LONDON (Daily Mail) – Some survivors and families of the 9/11 victims lashed out at U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris over her comparing the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks to last year’s Capitol riot and the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbour. They included 61-year-old Mary Geraghty, whose husband, New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief Edward Geraghty, died during the attacks. Speaking to The Daily Mail, she said that she was “still speechless that our vice president would make that comment”. “There were terrorists that came onto American soil and slaughtered American citizens. There is absolutely no comparison. Insult is too mild a word,” Geraghty added. According to her, “you can’t expect much from someone who is so out of touch”. The widow was echoed by Angela Mistruli, who lost her father, a union carpenter working at the top of the North Tower restaurant during the Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001. She told The Daily Mail that she doesn’t like “bringing 9/11 into political conversation” and that she doesn’t believe “the people on January 6 went there with the intent of harming anyone”. Retired Fire Captain Anthony Varriale, for his part, insisted that “it’s embarrassing that she’s [Kamala Harris] the vice president of the United States. It’s like a knife to my gut. I think she should resign”. The same tone was struck by Gail Eagelson, whose husband Bruce died in the South Tower of the World Trade Centre after making sure that 18 co-workers made it out safely. She told The Daily Mail that she “really” doesn’t have respect for Harris, “so I don’t listen to what she says”.

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ANKARA (Anadolu) – Armenian forces fired on Azerbaijani army positions across the border on Saturday, Baku announced. The Armenian troops stationed in the Yukhari Shorja area fired automatic grenade launchers and large-caliber weapons at about 1.50 p.m. local time (0950GMT) in the direction of the Kalbajar region on the Azerbaijani side, said a statement by Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry. “As a result of the retaliatory actions undertaken by the Azerbaijan Army Units, the opposing side was suppressed,” the ministry said, reporting no losses of personnel or military equipment. “Currently, the situation in this direction is stable, the Azerbaijan Army Units control the operational situation,” it added. Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions. Clashes erupted in September 2020, and during the six-week war, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages.

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ISLAMABAD (AFP) – At least 21 people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging a Pakistani hill town to see unusually heavy snowfall, authorities said Saturday. Police reported that at least six people had frozen to death in their cars, while it was not immediately clear if others had died from asphyxiation after inhaling fumes in the snowdrift. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the military had mobilized to clear roads and rescue thousands still trapped near Murree, around 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of the capital, Islamabad. Video shared on social media showed cars packed bumper-to-bumper, with one-meter-high (three-foot) piles of snow on their roofs. “People are facing a terrible situation,” Usman Abbasi, a tourist stuck in the town where heavy snow was still falling, told AFP by phone. For days, Pakistan’s social media has been full of pictures and video of people playing in the snow around Murree, a picturesque resort town built by the British in the 19th century as a sanatorium for its colonial troops. The Punjab province chief minister’s office said Murree had been declared a “disaster area” and urged people to stay away.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was shocked and upset at the tragedy.

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An air strike in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray killed 56 people and wounded at least 30 in a camp for the internally displaced, two aid workers told Reuters on Saturday, citing local authorities and eyewitness accounts. The workers, who asked not to be named because they did not have permission to speak to the press, sent Reuters pictures of people wounded in hospital, including many children. One of them visited Shire Shul General Hospital, where the injured were treated, and said the camp hosts many old women and children. “They told me the bombs came at midnight,” the worker said. “It was completely dark and they couldn’t escape.” The camp that was hit by the strike is in the town of Dedebit in the northwest of the region, near the border with Eritrea, and the number of casualties was confirmed by local authorities, they said. The government has been accused of targeting civilians in the 14-month conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces - which it has previously denied.

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LONDON (The Independent) – NHS leaders have been accused of downplaying the impact of the Covid crisis and putting hospitals under scrutiny for declaring critical incidents and postponing surgeries. A leaked email urges hospitals to use the “correct terminology” and to give advanced notice to NHS leaders before declaring their status, The Independent reported. Sources said the message was a “thinly-veiled threat” and that there was “subtle pressure” amid rapid spread of the Omicron variant. At least 25 trusts have declared critical incidents this week, including one in Northamptonshire on Friday afternoon, while new figures show a 59% rise in staff absences in just seven days. Trusts in London were told hospitals will be scrutinized for declaring a critical incident if there is “doubt” over the decision, according the internal email sent from NHS England on Wednesday. In light of media coverage, it would be “valuable” to “raise awareness of the key terminology and encourage you to ensure that you are clear ... when considering a declaration,” it said, adding, “National scrutiny on the declaration on incidents has heightened ... and [senior managers] will need to make additional enquiries where there is doubt as to the status of an organization’s incident.” Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said, “We know that the NHS is under enormous pressure and it is important that local trusts are able to be honest and open with parliament and the public about the challenges they’re facing. We are increasingly concerned that ministers are more interested in covering up problems than solving them.”

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SANTIAGO (AFP) – Chileans have taken to the streets to protest a government plan to sell a lithium extraction contract, reviving debate about nationalization of the resource as a new leftist president prepares to take over. Protests were called by the opposition under the banner: “To reclaim our resource.” Opposition lawmakers launched a court action -- rejected Friday because the clock on the process had run out -- earlier this week to stop the bidding process for a 20-year contract to extract 400,000 tons of lithium in the world’s second-largest producer of the metal, which notably is used in electric car batteries. The tender process, which opened last October, will close this month, just two months before center-right president Sebastian Pinera is replaced by leftist Gabriel Boric. In Santiago Friday evening, marchers chanted, “Pinera, understand that lithium is not for sale.” Boric, Chile’s youngest-ever leader, was elected last month on a promise of installing a “social welfare” state and has said Chile cannot repeat the “historical error of privatizing resources” such as lithium. Boric has proposed creating a “national lithium company” similar to the national Copper Corporation (Codelco) -- the world’s biggest copper company formed in the 1970s out of nationalized mining firms.