Current Final

Category: Global

  • Starlink waiting for Pakistan govt approvals, Elon Musk confirms

    Starlink waiting for Pakistan govt approvals, Elon Musk confirms

    The head of Starlink Services, Elon Musk, has confirmed in a tweet posted on Saturday that the internet satellite is waiting for government approvals to launch their services in Pakistan. 

    Musk replied to a tweet by a Pakistani account that asked about bringing Starlink Services to Pakistan: “We are waiting for approval from the government.” The original tweet came about in an unrelated conversation. 

    This is the first time that Musk, the richest man on earth and head of Tesla and Twitter, has directly tweeted about launching Starlink Services in Pakistan. 

    Starlink is a satellite internet service that provides high speed connectivity to remote areas of the world. Developed by Musk’s SpaceX, it offers multiple packages at different rates for its internet service.

    It merits a mention that digital rights activists have time and again challenged the government’s sincerity in bringing Starlink to Pakistan.

    The government, they say, is not willing to allow the satellite internet company in the country if it can not enforce the strict local regulations for online content.

  • World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan

    World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan

    The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died aged 116, the city where she lived, Ashiya, announced on Saturday.

    Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.

    She was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya — four months before the Ford Model T was launched in the United States.

    Itooka was recognised as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.

    “Ms Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in the statement.

    “We thank her for it.”

    Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.

    As a student, she played volleyball.

    In her older age, Itooka enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.

    Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the country is facing a worsening demographic crisis as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labour force to pay for it.

    As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older — 88 percent of whom were women.

    Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.

  • Two Indian protesters set themselves on fire at environment march

    Two Indian protesters set themselves on fire at environment march

    Two people in India set themselves on fire Friday to protest against the disposal of hazardous waste from the decades-old Bhopal industrial disaster, local government officials said.

    Images on social media showed the two men dousing themselves in liquid before being engulfed in shooting flames, although officials said the men survived.

    The protests erupted on Friday after authorities moved hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste — remaining from the world’s deadliest industrial disaster in the city of Bhopal 40 years ago — to the town of Pithampur for disposal.

    “The self-immolation attempt was unfortunate, but both people are safe now,” said Priyank Mishra, the administrative head of Dhar district where Pithampur is located.

    A long convoy of trucks with a police escort ferrying the 337 tonnes of waste — sealed inside containers — arrived in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh state overnight Wednesday.

    The waste dates back to the December 1984 disaster at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal — when some 3,500 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of a chemical leak, and up to 25,000 are estimated to have died overall.

    Twenty-seven tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC), used in the production of pesticides, swept through the city of over two million people after one of the tanks storing the deadly chemical shattered its concrete casing.

    Communities have for decades blamed a high level of sickness on the contamination of the groundwater in the wake of the highly toxic gas leak.

    The order to clear the waste was made in December, and Mishra insisted that its disposal would be done safely.

    “The process is being carried out under the aegis of the top scientific institutions of the country,” he said.

    “We have already held many public consultations and we will continue to explain to people in even simpler terms that it is a safe exercise.”

    Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Singh has also said that trial disposal exercises had showed that there it had “no impact on the environment”.

    In Bhopal, testing of groundwater near the site in the past revealed cancer- and birth defect-causing chemicals 50 times higher than what is accepted as safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

    Communities blame a range of health problems — including cerebral palsy, hearing and speech impairments and other disabilities — on the accident and the contamination of the groundwater.

  • Bangladesh rewrites books to claim ex-army chief, not Sheikh Mujib ‘declared’ independence

    Bangladesh rewrites books to claim ex-army chief, not Sheikh Mujib ‘declared’ independence

    New textbooks for primary and secondary students in Bangladesh will now name former army chief and president Lt Gen (r) Ziaur Rahman, not founder Sheikh Mujib Ur Rahman, as the person who declared independence in 1971.

    According to reports, the interim government in Bangladesh rung in the new year with the distribution of new textbooks among students, as per which Zia and not Mujib declared independence for the people of Bangladesh.

    In 2010, Mujib’s daughter and then-prime minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina, after coming to power for the second time, had ordered to mention her father as the person who declared independence via a wireless message just before he was arrested by Pakistani forces on March 26, 1971.

    Leading Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star quoted National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) Chairperson Prof AKM Reazul Hassan as saying that the textbooks for the new academic year would state that on March 26, 1971, Zia declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu – Bengali term used to refer to Mujib as “friend of Bengal”.

    The Daily Star also cited researcher Rakhal Raha, who is behind the changes to the textbooks, as saying that it was an attempt to free the textbooks from “exaggerated” and “imposed” history. “Those who revised the textbooks found it wasn’t fact-based information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message [declaring independence] while being arrested by the Pakistani army, and so they decided to remove it.”

    It merits a mention that Mujib’s declaration of independence is a widely accepted belief among the supporters of his daughter-led Awami League. They claim Zia, who was an army major and later a sector commander of the forces, only read out the declaration upon Mujib’s instructions.

    On the contrary, supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is headed by Zia’s daughter Khalida Zia, claim their party’s founder was the one to make the declaration.

    Both sides have attempted to make their claims a part of the national discourse during their respective tenures.


    The NCTB official, however, says it is not a point of debate. “This isn’t a matter related to the Awami League or BNP. This is a national issue. We’re trying to make sure that focusing on factual representation remains consistent.”

    However, the constitution of the country proclaims Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the “Father of the Nation” stating that the telegram of the Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh was made by Bangabandhu on March 26, 1971. 

    Notably, along with the changes in the textbooks, the NCTB has also removed the title “Father of the Nation” with regard to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

    It merits a mention that the move comes months after the collapse of Hasina’s tenure at the hands of Bangladeshi students who started a movement against unfair job quotas in the country. With the movement taking the country by storm, it forced Hasina to flee to India, marking the end of her 15-year rule.

    After the fall of her government, thousands of protesters were also seen taking down the monument of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the capital city of Dhaka.

  • Pakistan becomes member of UN Security Council for next two years

    Pakistan becomes member of UN Security Council for next two years

    Pakistan has started the new year by joining the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term as a non-permanent member.


    As Pakistan embarked on the term, it is important to note that this is the country’s eighth term on the council.


    Pakistan is replacing Japan with the formal election taking place back in June 2024. 


    Additionally, Pakistan occupies one of the two Asia-Pacific seats on the Security Council.


    Pakistan will get the chance to preside over the council in July, which is a key opportunity to set the agenda and foster dialogue on a global platform.


    Furthermore, the membership will also help secure a seat on the Islamic State and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which performs the role of designating individuals and groups associated with the extremist organisations as terrorists and imposing sanctions on them.


    As per the UN’s rule book, i.e. the UN Charter, only permanent members hold veto power in the council.


    However, non-permanent members can influence terrorism-related sanctions committees significantly, where decisions are made by consensus under established norms.


    This will provide Pakistan with an opportunity to highlight cross-border terrorist attacks from Afghanistan by the terrorist groups associated with the militant Islamic State group and Al Qaeda.


    In a ceremony held at UNSC, the Pakistani flag was hoisted by the country’s Permanent Representative at the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmed. While addressing the ceremony, he said that Pakistan will continue to raise a voice for the innocent and the oppressed. Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar told the media, “Pakistan will collaborate with all UN member states to uphold the principles of the UN Charter, prevent war, promote peace, foster global prosperity and ensure universal respect for human rights.”


    Delivering his remarks at a reception hosted for Islamabad-based envoys to mark the beginning of Pakistan’s term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for 2025-2026, he affirmed Pakistan’s commitment to multilateralism,  international law, peaceful settlement of disputes and friendly relations with countries around the world.

  • Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera broadcasts

    Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera broadcasts

    The Palestinian Authority has ordered the suspension of broadcasts by Qatar-based Al Jazeera and on Thursday accused it of incitement, which the news channel compared to Israeli practices.

    Al Jazeera is already banned from broadcasting from Israel amid a long-running feud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

    In September, armed and masked Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah also raided the Al Jazeera office, saying it was “used to incite terror.”

    The military issued an initial 45-day closure order, prompting the Palestinian foreign ministry at the time to condemn “a flagrant violation” of press freedom.

    On Thursday, the PA insisted its own suspension measure was “temporary,” adding its decision followed a complaint from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate concerning the network’s coverage.

    “These measures shall be applied until Al Jazeera chooses to act in accordance with basic media ethics, including its duty to prevent deliberate disinformation, ban the glorification of violence, and end the incitement to armed mutiny,” the PA said.

    The syndicate, which represents about 3,000 Palestinian journalists, said several had filed complaints against Al Jazeera for “biased media coverage on its platforms, including incitement, misleading reports, and content that stirs internal discord”.

    The PA’s decision includes “temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, employees, crews and affiliated channels until their legal status is rectified due to Al Jazeera’s violations of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine”, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported late Wednesday.

    The channel aired images of what appeared to be Palestinian security officers entering the network’s office in Ramallah and handing over the suspension orders.

    Al Jazeera condemned the decision, saying it “aligns with Israeli occupation practices targeting its media teams”.

    It accused the PA, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank, of “attempting to deter Al Jazeera from covering escalating events in the occupied Palestinian territories” including in Jenin and its refugee camp.

    The PA’s security forces have been engaged in weeks of deadly clashes with armed militants in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

    Tensions over coverage

    Militant group Hamas, rivals of Fatah which dominates the PA, condemned the decision to ban the network.

    “This decision aligns with a series of recent arbitrary actions taken by the Authority to curtail public rights and freedoms and to reinforce its security grip on the Palestinian people,” Hamas said in a statement.

    “We call on the Palestinian Authority to immediately reverse this decision … It is crucial to ensure the continuation of media coverage that exposes the occupation and supports the steadfastness of our people.”

    Islamic Jihad, allied with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, also criticised the decision.

    “We condemn the authority’s decision to close Al Jazeera’s office in Palestine when our people and our cause are in dire need to convey their suffering to the world,” the group said in a statement.

    Tensions between the network and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas have risen in recent weeks following the channel’s coverage of the clashes in Jenin.

    In late December, the channel condemned what it said was an “incitement campaign” by Fatah against the network in some areas of the occupied West Bank.

    “This campaign follows the network’s coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and resistance fighters in Jenin,” it said in a statement at the time.

    The security forces of the PA have been engaged in deadly clashes with gunmen since early December, triggered by the arrests of several militants.

    They are fighting members of the Jenin Battalion, most of whom are affiliated with either Islamic Jihad or Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

    Fatah’s rivals have accused PA forces of aiding Israel.

    Al Jazeera continues to work in Gaza, where Hamas seized control in 2007.

    The violence in the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of armed groups and a frequent target of Israeli military raids has killed 11 people, including PA security personnel, militants and civilians.

  • Gaza babies die from winter cold say medics and families

    Gaza babies die from winter cold say medics and families

    Yahya al-Batran clutched the tiny clothes of his dead newborn son Jumaa, just days after the baby died from the cold in their tent in war-torn Gaza.

    “We are watching our children die before our eyes,” said the 44-year-old.

    Their baby was one of the seven children who died from the cold within the span of a week, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday.

    “We fled the bombing from Beit Lahia, only for them to die from the cold here?” said the child’s mother Noura al-Batran, referring to their hometown in northern Gaza.

    The 38-year-old is still recovering from giving birth prematurely to Jumaa and his surviving twin brother, Ali, who is being treated in an intensive care unit at a hospital in southern Gaza.

    Completely destitute and repeatedly displaced by Israel’s aggression in Gaza, the Batran family lives in a makeshift tent in Deir el-Balah made of worn-out blankets and fabric.

    His father, while talking to a reporter, said, “We didn’t die because of the Jews…
    My children died from the cold and hunger.”

    Like hundreds of others now living in a date palm orchard, they have struggled to keep warm and dry amid heavy rains and temperatures that have dropped as low as eight degrees Celsius.

    “We don’t have enough blankets or suitable clothing. I saw my baby start to freeze, his skin turned blue and then he died,” she cried.

    The twins were born prematurely, and she said the doctor decided to take the babies out of the incubator despite the family not having access to heating.

    On a rain-soaked mat, the father hugged his older children tight with blankets and worn-out cloth in a corner of their tent.

    He then placed a small pot of water on the stove to make tea, which he then mixed with dry bread to make a meagre lunch for his family with a little cheese and the thyme-based spice blend called za’atar.

    Like thousands of other families enduring dire conditions, they face shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, with the United Nations warning of an imminent collapse of the healthcare system.

    In southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, Mahmoud al-Fasih said he found his infant daughter, Seela, “frozen from the cold” in their small tent near al-Mawasi beach, where they were displaced from Gaza City.

    He rushed her to the hospital in the area that Israel has designated a “humanitarian zone”, but she was already dead.

    Ahmad Al-Farra, a doctor and director of the emergency and children’s department at Nasser Hospital, told AFP that the three-week-old baby arrived at the hospital with “severe hypothermia, without vital signs, in cardiac arrest that led to her death”.

    Another 20-day-old baby, Aisha al-Qassas, also died of cold in the area, according to her family.

    “In Gaza, everything leads to death,” said the baby’s uncle, Mohamed al-Qassas. “Those who do not die under Israeli bombardments succumb to hunger or cold.”

    The Hamas government press office in Gaza warned on Monday of the impact of more harsh weather expected in the coming days, saying it posed a “real threat to two million displaced people,” the majority of whom live in tents.

    Farra warned that this would likely be accompanied by “the death of greater numbers of children, infants, and the elderly.”

    “Life in tents is dangerous due to the cold and the scarcity of energy and heating sources,” he said.

  • Tintin, Popeye among US copyrights expiring in 2025

    Tintin, Popeye among US copyrights expiring in 2025

    From “A Farewell to Arms” to the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor, thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday.

    US copyright law expires after 95 years for books, films and other works of art, while sound recordings from 1924 will also be copyright-free.

    By entering the public domain, the pieces can be copied, shared, reproduced or adapted by anyone without paying the rights owner.

    This year’s crop includes internationally recognized figures such as the comic character Tintin, who made his debut in a Belgian newspaper in 1929, and Popeye the Sailor, created by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar.

    Every December, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain publishes a list of the cultural works that lose their copyright in the new year.

    The center, part of the Duke University School of Law in the southeastern US state of North Carolina, makes the list available on its website for anyone to peruse.

    “In past years we have celebrated an exciting cast of public domain characters: the original Mickey Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh, and the final iterations of Sherlock Holmes from Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories,” center director Jennifer Jenkins wrote on its website.

    “In 2025 copyright expires over more aspects of Mickey from his 1929 incarnations, along with the initial versions of Popeye and Tintin.”

    Among the literary works entering the US public domain on January 1 are the novels “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner, “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway, “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf and the first English translation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” by the German author Erich Maria Remarque.

    Films that will be in the public domain include “Blackmail,” directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and “The Black Watch,” the first sound film by Oscar-winning director John Ford.

    Musical compositions published in 1929, such as “Bolero” by French composer Maurice Ravel and “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin, will lose their copyrights, though only recordings from 1924 or earlier will be in the public domain.

  • TikTok fined $10 million for ‘dangerous’ viral challenges

    TikTok fined $10 million for ‘dangerous’ viral challenges

    The Venezuelan Supreme Court has imposed a fine of $10 million on TikTok over “dangerous” viral trends.

    According to reports, the fine has been imposed after the deaths of three youths while performing viral challenges that were trending on TikTok.

    The court said that TikTok was not taking any steps to block or remove the content promoting the dangerous trends.

    While the courts did not clarify how TikTok will pay the fine, executives of the app are yet to react to the decision.

    Earlier, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also blamed TikTok for the death of a 12-year-old girl in November. The girl had allegedly lost her life while participating in a TikTok challenge that required taking tranquillizers without falling asleep.

    TikTok to prevent under-18 users from using beauty filters

    On November 28, 2024, TikTok decided to implement restrictions to prevent users under the age of 18 from using beauty filters.

    Users under the age of 18 will soon be prevented from using effects that enhance their beauty and attractiveness. The change is aimed at protecting minors from mental health problems.

    Beauty filters are applied to real-time video images to enhance physical attractiveness. Common effects of such filters include smoothing skin texture and enlarging eyes or narrowing the nose. A filter called ‘Bold Glamour’ turns anyone into a supermodel.

    However, according to the company, the age restriction will not apply to filters that are designed for entertainment purposes.

    TikTok will also use machine learning technologies that can help identify accounts belonging to children under the age of 13.

    Canadian govt asks TikTok to shut operations for security reasons

    On November 8, 2024, Canada said Wednesday it is shutting down TikTok’s offices in the country following a security review, but people will still be allowed to use the popular video-sharing app.

    “The government is taking action to address the specific national security risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s operations in Canada,” Francois-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a statement.

    Ottawa is not imposing restrictions on Canadian users of TikTok, which has come under scrutiny for its ownership under China-based ByteDance.

    “The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Champagne said.

    Canada banned TikTok from all government devices last year and launched a security review of the application.

    Champagne said Wednesday’s decision was made in accordance with a law that “allows for the review of foreign investments that may be injurious to Canada’s national security.”

    TikTok said it would challenge the decision in court.

    “Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest,” said a spokesperson.

    “We will challenge this order in court.”

    A cyber expert at the University of Ottawa, Michael Geist, said “there may well be good reasons” to ban the app but warned the move could be counterproductive.

    “Banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened,” Geist wrote in an online post.

    TikTok also faces a ban in the United States if it remains owned by ByteDance – a threat the company is battling in a federal appeals court, arguing that it violates free speech rights.

    The US government alleges that TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users. It also says the platform is a conduit to spread propaganda.

    China and the company strongly deny these claims.

  • Notable deaths of 2024

    Notable deaths of 2024

    From Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to British actress Maggie Smith and US music titan Quincy Jones, here are some of 2024’s most notable deaths.

    February 

    – 4: HAGE GEINGOB, Namibia’s President and its first post-independence prime minister, aged 82

    – 9: ROBERT BADINTER, France’s former justice minister who ended capital punishment in 1981, 95

    – 16: ALEXEI NAVALNY, the top opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in prison aged 47, after over three years behind bars

    – 29: ALI HASSAN MWINYI, former Tanzanian president, who introduced multi-party democracy, 98

    March

    – 1: IRIS APFEL, New York fashion celebrity known as the “geriatric starlet”, 102

    – 1: AKIRA TORIYAMA, creator of Japan’s “Dragon Ball” manga and anime cartoons, 68

    April

    – 2: MARYSE CONDE, French writer, chronicler of the lives of the descendants of Africans taken as slaves to the Caribbean, 90

    – 8: PETER HIGGS, British physicist whose theory of a mass-giving particle — the so-called Higgs boson — jointly earned him the Nobel Physics Prize, 94

    – 10: O.J. SIMPSON, ex-American football star acquitted in 1995 following the televised “Trial of the Century” of the murder of his ex-wife and her male friend. A 1997 civil trial found Simpson liable and he then served nearly nine years in prison for a bungled 2007 armed robbery, 76

    – 30: PAUL AUSTER, American novelist who wrote “The New York Trilogy”, 77

    May

    – 9: ROGER CORMAN, American B-movie filmmaker, 98

    – 13: ALICE MUNRO, Nobel Prize-winning Canadian author known for her mastery of the short story, 92

    June

    – 5: AKIRA ENDO, Japanese biochemist who discovered cholesterol-lowering statins, 90

    – 11: FRANCOISE HARDY, French singer who shot to international stardom in the 1960s, 80

    – 18: ANOUK AIMEE, French film star of Claude Lelouch’s box-office smash “A Man and A Woman”, 92

    – 20: DONALD SUTHERLAND, Canadian actor of “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Hunger Games”, 88

    July

    – 1: ISMAIL KADARE, Albanian novelist whose novels defied the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, 88

    – 13: SHANNEN DOHERTY, US actress of the high school drama series “Beverly Hills 90210”, 53

    – 19: NGUYEN PHU TRONG, general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party, considered the country’s top leader, 80

    – 27: EDNA O’BRIEN, radical Irish writer whose first novel “The Country Girls” was burned and banned in her native country, 93

    – 31: ISMAIL HANIYEH, Hamas political chief, killed in Tehran in an attack blamed on Israel, 62

    August

    – 14: GENA ROWLANDS, award-winning US actress and muse of her first husband, director John Cassavetes, 94

    – 18: ALAIN DELON, French film legend known for his roles in classics “Plein Soleil” (Purple Noon) (1960) and “Le Samurai” (1967), 88

    September

    – 11: ALBERTO FUJIMORI, Peru’s former president, who spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, 86

    – 27: MAGGIE SMITH, British actor, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, “Gosford Park”, Harry Potter series: double Oscar-winner, 89

    – 27: HASSAN NASRALLAH, Hezbollah chief, killed in an Israeli strike, 64

    – 28: KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, US country music legend, actor, 88

    October

    – 9: RATAN TATA, Indian industrialist, head of the Tata Group, 86

    – 10: ETHEL KENNEDY, human rights activist and widow of assassinated US politician Robert F. Kennedy, 96

    – 16: LIAM PAYNE, former member of the best-selling boys band One Direction, having fallen from the third floor of a Buenos Aires hotel, 31

    – 16: YAHYA SINWAR, Hamas political chief, killed by Israeli troops, 61

    – 20: FETHULLAH GULEN, Muslim cleric and bitter enemy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in exile in the United States, 83

    November

    – 3: QUINCY JONES, Trailblazing US musician, arranger, band leader, composer and producer, 91

    – 24: BREYTEN BREYTENBACH, South African award-winning writer and anti-apartheid activist, 85

    – 28: PRINCE JOHNSON, former Liberian warlord, responsible for the gruesome 1990 killing of President Samuel Doe, which plunged Liberia into two bloody civil wars, 72

    December

     

    – 17: MARISA PAREDES, Spanish actress who starred in six films by Pedro Almodovar, becoming known as “Almodovar’s girl”, 78

    -18: JIMMY CARTER, Ex American President, died at the age of 100 years.