In the news

Monday, December 10, 2012

— Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s national assembly president, said there were no plans for President Hugo Chavez to cede power, even temporarily, as the president headed back to Cuba for a third surgery for what appears to be an aggressive type of cancer.

Alberto Diaz Gonzalez pleaded guilty in Miami to attempting to import undeclared wildlife and faces up to 20 years in prison for trying to smuggle birds from Cuba into the United States in his pants.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, has visited a British hospital where 15-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai is recovering after she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in October for criticizing the militant group and promoting secular girls’ education, which is opposed by the Islamist extremists.

Cory Booker, 43, the Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J., has said he will decide within two weeks whether to challenge Republican Gov. Chris Christie next year, saying he wants to “be a part of my party’s push forward, whether it is with me as a candidate or with supporting other candidates for that office.”

Lorang Konchok, 40, a monk from Kirti Monastery in China’s Sichuan province, and his nephew have been arrested and accused of instigating the self-immolations of eight ethnic Tibetans on the instructions of the Dalai Lama in protest of Chinese rule.

Sandra Fanelli and her twin sister, Deborah, 56, former high school cheerleaders, received simultaneous hip replacements at Rothman Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital in Bensalem, Pa., as part of Operation Walk USA, a program that offers free knee and hip replacements to uninsured patients.

Kamene Okonjo, mother of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was kidnapped from her home in the West African nation’s oil-rich delta, said police spokesman Frank Mba, who added that “no stone would be left unturned” to secure her freedom.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/10/2012