Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, the Saudi Arabian woman who fled her family and is now under UN protection in Thailand, has been sustained through the “terrifying” ordeal by thousands of online messages of support that probably saved her life, a friend has said. Nourah Alharbi, 20, told the Guardian: “Yesterday, they [social media supporters] made the difference in Rahaf’s life. You saved Rahaf’s life yesterday: the people, the media.”

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Alharbi said Qunun was buoyed when she saw how many messages about her were being posted online. “She couldn’t believe it. Today when I was calling her … [she said] she can see the thousands of messages, all of them supporting her. She’s terrified and stressed, and when she saw the messages it really made a difference for her.” Now based in Sydney, Alharbi said she fled Saudi Arabia herself after suffering abuse from her family, and is seeking asylum in Australia. She has kept in close contact with Qunun throughout her ordeal.

She mentioned the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, a 24-year-old Saudi woman who in April 2017 was returned to Saudi Arabia from the Philippines against her will and whose fate is unclear. “She didn’t get that [social media] support and that’s why she’s in Saudi Arabia now – she’s disappeared,” Alharbi said.(theguardian)…[+]

UNITED NATIONS – Guatemala notified the United Nations it was terminating a U.N.-backed anti-graft commission yesterday, months ahead of schedule, accusing the body of abuses of power, and prompting a swift rebuke from the U.N. secretary-general.

The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, was set up over a decade ago with the authority to conduct independent investigations and work with the country’s prosecutors, bringing down the last president in 2015.  The CICIG also went after President Jimmy Morales, who said in August he would not renew the organization’s mandate, which was due to expire in September 2019. Days later, he banned CICIG head Ivan Velasquez, a hard-charging Colombian prosecutor, from re-entering the country.

Working with the then-attorney general, CICIG tried to prosecute Morales, a former comedian, in 2017 over alleged campaign finance violations. That move followed separate CICIG corruption probes into members of the president’s family.  Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Monday and handed him a letter informing him of the government’s intention to end the agreement that had established CICIG.(Reuters)…[+]

Eight days af­ter her son was shot dead near his San­gre Grande home, Ann Marie Stephen says she is now be­ing tar­get­ed by gang mem­bers in her com­mu­ni­ty and is ap­peal­ing to Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith for im­me­di­ate pro­tec­tion. Stephen, 53, a moth­er of eight, said she had re­port­ed the in­ci­dent to the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion. She came to Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day seek­ing help.

The threat came days af­ter her 23-year-old son Kei­th Clement, a co­conut ven­dor, was killed on De­cem­ber 27. Stephen said Kei­th was her third child to have died un­der trag­ic cir­cum­stances. Her daugh­ter, Mar­i­on Clarke, 16, died in an ac­ci­dent in To­ba­go a few years ago and in 2017, her 34-year-old son Bren­don Stephen was shot dead.

She de­nied Clement was in­volved in any il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty al­though she ad­mit­ted he smoked mar­i­jua­na and was fre­quent­ly on the block. “I am ap­peal­ing to Grif­fith to in­ves­ti­gate Kei­th’s death, please. I need jus­tice for my son’s mur­der. I am not go­ing to rest un­til I see his killers get pun­ished. I want Grif­fith to clean up Damarie Hill and put away these gang mem­bers who have the place un­safe,” she said.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

An 18-year-old woman detained in Thailand after fleeing her family in Saudi Arabia and renouncing Islam will not be sent back to the Middle East against her wishes, Thai officials have said. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun barricaded herself inside a transit zone hotel room in Bangkok airport to prevent immigration officials putting her on a flight to Kuwait. She was denied entry to Thailand while en route to Australia, where she has a three-month multiple-entry tourist visa and said she was intending to seek asylum.

Qunun says she would be killed if she was returned to Saudi Arabia and has vowed not to leave the hotel room until she can see representatives from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.“I am Rahaf … I am in the hotel, I need a country to protect me as soon as possible. I am seeking asylum,” Qunun said in a video posted on social media.Samut Prakan, the head of Thailand’s immigration bureau, said: “If deporting her would result in her death, we definitely wouldn’t want to do that.” Qunun would speak to UNHCR representatives later on Monday, he added.(theguardian)…[+]

LONDON – Prime Minister Theresa May said yesterday that Britain would be in uncharted territory if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament later this month, despite little sign that she has won over sceptical lawmakers.

Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29 but May’s inability so far to get her deal for a managed exit through parliament has alarmed business leaders and investors who fear the country is heading for a damaging no-deal Brexit. May said the vote in parliament would be around Jan. 15, as expected, contrary to reports she could delay it.

May has already delayed the vote once, in December, when it became clear she would lose unless extra reassurances from the EU were agreed. Describing what would happen if she was defeated, May told the BBC: “We’re going to be in uncharted territory. I don’t think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction we’ll see in parliament.” Amid the uncertainty over Britain’s next steps – which range from leaving without a deal to not leaving at all – a poll showed more Britons want to remain a member of the EU than leave, and voters want to make the final decision themselves.(Reuters)…[+]

The Rent Restriction Act of 1983 makes it illegal for landlords to discriminate against potential tenants on the basis that they have children, but scores of landlords are banning the babies and getting away with it. Under Section 4A Subsection 1 of the Rent Restriction Act, “A person shall not, as a condition for the grant, renewal or continuance of a tenancy of any controlled premises consisting of a dwelling house, require that no children shall reside with the tenant in that dwelling house.”

This offence carries a fine not exceeding $1,000 for a first conviction or a term not exceeding 12 months imprisonment. But that has not saved 28-year-old Anna-Kay Williams, who told The Sunday Gleanerthat she been almost homeless since July 2018, as the owners of the properties she has been trying to rent are turning her down because she has four children ranging from age three to 15.According to Williams, in her last encounter she saw an advertisement in the paper which just said ‘Room for rent in Greater Portmore, St Catherine’, with the landlord asking for $25,000 per month plus a deposit.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]

A young man is being treated in isolation at Uppsala University hospital in Sweden after suspicion of Ebola contamination, the regional authority has said. Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, says a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified. A result is expected later on Friday.

The young man had been in Burundi for around three weeks, and was exhibiting classic symptoms of haemorrhagic fever, including vomiting blood, according to the hospital’s chief medical officer. The emergency clinic at Enköping hospital, where the patient was first admitted, has been closed and staff who were in contact with the patient are also being looked after. An outbreak of the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – which shares a border with Burundi – began in August 2018, and has resulted in 608 cases and 368 deaths. Efforts to contain the disease have been hampered by continued instability. On Thursday, director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the outbreak was occurring in “the most difficult context imaginable”. “To end it [the outbreak] the response needs to be supported and expanded, not further complicated. Ebola is unforgiving, and disruptions give the virus the advantage,” said Tedros.(theguardian)…[+]

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, – Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy. Bolsonaro, who took power on Tuesday, said that Russia’s support of President Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship” in neighboring Venezuela had significantly ramped up tensions in the region and was a worrying development.

Asked by the SBT TV network in an interview taped yesterday if that meant he would allow U.S. military presence in Brazil, Bolsonaro responded that he would certainly be willing to negotiate that possibility. “Depending on what happens in the world, who knows if we would not need to discuss that question in the future,” Bolsonaro said. He emphasized that what Brazil seeks is to have “supremacy here in South America.”The far-right leader is upending foreign policy dating back over a decade, which saw the leftist Workers Party emphasizing South-South relations and sometimes tussling on the international stage with the United States.(Reuters)…[+]

Reports have surfaced out of Nicaragua that a Jamaican boat captain is now dead and buried in that country, after he and two others were rescued by locals after spending 22 days adrift in waters off the northern Caribbean country. The dead captain has been identified as Joshua Strekley, 44. According to reports, the two survivors Clifton C Edwards, 43, and Reid Derreique Anthonio, 45 said that they set sailed from St Thomas in Jamaica on December 10, 2018 to the fishing bank known as Murrant Cay Saumont Bank.

The two explained that after having travelled 30 miles out to sea, they were surprised by a strong storm that damaged the left side of their boat. The fishermen said they were left without fuel and food, until they ran aground on the Halouver coast, 30 miles south of Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua, where they were helped by the community members. The residents reportedly took Strekly to the health post in the town, where he died and they decided to bury him.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Pope Francis has criticised US bishops for failing to show unity in the face of a sexual abuse crisis, saying internal bickering had to end over the scandal that has damaged the credibility of the American church.

In a long and highly unusual letter sent as US bishops started a week-long retreat to reflect on the spreading crisis, Francis said the handling of the scandal showed the urgent need for a new approach to management and mindset within the church.

The pope wrote: “God’s faithful people and the church’s mission continue to suffer greatly as a result of abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse, and the poor way that they were handled.” He added that bishops had “concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation”. Pope Francis has summoned senior Catholic bishops from around the world to the Vatican next month to discuss the protection of minors, in his latest attempt to come to grips with the abuse crisis which first erupted in the United States.

Before that meeting, US bishops gathered on Wednesday near Chicago for seven days of prayer and spiritual reflection. “The church’s credibility has been seriously undercut and diminished by these sins and crimes, but even more by the efforts made to deny or conceal them,” Francis said. The pope said he was so concerned by the situation that he had hoped to attend the US retreat in person, but added that he had been unable to do so “for logistical reasons“.(theguardian)…[+]