Dorothy Abernathy, regional media director of The Associated Press, shares 10 things you need to know Friday, Dec. 23, 2016. Look for full stories on these late-breaking news items and much more in West Virginia newspapers.
1. TRUMP CALLS FOR BOOSTING US NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES
The president-elect’s comments came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said strengthening his country’s nuclear capabilities should be a chief military objective in the coming year.
2. WHAT THE EVIDENCE IN GERMANY IS SHOWING
Fingerprints inside the truck that smashed into a Christmas market in Berlin belong to 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri, who has evaded capture so far.
3. WHERE CHRISTMAS DAY ATTACKS WERE PLANNED
Police in Australia have detained five men suspected of planning a series of Christmas Day bomb attacks in the heart of Melbourne.
4. UNSAFE TRANSPORT LEADS TO DEATHS AMONG MIGRANT FARMWOKERS
The Associated Press has found more than a dozen accidents that left at least 38 dead and nearly 200 injured just since January 2015.
5. SYRIAN GOVERNMENT TAKES FULL CONTROL OF ALEPPO
President Bashar Assad’s victory allows him to regain full authority over the country’s largest city and former commercial powerhouse.
6. THREE CAR BOMBS IN MOSUL KILL 23
The attack in the city’s Gogjali district is its deadliest bombing yet since Iraqi forces wrested it away from the Islamic State group more than a month ago.
7. INQUIRY SAYS SNOWDEN IS IN CONTACT WITH RUSSIA’S SPY SERVICES
The bipartisan congressional report on the former NSA contractor is being released at a time when Russia is considered a top national security concern.
8. MEN ARE REMOVED FROM JETBLUE FLIGHT WITH IVANKA TRUMP ABOARD
A New York man says it happened after his husband “expressed displeasure” about flying with Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.
9. WHO HAS BEEN INDICTED IN ARGENTINA
Justin Bieber is accused of sending his bodyguards to beat up a photographer and take his camera equipment outside a Buenos Aires nightclub three years ago.
10. YOUNG MOM FROM ’16 AND PREGNANT’ DIES
Valerie Fairman, 23, appeared in the second season of the show in 2009-2010 when she gave birth to a daughter.
