Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Guatemala FM defends Israel embassy move
GUATEMALA CITY
President Jimmy Morales’ top diplomat defended his decision to move Guatemala’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, rejecting on Tuesday international and domestic criticism after he followed Washington’s lead in announcing a switch.
Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said the change amounts to “a foreign policy decision, therefore sovereign,” and there is no intention to reverse it.
“What we are doing is being coherent with our foreign policy and the ally we have been for Israel,” she said.
Morales announced the change Christmas Eve, becoming the first to follow U.S. President Donald Trump on switching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Motive of man who shot at officers still under investigation
HARRISBURG, Pa.
A prosecutor says authorities are still investigating the motives of an Egyptian man who shot at police in several locations in Pennsylvania’s state capital, wounding one of them, before dying in a shootout.
Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico gave no new information Tuesday about Ahmed Aminamin El-Mofty’s motives. The 51-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen fired at a police officer Friday afternoon in front of the state Capitol and later at a state trooper, wounding her.
El-Mofty was killed in a confrontation with city and state police officers about a mile from the Capitol.
Marsico says agents know where El-Mofty purchased his guns. The FBI and Pennsylvania State Police are aiding the investigation.
Federal officials say El-Mofty was admitted to the U.S. from Egypt on a family-based immigrant visa.
Property manager finds 4 people dead
TROY, N.Y.
Four people were found dead Tuesday and may have been killed in a basement apartment in New York’s capital region, police said.
A property manager made the grisly discovery at a home in Troy, a city near Albany, police Capt. Daniel DeWolf said.
The deaths are “certainly suspicious,” he said. “Until something changes our mind, we’re looking at it as a homicide.”
“It’s horrible. Terrible. Sad – sad especially at this time of year,” DeWolf said. “We’re going to do everything we can to look into this and get to the bottom of what happened here.”
Airstrike kills at least 25 in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen
Yemeni witnesses and security officials say a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a crowded market has killed at least 25 people, including children.
They say Tuesday’s strike in the western province of Taiz wounded at least 30 others.
The witnesses and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation or were not authorized to brief the media.
The coalition could not immediately be reached to comment.
International rights groups have accused the coalition of bombing civilian gatherings, markets, hospitals and residential areas across Yemen since the beginning of its air campaign against Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis, in March 2015.
Associated Press