Flights at Newark Liberty International Airport were temporarily delayed after a pair of drones were spotted nearby, Federal Aviation Administration sources tell CBS News’ Kris Van Cleave.- - -
The sources say the drones were were seen flying at 3,500 feet over Teterboro Airport, less than 20 miles from Newark Airport.
Japan Times: Karaoke bar shooting tied to Yakuza.
The karaoke bar is located in the center of the Kabukicho district and is about 500 meters northeast of JR Shinjuku Station. A number of yakuza are based in the area, which has become increasingly popular as the number of foreign tourists in Tokyo has increased.- - -
SMH: Concerns over whereabouts of writer who vanishes in China.
There are growing fears for the safety of a prominent Chinese-Australian writer who appears to have disappeared in China, with friends and family worried he may have been detained by authorities.- - -
The writer and dissident Yang Hengjun left Sydney for Guangzhou on January 18 despite his friends warning him it was too dangerous for the Australian citizen to travel to China.
[.]
He is incommunicado and has not posted anything on social media including popular Chinese platform wechat since Friday.
Stuff: Iraqi admits in helping Islamic State make toxins.
Help us make chemical weapons, the Islamic State's emissaries said.
[.]
"Do I regret it? I don't know if I'd use that word," said [Iraqi scientist Suleiman al-] Afari, who was captured by US and Kurdish soldiers in 2016 and is now a prisoner in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region[.]
"They had become the government, and we now worked for them," he said. "We wanted to work so we could get paid."- - -
9 News: Some of the "Royals" staff is on strike. Cake price an issue.
...[staffers]’ "disappointment turned to fury" when they were made aware HRP had commissioned several elaborate and very expensive cakes from a company called Choccywoccydoodah[.]
Royal Staffers on strike. Image: Getty
- - -
- - -China has demanded that the US drops an extradition request for a top Huawei executive, as the tech giant’s chief launched an unprecedented public relations blitz.
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, 46, was arrested on December 1 in Vancouver, Canada at the request of the US.
Business Insider: Supreme Court hears a gun gase, first time in nine years.
...a challenge to New York City's prohibition on carrying a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun outside the city limits.- - -
CNN: John Kerry says "Trump should resign".
Former Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that if he could speak to President Donald Trump directly, he would tell him to "resign."

