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• A United Nations Security Council report released Wednesday accused former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of amassing $30 to $62 billion worth of assets, spread between accounts in 20 countries under various names, during and after his 33-year incumbency. Saleh denied the corruption allegations.
• Paris police arrested three Al-Jazeera journalists Wednesday for flying drones over the parts of the city without a license, which is illegal. There were five reported sightings of the drones between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m.
• The Federal Bureau investigation arrested three foreign men in New York accused of trying to join the Islamic State militant group on Wednesday. Uzbekistani citizens Abdurasul Joraboev, 24, and Abror Habibov, 30, and Ahkror Saidakhmetov, 19, of Kazakhstan were arrested after the latter tried to board a flight to Istanbul from the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
• Washington, D.C. residents over age 21 could legally smoke marijuana as of midnight on Thursday. The district legalized private recreational use of the drug in a November referendum, which voters overwhelmingly approved. Washington D.C. joins Colorado, Washington State and Alaska as areas of the U.S. that permit recreational marijuana use.
• Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency due to weather conditions on Wednesday afternoon after a winter storm warning for 50 Georgia counties took effect. In a statement, Deal said he hoped to keep commuters home, despite forecasts of above-freezing temperatures for the day’s entirety.
• The execution of Kelly Gissendaner, the first woman to be put to death by the state of Georgia in nearly 70 years, has been delayed to March 3 due to weather conditions. Gissendaner, who was sentenced to death in 1998 for plotting to murder her husband in 1996, was denied clemency on Wednesday, her original execution date.
— Compiled by Asst. News Editor Lydia O’Neal
A College senior studying economics and French, Lydia O’Neal has written for The Morning Call, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Consumer Reports Magazine and USA Today College. She began writing for the News section during her freshman year and began illustrating for the Wheel in the spring of her junior year. Lydia is studying in Paris for the fall 2015 semester.
And it is said Arafat pocketed close to a billion in international aid in his tenure ruling the Palestinian people. It’s nice to know he cared so much about his people.
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And to top that off it is said Abbas and his allies have stolen that much aid money or more in their roles as the Palestinian leaders.
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Good thing the Palestinians can blame the Jews for if not they would have to throw one of those Arab Spring-like events so as to throw the bums out.