■UNITED STATES
Storm batters Willis Tower
A swift-moving storm carrying high winds and pelting rain knocked out windows in Chicago’s 110-story Willis Tower. Police on Friday roped off areas around the imposing black building long known as the Sears Tower. Chicago Battalion Chief Michael Gubricky said windows were blown out in a 29th-floor air conditioning mechanical room and a 25th-floor office. Glass was on the sidewalk, but no injuries were immediately reported near the tower. The National Weather Service reported winds in excess of 112kph.
■UNITED STATES
Lady Viagra a bust
A pink sex pill offered little help to women and came with unacceptable risks, US government advisers agreed on Friday, another setback in the search for a drug to boost the female libido. German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim failed to convince an expert panel that its pill increased sexual desire enough to win approval. “The efficacy was not sufficiently robust to justify the risks,” said Julia Johnson, the panel’s chairwoman and head of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Women reported depression, fainting, fatigue and other problems in company studies of the drug known as flibanserin. Drug makers have been searching for a medicine to improve women’s sex lives since Viagra successfully debuted 12 years ago.
■UNITED STATES
Arrested teen apologizes
A Seattle teen shown on video shoving a police officer who then punched her in the face has apologized to the officer in a private meeting. Seattle police said Officer Ian Walsh accepted the apology on Friday. Separately, the King County prosecutor charged the 17-year-old girl as a juvenile with third-degree assault, which is punishable by a maximum 30 days in detention. The incident happened on Monday as the teen intervened in a friend’s arrest for jaywalking.
■UNITED STATES
Capital Dome gets facelift
The Capitol Dome’s cast-iron exterior is to get its first fresh coat of paint since 2002 starting next week, the office tasked with its upkeep said on Friday. The project, to be completed in November, will require some 2,200 liters of paint, spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol Eva Malecki said.
■UNITED STATES
Blackwater back in business
The State Department has awarded part of the controversial private US security firm formerly known as Blackwater a security services contract worth US$120 million for work in Afghanistan, a report said. The firm’s US Training Center, an offshoot of Blackwater — now known as Xe Services — was given the contract on Friday, a State Department spokeswoman said. The firm will provide “protective security services” at the US consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif.
■UNITED STATES
Artists sue New York City
Two artists have filed a free-speech lawsuit against New York City in response to new regulations capping the number of art vendors allowed in Manhattan’s busiest parks. Robert Lederman and Jack Nesbitt said that allowing only about 120 vendors in Union Square, Battery Park, the High Line Park and parts of Central Park is unconstitutional. In the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court late on Friday, the artists argued that greenmarket and commercial vendors create more congestion than the roughly 300 art vendors who now work in those parks.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese