January 18, 2022

*) Sudan anti-coup rally turns deadly as security forces fire 'live bullets' Sudanese security forces have killed seven protesters among thousands rallying against last year's military coup. Three protesters "were killed by live bullets" by "militias of the putschist military council," anti-coup medics said on the Facebook page of Khartoum state's Health Ministry. The independent Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said four more demonstrators were killed "during a massacre by the coup authorities who were seeking to disperse the protests." *) China calls for end to 'Cold-War mentality' in veiled swipe at US Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that confrontation between major powers could have "catastrophic consequences" in a speech to world leaders at an all-virtual Davos forum. He presented himself as the defender of multilateralism and also gave sober warnings for the future as relations between major powers plunge. "Our world today is far from the tranquil, rhetoric that stokes hatred and prejudice abound," he said, according to an official translation of the speech which was streamed online. *) Turkiye hands over hundreds of housing units for Albania quake victims President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has handed over more than 500 housing units a Turkish agency built for earthquake victims in Albania. "We are crowning the friendship between Turkiye and Albania with the handover of these houses," Erdogan said. A total of 522 housing units, worth about $48 million, have been built for the northwestern town of Lac, which was struck by a deadly quake in November 2019. *) Winter storm halts motorists, grounds planes in US and Canada A major winter storm has blanketed a swathe of North America in snow as it sliced up the US east coast into Canada, disrupting travel and cutting power to thousands of homes. About 120,000 American customers were without power, with the largest concentration in the mid-Atlantic state of West Virginia and North and South Carolina and Georgia. Large parts of the Canadian prov