NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Anticorruption protests: Protests in Ukraine focusing on endemic corruption are tapping a deep strain of discontent in a country prone to upheaval. Antigovernment protesters have set up a few dozen tents outside parliament in Kiev, a far smaller showing than during massive 2014 protests and the 2004 Orange Revolution that forced a rerun of a fraudulent presidential election. The protests are spearheaded by former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested on Friday. His overall support in Ukraine appears low, but he has such influential allies as journalistturned lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem. Nayyem’s social media calls to rally set the 2013-2014 protests in motion.
2 Brutal slaying: A judge on Friday sentenced a man to at least 14 years in prison for the slaying of an Aboriginal woman who bled to death from a violent sexual assault on a remote beach, closing a six-year battle for justice by the woman’s family in a case that exposed Australia’s deep racial divide. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Fullerton said Adrian Attwater had shown “callous indifference” toward Lynette Daley, and sentenced him to a maximum of 19 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 14 years and three months, for manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault. His co-defendant, Paul Maris, was sentenced to nine years in prison, with a non-parole period of six years and nine months, for aggravated sexual assault and hindering the discovery of evidence. Daley, a 33-year-old mother of seven, died in 2011 after Attwater and Maris subjected her to a sexual assault so vicious, a forensic pathologist said her injuries were worse than those occurring in precipitous childbirth.
3 Martial law: The Philippine military and police have asked President Rodrigo Duterte to extend martial law he declared in the country’s south by a year because of continuing threats from pro-Islamic State militants and communist guerrillas, officials said Friday. Interior Undersecretary Catalino Cuy said the national police want to extend martial law, which expires on Dec. 31, to allow them to continue offensives against Muslim militants who eluded capture during a five-month siege of southern Marawi city and against other extremist groups.
4 Shrine slayings: The head priest of a prominent shrine in Tokyo was ambushed and killed with a samurai sword, apparently by her brother, who then took his own life, police said Friday. A female accomplice also died in the attack, and the priest’s driver was injured, Tokyo police said. The motive was unclear, though Japanese media reported there may have been a feud between the priest and her brother. Police said that Nagako Tomioka, the 58-year-old head of Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, was attacked as she got out of her car Thursday night. 5 Kissing arrests: Tanzanian police say they have arrested three more people over a video shared online in which a woman kisses and embraces another woman. Ahmed Msangi, police chief in the Mwanza region, says 25-year-old Janeth Shonza was arrested in the central region of Singida. Police also are holding a man accused of creating the video and another woman seen in it. One of the women seen kissing, Milembe Suleiman, was arrested in the northwestern region of Geita earlier this week. Homosexual relations are criminalized in Tanzania and the law prescribes sentences of up to life in prison.