Damaskus (AFP) – The first flight since the ouster of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad takes off from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north. Forty-three people including journalists are on board. Earlier this week, airport staff were painting on planes the three-star independence flag that became a symbol of the 2011 uprising and which the country’s new rulers have adopted.
Golanhöhen (AFP) – “Syria is tired of war,” says Murhaf Abu Qasra, military chief of victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as Israel steps up its military presence in the Golan Heights.
Hargeisa (AFP) – At the Hargeisa Cultural Centre Library in Somaliland, Somalia’s breakaway region, cassettes archive manager Hafsa Omer is meticulously archiving and digitising a collection of 14,000 cassettes. The tapes contain more than half a century of the music, poetry, political discussions of the self-proclaimed nation which has no global recognition.
Kushimoto (Japan) (AFP) – A start-up aiming to become Japan’s first private firm to put a satellite into orbit says that the second launch attempt of its Kairos rocket failed shortly after lift-off.
Porlamar (Venezuela) (AFP) – Venezuela’s Margarita island, once dubbed the “Pearl of the Caribbean”, is now littered with abandoned hotels, many shops stand empty, and there are regular power outages. The country’s economic collapse, high crime rates and growing international isolation in the wake of bitterly disputed elections have caught up with the island of 500,000 people.
Saydnaya (Syria) (AFP) – Outside Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison, relatives leaf desperately through abandoned ledgers looking for news of the missing, clinging to the dream of seeing missing sons, husbands and sisters again. Desperate Syrians say they were systematically shaken down for bribes to receive news of detainees that together amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. Ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s vast network of prisons was not simply a tool of his brutal crackdown on opposition to his rule, it was a money-making machine for his supporters.
Moscow (AFP) – Investigators attend the site of a blast that killed senior Russian military official Igor Kirillov and his assistant in Moscow. Kirillov, who commanded troops in the Russian army’s chemical, biological and radiation defence, was killed when an explosive device attached to a scooter went off outside an apartment building in the city’s southeast, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. The killing has been claimed by Ukraine’s SBU security service, according to a source within the agency.
Saydnaya (Syria) (AFP) – Outside Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison, relatives leaf desperately through abandoned ledgers looking for news of the missing, clinging to the dream of seeing missing sons, husbands and sisters again. Desperate Syrians say they were systematically shaken down for bribes to receive news of detainees that together amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. Ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s vast network of prisons was not simply a tool of his brutal crackdown on opposition to his rule, it was a money-making machine for his supporters.
Avignon (France) (AFP) – Gisele Pelicot leaves the court in Avignon after the defendants in the Mazan mass rape trial took the stand for the last time. It was her last appearance before the verdict, expected later in the week.
Pemba (Mozambique) (AFP) – Cyclone Chido made landfall in Mozambique early Sunday December 15, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, with the UN’s agency Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), warning remnants of the cyclone would bring “significant rainfall” on neighbouring Malawi and that Zimbabwe and Zambia could also expect heavy rains.
Beijing (AFP) – China has urged the United States to “stop arming Taiwan… and supporting Taiwan independence forces”. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian made the comments after Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had received dozens of advanced Abrams battle tanks from Washington.
London (AFP) – At her London pub, landlady Kate Davidson has taken to issuing Guinness ration cards, due to a shortage of Ireland’s national drink. Bars across Britain, even Irish ones, have reported limited supplies of the black stuff since Guinness owner Diageo announced earlier this month that it was experiencing “exceptional consumer demand”.
