LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A man accused of making the bomb that killed 270 people after it blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 is in custody in the United States, Scottish and U.S. law enforcement officials said on Sunday. Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi was taken into custody about two years after former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr first announced the United States filed charges against him. A Justice Department official confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the United States has taken custody of the alleged Pan Am flight 103 bomb maker. Mas’ud is expected to make his initial court appearance in a federal court in Washington, D.C. The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told the suspect is in U.S. custody, a spokesperson for Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said on Sunday.

 

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ROME (AP) – A man opened fire Sunday during a condominium board meeting in a coffee shop in northern Rome, killing three people and injuring others, authorities and witnesses said. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri called an emergency security meeting for Monday after what he called “the grave episode of violence that has struck our city.” In a tweet, he confirmed three people were killed in the shooting in the working class neighborhood of Fidene. “The shooting occurred in an enclosed outdoor seating area of the bar, called “Il Posto Giusto,” or “The Right Place.” La Repubblica daily quoted witness Luciana Ciorba, vice president of the condo board, as saying the man entered the bar shouting “I’ll kill you all,” and then opened fire. Participants managed to disarm him until Carabinieri police arrived. Speaking in a video interview, Ciorba said the man was known to board members and had been previously reported to authorities for making threats against local residents.

 

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WASHINGTON, Kan. (Reuters) – Residents near the site of the worst U.S. oil pipeline leak in a decade took the commotion and smell in stride as cleanup crews labored in near-freezing temperatures, and investigators searched for clues to what caused the spill. A heavy odor of oil hung in the air as tractor trailers ferried generators, lighting and ground mats to a muddy site on the outskirts of this farming community, where a breach in the Keystone pipeline discovered on Wednesday spewed 14,000 barrels of oil. Pipeline operator TC Energy said it was evaluating plans to restart the line, which carries 622,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil to U.S. refineries and export hubs. “We could smell it first thing in the morning; it was bad,” said Washington resident Dana Cecrle, 56. He shrugged off the disruption: “Stuff breaks. Pipelines break, oil trains derail.” TC Energy did not provide details of the breach or say when a restart on the broken segment could begin. Officials are scheduled on Monday to receive a briefing on the pipeline breach and cleanup, said Washington County’s emergency preparedness coordinator, Randy Hubbard, on Saturday.

  

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BEIJING (AFP) – One of China’s top health experts has warned of a surge in Covid-19 cases, state media said Sunday, in the wake of the government’s decision to abandon its coronavirus strategy. Shops and restaurants in Beijing are deserted as the country awaits a spike in infections following the decision to reduce the scope of mandatory testing, allow some positive cases to quarantine at home and end large-scale lockdowns. Top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan told state media in an interview published Sunday that the Omicron strain of the virus prevalent in China was highly transmissible and could lead to a surge in cases. “The (current) Omicron mutation... is very contagious... one person can transmit to 22 people,” said Zhong -- a leading advisor to the government throughout the pandemic. “Currently, the epidemic in China is... spreading rapidly, and under such circumstances, no matter how strong the prevention and control is, it will be difficult to completely cut off the transmission chain.”

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A high-level U.S. delegation will travel to China next week to follow up on President Joe Biden’s recent talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and prepare for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit there early next year, the U.S. State Department says. The U.S. announcement follows comments by a senior White House official that China wants stabilized relations with the United States in the short term as it faces domestic economic challenges and pushback in Asia to its assertive diplomacy. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink and National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Laura Rosenberger will travel to China, South Korea and Japan from December 11-14, the State Department said in a statement. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping engaged in blunt talks over Taiwan and North Korea on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia in mid-November, a meeting aimed at preventing strained U.S.-China ties from spilling into a new Cold War.

 

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ROME (Reuters) – Italy, which has vowed a tough line on immigration, took in more than 500 migrants on Sunday as two charity rescue ships were allowed to dock at ports in the south of the country after several days at sea in bad weather. The Geo Barents ship, operated by the Doctors without Borders (MSF) charity and which had 248 migrants aboard, arrived in Salerno in the southwestern region of Campania, MSF said. On the other side of the country, the Humanity 1, another rescue vessel run by the charity SOS Humanity, docked in the port city of Bari after the Italian authorities agreed to grant it permission. The journey had been very tough and the ship had faced three-meter high waves and strong winds, SOS Humanity said in a tweet, confirming its arrival with 261 migrants on board.