Extreme cold sparks chaos in Canada airports
AFP, Montreal
Snow, lengthy de-icing procedures and missing crews created havoc at Canada’s main airports on Monday, with hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed out of the country’s biggest city Toronto.
A deep freeze has settled over large parts of Canada and the United States, bringing extreme cold, piles of snow, and icy conditions.
From the early hours of New Year’s Day, Air Canada warned that holiday travel could be hectic, issuing a travel alert for passengers using airports in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa and waiving the usual fee for ticket changes.
Egypt executes 4 Islamic militants
AP, Cairo
Egypt on Tuesday executed four Islamic militants following their conviction by a military tribunal of killing three military academy students in a 2015 bomb attack that wounded six others.
The attack took place outside a stadium in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh as the military cadets were waiting for a bus to take them to the academy.
Tuesday’s executions at a prison in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria bring to 19 the number of militants executed over the past week.
Afghan district police chief killed
AP, Kabul
An Afghan official says a district police chief has been killed in a Taliban attack in the western Farah province.
Iqbal Bahir, the spokesman for Farah’s police chief, says two other policemen were wounded in the late Monday night attack in Pusht-e Rod district. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Gunmen kill 14 churchgoers in Nigeria
AFP, Warri
Gunmen killed at least 14 churchgoers returning from a midnight service on Monday in Nigeria’s Rivers State, a police source told AFP, the latest violence to hit the oil-rich region.
“The gunmen opened fire on a set of worshippers at about 12:30 am on Monday,” said Ugochi Olugbo, a relative of one of the victims who were attending a New Year’s Eve service.
