NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Blazing meteorite: A fireball lit up the dark skies of Arctic Finland for five seconds, giving off what scientists said was “the glow of 100 full moons” and igniting hurried attempts to find the reported meteorite. Finnish experts were scrambling to calculate its trajectory and find where it landed, according to Tomas Kohout of the University of Helsinki’s physics department, who said Thursday night’s fireball “seems to have been one of the brightest ones.” It produced a blast wave that felt like an explosion about 6:40 p.m. and could also be seen in northern Norway and in Russia’s Kola peninsula, he said Saturday. It might have weighed about 220 pounds, according to Nikolai Kruglikov of Yekaterinburg’s Urals Federal University.
2 Yemen fighting: International aid group Doctors Without Borders says it has not been able to deliver lifesaving medical and humanitarian assistance to the people in dire need in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa because of a blockade by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels. The group said in a statement Saturday it hasn’t received authorization from the coalition to fly from Djibouti to Sanaa. The U.S.backed coalition imposed a land, sea and air blockade Nov. 6 after a missile attack by rebels on the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia said Monday the coalition would lift the blockade.
3 Dam dispute: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi delivered a stern warning Saturday to Ethiopia over a dam it is building after the two countries, along with Sudan, failed to approve a study on its potential effects. Ethiopia is finalizing construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, its first major dam on the Blue Nile, and will eventually start filling the giant reservoir behind it to power the Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam. Egypt fears the dam will cut into its water supply and destroy parts of its farmland. Ethiopia says the dam is essential to its development.
4 Missing persons: Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has signed a law aimed at addressing the country’s staggering number of unsolved disappearances. Mexico has more than 30,000 missing people, many victims of the country’s drug violence or corrupt security forces. Advocates are hailing the law as a long-awaited start, but caution that the law’s implementation will be critical. The law will create a National Search System with local branches in the states. It will also create new special prosecutors to handle disappearances and provide more forensic resources to investigations.
5 Submarine search: Argentine authorities say the crew of a missing submarine attempted to transmit messages several times Saturday, the first such communications from the vessel since it went missing Wednesday in the south Atlantic. Defense Minister Oscar Aguad said Saturday night over Twitter that the submarine, with a crew of 44 members, sent seven “communication attempts” earlier in the day. He did not provide further details. The whereabouts of the vessel, the subject of an intensive search involving eight nations, remained a mystery. The submarine ARA San Juan had participated in naval exercises off southern Argentina before departing Monday for a naval base in Mar de Plata. The last contact was made after the vessel passed the Valdes Peninsula about 270 miles off Argentina’s coast. NASA joined the search effort with a P-3 Orion patrol airplane.