored
“Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter.”
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.79)
2016 Vinay Sitapati authored
“Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India.”
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.71)
2016 Sebastian Smee authored
“The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs
in Modern Art.”
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.75)
2016 Peter Godfrey-Smith
authored “Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea and the Deep Origins of
Consciousness.”
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.78)
2016 Dava Sobel authored “The
Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the
Measure of the Stars.”
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.114)
2016 Eugene Soltes authored
“Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White Collar Criminal.”
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.60)
2016 Nick Spencer, research
director of London-based Theos think tank, authored “The Evolution
of the West: How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values.”
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.75)
2016 Mark Spoerer, German
historian, authored “C&A: A family business in Germany, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom 1911-1961.”
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.57)
2016 Bruce Springsteen authored
his biography “Born to Run.”
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.78)
2016 Reiner Stach authored
“Kafka: The Early Years.”
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.73)
2016 Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel
Prize winner (2001), authored “The Euro: How a Common Currency
Threatens the Future of Europe.”
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.72)
2016 James Stourton authored
“Kenneth Clark: Life, Art and Civilization.”
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.79)
2016 Gay Talese authored “The
Voyeur’s Motel,” a study of voyeurism stripped to its bare
fundamentals.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.72)
2016 Gary Taubes authored “The
Case Against Sugar.”
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.77)
2016 Ngugi wa Thiong’o if
Nigeria authored “Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening.”
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.74)
2016 Gillian Tindall authored
“The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey. Her
she covered the story of the Crossrail running east-west through
London and its suburbs.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.64)
2016 Robert Wainwright authored
“The Maverick Mountaineer: The Remarkable Life of George Ingle
Finch: Climber, Scientist, Inventor.” Australian chemist George
Ingle Finch (b.1888) died in 1970.
(Econ, 1/16/16, p.91)
2016 Owen Weatherall authored
“Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing.”
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.72)
2016 Blanche Wiesen authored
“Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After, 1939-1962.”
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.74)
2016 Susan Williams authored
“Spies in the Congo: America’s Atomic Mission in World War II.”
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.64)
2016 Peter Wilson authored “The
Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History.”
(Econ, 4/16/16, p.72)
2016 Robert Worth authored “A
Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to
ISIS.”
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.84)
2016 Ed Yong authored “I
Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of
Life.”
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.70)
2016 US legal cannabis sales
for this year were estimated at $6 billion.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.59)
2016 The US Drug Enforcement
Administration listed U-47700, a synthetic opioid, in the category
of the most dangerous drugs it regulates. In 2017 it was reported to
be part of an opioid combination dubbed “gray death,” and blamed for
thousands of fatal overdoses nationally.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A16)
2016 The US allowed Brazilian
beef into the country after two decades of talks.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.59)
2016 An indictment was filed in
the US Attorney's Office for the Southern district of New York that
charged Evaldas Rimasauskas of Lithuania with stealing more than
$100 million from Facebook and Google. He was extradited to the US
in 2017. In 2019 Rimasauskas (50) pleaded guilty to wire fraud for
his role in the scheme. The stolen money was wired to various
locations around the world. The companies said most of the money has
been recouped.
(SFC, 3/26/19, p.D1)
2016 A report by the Wilderness
Society revealed that Idaho has sold 41% of its land since
statehood.
(http://tinyurl.com/mnlad5y)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.27)
2016 Chicago counted 764
murders this year, as compared to NYC with 334 and Los Angeles with
294.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.31)
2016 St. Louis, Mo., with a
population of 315,000 recorded 188 murders this year, the highest
per person rate in the country. The city’s population had peaked in
the 1950s at around 850,000 residents.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.24)
2016 In New Hampshire three
women were arrested after taking off their tops at a beech in
Laconia. The members of the Free the Nipple campaign called the case
gender-based discrimination, and appealed to the state Supreme Court
after a lower court refused to dismiss the case.
(SFC, 2/2/18, p.A6)
2016 Ohio counted 4,149
unintentional fatal drug overdoses this year, a 36 percent increase
from the previous year. The increase was attributed to heroin and
synthetic opioids.
(SFC, 5/29/17, p.A4)
2016 South Dakota narrowly
topped Oregon as the state with the highest percentage of inbound
moves.
(SFC, 1/6/17, p.A5)
2016 Ride the Ducks
International LLC, agreed to pay a $1 million fine after one of the
vehicles, which operate on land as well as water, collided with a
bus in Seattle in 2015, killing five international students.
(Reuters, 7/20/18)
2016 Neuroscientists estimated
that a mammalian brain uses about 70% of its volume for moving
information around, 20% for processing it and the remaining 10% to
keep everything in the right place and supplied with nutrients.
(Econ, 3/12/16, TQ p.9)
2016 Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK) unveiled a $665,000 price for a personalized stem-cell therapy
to cure a patient with severe combined immunodeficiency.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.20)
2016 Intel sold McAfee, a
cyber-security business, for some $4.2 billion, about half of what
it had paid for it six years earlier.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.66)
2016 About a dozen
nuclear-missile-carrying submarines patrolled the ocean at any given
time.
(Econ, 7/16/16, World IF p.17)
2016 Scientists inferred the
existence of the planet, Proxima Centauri b, circling the star
Proxima Centauri, the star that is closest to the sun.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.59)
2016 The Int’l. Scientific
Committee reported that Pacific bluefin tuna stocks were down by 97%
from their peak in the early 1960s. Japan disputed the findings.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.39)
2016 It was reported that
schizophrenia affects one in a hundred people.
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.73)
2016 Consumption of bottled
water this year overtook that of sugary drinks in the US.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.56)
2016 Data centers consumed 2%
of all the electricity produced in the world.
(Econ, 3/12/16, TQ p.9)
2016 The number of people
worldwide suffering from hunger this year increased by 38 million to
815 million, according to a UN report published on Sep 15, 2017.
(SFC, 9/16/17 p.A2)
2016 In Afghanistan NATO forces
fell this year from a peak of 132,000 in 2011 to about 13,000 by the
end of this year. Only about 60% of Afghans lived in areas under
government control.
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.46)
2016 Africa’s population
numbered about 1.2 billion.
(Econ, 4/16/16, SR p.5)
2016 The African Union (AU)
introduced a single African passport. The first recipients were
Rwanda’s Pres. Paul Kagame and Chad’s Pres. Idriss Deby.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.49)
2016 Algeria officially
recognized the Berber language, spoken by about a quarter of the
population.
(Econ, 8/19/17, p.40)
2016 Australian Historian James
Curran authored “Fighting with America: A Lowy Institute Paper:
Penguin Special: Why saying ‘No’ to the US wouldn’t rupture the
alliance.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybzqns4h)(Econ, 2/11/17,
p.33)
2016 Huge sections of
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef were killed this year by overheated
seawater.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A2)
2016 Australia’s population was
about 24 million. Aborigines accounted for about 3% of the
population.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.41)(Econ 7/8/17, p.35)
2016 Jahangir Hajiyev,
chairman of state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) from
2001 to 2015, was convicted by an Azeri court of fraud and
embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in jail. In 2018 his wife,
Zamira Hajiyeva, lost an appeal against an attempt by British
authorities to seize two properties worth about 22 million pounds
using an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2016 Banks in the Bahamas had
assets of $223 billion, 26 times the national GDP.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.63)
2016 Brazil’s gross domestic
product shrank 3.6 percent in 2016 following a dip of 3.8 percent in
2015.
(AP, 3/7/17)
2016 In Brazil a woman was
reportedly murdered every two hours this year.
(SFC, 3/14/18, p.A4)
2016 Britain's Foreign Ministry
extended the lease on Diego Garcia, the Chagos Islands’ biggest
island, to the US until 2036 and declared the expelled islanders
would not be allowed to go back.
(AP, 9/3/18)
2016 Britain’s population stood
at about 65 million and was expected to grow to 77 million by 2050.
(Econ, 4/30/16, p.54)
2016 British firms owned
approximately 7% of Australia’s agricultural land.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.34)
2016 The population of Cambodia
was about 16 million.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.34)
2016 Canada was the world’s
tenth largest economy.
(Econ, 3/5/16, p.31)
2016 In the Central African
Rep. former army officer Alfred Yekatom was elected MP. He was
arrested in October, 2018, for opening fire inside the legislature
when the new president of parliament was being elected.
(AFP, 11/17/18)
2016 The Han ethnic group of
mainland China numbered about 1.2 billion with other minorities at
about 110 million.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.18)
2016 A recent study said air
pollution in China contributes to the deaths of 1.6 million people
each year.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.11)
2016 Colombia’s cocaine output
reached an all-time high of 710 tons this year.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.28)
2016 The population of Colombia
was about 48 million.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.23)
2016 The population of Congo
DRC was estimated at 90 million. Kinshasa, the 3rd largest city of
Congo DRC, was estimated at 8-12 million.
(Econ, 4/16/16, SR p.15)(Econ, 5/14/16, p.39)
2016 In Cyprus trappers killed
some 2.3 million birds this autumn, up from 1.4 million in 2010.
Trappers can catch thousands of birds a season, selling a dozen for
up to $45 (40 euros) to restaurants, which serve a traditional dish
called ambelopoulia, for nearly twice the price.
(AFP, 6/18/17)
2016 The population of Djibouti
was about 875,000 with illiteracy at about 45%.
(Econ, 4/9/16, p.49)
2016 In El Salvador murders
dropped more than 20 percent in 2016, though the rate of 81.2 for
every 100,000 residents kept the country among the world's
deadliest. There were at least 5,278 murders in 2016, down from
6,665 in 2015, when its murder rate hit 104 per 100,000 residents.
Security forces killed 591 gang members in confrontations that left
8 police officers and two soldiers dead.
(AP, 1/3/17)(Econ, 1/26/17, p.28)
2016 Franch presidential
candidate Emmanuel Macron authored “Revolution.”
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.44)
2016 Another 5,000 French Jews
emigrated to Israel this year, continuing a trend that has seen tens
of thousands quit the country after a series of attacks targeting
the community.
(AFP, 1/9/17)
2016 Gabon’s population was
about 1.8 million . A quarter of the population lived on less than
$3 pr day.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.38)
2016 The population of Gambia
was about 1.9 million.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.49)
2016 Germany had 750,000 asylum
seekers this year.
(Econ 7/29/17, p.29)
2016 India’s Muslim population
numbered about 172 million.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.32)
2016 The population of
Indonesia was about 261 million, half of whom were under 30.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.42)
2016 Iran’s Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei appointed cleric Ebrahim Raisi to head the country’s
largest shrine and biggest clerical conglomerate.
(Econ 5/13/17, p.40)
2016 Iraq’s oil production
reached record lows this year. The IMF extended a $5.3 billion loan.
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.40)
2016 Transparency International
listed Iraq as the 8th most corrupt government in the world.
(Econ, 4/16/16, p.38)
2016 Violence in Iraq claimed
the lives of at least 6,878 civilian this year.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2016 Italy ranked as the
world’s 8th biggest economy, just ahead of Brazil.
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.68)
2016 In Jordan a particle
accelerator named the Sesame synchrotron, a particle accelerator,
approached completion at a cost of $79 million.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.112)
2016 Jordan’s population was
about 9 million.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.41)
2016 In Kenya central bank Gov.
Patrick Njoroge placed three banks into receivership in less than a
year. H alleged that the managing director of one bank had siphoned
off $335 million via 20 shell companies over 13 years.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.58)
2016 Kenya exported some 360
tons of flowers every day out of Nairobi airport, mostly to Europe,
but also to Asia and the Middle East.
(Econ, 4/16/16, SR p.8)
2016 Kenya declared qat, a mild
stimulant, an officially sanctioned cash crop.
(Econ, 1/21/17, p.38)
2016 The population of Kiribati
was about 111,000.
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.38)
2016 In Lebanon Christians were
allocated 64 of the parliament’s 128 seats, despite representing
only 37% of the population. Sunnis and Shias were allocated 27 seats
each with the rest going to Druze and Alawites.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.9)
2016 Lebanese newspaper
As-Safir shuttered 42 years after it published its first edition,
with the founder saying it had run out of funds.
(AFP, 9/28/18)
2016 In Lithuania a chain of
plastic surgery clinics in Lithuania was hacked and more than 25,000
private photos and personal data — including nude pictures — were
stolen. In 2017 a hacking group called Tsar Team demanded ransoms
from the clinic's clients in Germany, Denmark, Britain, Norway and
elsewhere.
(AP, 5/31/17)
2016 The population of Malta
was about 450,000.
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.73)
2016 Mexico’s economy ranked as
the 15th largest in the world.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.27)
2016 Mexico had 20,789
homicides this year compared to 17,034 in 2015.
(SFC, 2/4/17, p.A2)
2016 In Mexico the number of
illegal taps into the national oil pipeline network operated by
Pemex jumped to more than 6,800 as compared to 213 in 2006.
(Econ 5/13/17, p.29)
2016 Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar
topped New Delhi and Beijing as the world's most polluted capital.
(AFP, 5/1/18)
2016 The population of New
Zealand was about 4.7 million.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.41)
2016 The population of Niger
numbered about 20 million.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.41)
2016 The Islamic State in West
Africa (ISWA) split from Nigeria's Boko Haram. In 2018 analysts
estimated that ISWA has 3,000-5,000 fighters in the Lake Chad area
and that its territory extended more than 100 miles into the
northeastern Nigerian states of Borno and Yobe.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2016 Norway’s population was
about 5.2 million.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.67)
2016 In Pakistan some 24,000
madrasas were attended by at least 2 million boys. Nearly all the
schools adhered to the highly conservative Deobandi sect, whose
beliefs are similar to Saudi Wahhabism.
(Econ, 4/2/16, p.14)
2016 Pakistan’s population was
about 182 million with Hindus at about 2%.
(Econ, 3/5/16, p.37)
2016 The population of Papua
New Guinea numbered about 7.7 million.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.40)
2016 The population of the
Philippines was about 100 million.
(Econ, 5/7/16, p.15)
2016 Rwanda’s income per capita
doubled since 2000.
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.47)
2016 Saudi Arabia’s military
budget was the 3rd largest in the world. Only 2% of its arms were
purchased at home. A new vision called for over 50% to be spent
locally by 2030.
(Econ, 4/30/16, p.41)
2016 The Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA) was formed by Rohingya exiles living in Saudi
Arabia. It is led by Attullah Abu Amar Jununi, a Pakistani-born
Rohingya who grew up in Mecca, and a committee of about 20 Rohingya
emigres.
(AP, 8/31/17)
2016 In South Africa some 1,300
psychiatric patients were moved over several months this year from
specialized private hospitals to care homes run by charities in
Gauteng province. More than 100 of the patients died following the
move.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.41)
2016 South Africa’s government
put unemployment at 26.7%.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.16)
2016 In South Africa poaching
killed some 1,054 rhinos this year, up from just 13 in 2007.
(Econ 5/6/17, p.69)
2016 The South Korean film
“Spirits Homecoming” portrayed the story of the “comfort women”
enslaved by the Japanese during WW II.
(Econ, 3/26/16, p.47)
2016 Reporters Without Borders
placed South Korea in the 70th position in its World Press Freedom
Index.
(Econ 5/6/17, p.37)
2016 In South Sudan only 27% of
adults were able to read.
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.47)
2016 Tajikistan closed its last
unregistered madrassa (Muslim school).
(Econ, 9/23/17, p.37)
2016 Tunisian authorities
arrested Bernard Raymond Augustine (18) of California for entering
the country illegally with the intent to travel to Libya to
participate in Islamic State activities. Augustine served two years
in jail and in 2018 was turned over to the FBI agents and
transported to New York.
(SFC, 2/28/18, p.D1)
2016 Surveys in 2017 said some
6,000 millionaires had left Turkey this year.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.52)
2016 A team of Ugandan
engineers invented a "smart jacket" that diagnoses pneumonia faster
than a doctor. The jacket, which is still only a prototype, can
diagnose pneumonia up to three times faster than a doctor and
reduces human error, according to studies done by its inventors.
(AFP, 1/22/17)
2016 The population of
Uzbekistan was about 31 million.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.33)
2016 A UN-backed study in 2017
showed that electronic waste rose to a record 45 million tons
worldwide this year. The weight of e-waste in 2016 was equivalent to
about 4,500 Eiffel Towers.
(Reuters, 12/13/17)
2016 Venezuela’s economy shrank
by nearly 19% this year with inflation reaching 800%.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.12)
2016 Amnesty Int’l. documented
1,032 executions in Vietnam this year, but believed that the true
number is much higher.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.34)
2016 The population of Vietnam
was about 93 million.
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.32)
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