IRAQ’S PM URGES FALLUJAH TO ‘EXPEL’ AL-QAEDA
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on “the people of Fallujah and its tribes to expel the terrorists” so that “their areas are not subjected to the danger of armed clashes,” the BBC reports state television channel Iraqiya as saying. Last week, al-Qaeda-linked fighters took control of Fallujah and the nearby city of Ramadi, where army air strikes killed at least 34 people yesterday. Read more from The Guardian.
BANGLADESH RULING PARTY WINS BOYCOTTED ELECTION AMID DEADLY CLASHES
The Awami League, Bangladesh’s governing party, easily won yesterday’s parliamentary elections after the opposition party, the BNP, boycotted the vote and called for a 48-hour general strike to protest what it sees as “one-sided and farcical” polls, BDnews24 reports. According to the website, at least 21 people were killed in clashes, while RT reports that the police shot at protesters, who torched polling stations and beat to death two people who tried to defend the sites.
SYRIAN NATIONAL COALITION LEADER RE-ELECTED
Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, re-elected its leader Ahmad Jarba, a man thought to be close to Saudi Arabia, AFP reports. Following yesterday’s vote, the coalition is expected to discuss whether to attend the peace conference in Geneva, scheduled to take place at the end of the month.
ANGELA FALLS
German Chancellor Angela Merkel fractured a pelvic bone during in a cross country ski accident in Switzerland, the BBC reports.
‘POLAR VORTEX’
Large parts of the North American continent are braced for what could turn out to be record-low temperatures, brought by a “polar vortex,” a jet stream from the North Pole. Areas in Canada and the northeastern U.S. are expected to be crippled by a snowstorm. The cold weather is expected to last, and even the Southern states of Alabama and Georgia are preparing for record-low temperatures Tuesday. Read more from NPR.
BY THE NUMBERS
Prosecutors are expected to announce that JPMorgan will pay more than $2 billion in penalties in the Bernie Madoff case, The Wall Street Journal reports.
FOTO
Tens of thousands of African migrants demonstrated in Tel Aviv Sunday as part of a national three-day strike, demanding the government recognize their asylum requests.
CRIME INT’L
In China, a gang has been accused of injecting dirty pond water into lamb meat to increase its weight and price, Reuters reports.
VERBATIM
The diplomatic stand-off between Japan and China reaches a new level of tension as both countries compare the other to “Voldemort.”
WEIRD
Rescuers use olive oil to extract a naked man from washing machine.
