■UNITED KINGDOM
BA sorry for false warning
Passengers on a British Airways (BA) flight from London to Hong Kong were mistakenly told to prepare for a crash landing, causing panic onboard. The carrier said on Friday it had apologized for causing customers distress after an emergency message was accidentally triggered. Passengers heard the message: “This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water.” Michelle Lord, who was onboard, told The Sun tabloid: “People were terrified. We all thought we were going to die,” BA said it is investigating how the error happened. “Our cabin crew immediately made an announcement following the message advising customers that it was played in error and that the flight would continue as normal,” the airline said in a statement.
■SPAIN
Man cuts off penis
A Kazakh man cut off his penis at Madrid’s Barajas airport in order to avoid being extradited home and was hospitalized in a serious condition, local media reported. The 52-year-old man had finished serving a five-year prison sentence for a violent crime and was to be extradited back to Kazakhstan overnight on Monday. Despite being escorted by several police officers, he managed to slip a knife out of his clothing and cut off his penis. The man was admitted to a Madrid hospital and was still in a serious condition on Friday, local media said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Smart dancers lap it up
One in four lap dancers has a university degree and the majority of those involved in the industry enjoy their work, earning up to £48,000 (US$74,500) a year, academic research has found. Researchers from the University of Leeds discovered that many women had chosen to get into lap dancing for the money or because it fitted in with their careers. “These young women do not buy the line that they are being exploited, because they are the ones making the money out of a three-minute dance and a bit of a chat,” Teela Sanders told the Independent newspaper. “You have got to have a certain way about how you to do it. They say 80 percent of the job is talking. These women do work hard for their money — you don’t just turn up and wiggle your bum.” The research, which involved interviews with 300 dancers, found there was a high level of job satisfaction and all had some qualifications.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Family allege spy smeared
The family of a murdered spy said on Friday that they were “deeply upset” over claims about his private life and suggested the security services may be behind a smear campaign. Gareth Williams’s body was discovered in a holdall in the bath of an apartment in London on Monday. Police believe he may have been dead for two weeks. Williams, 30, worked at GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping and security center and was days from completing a year-long secondment at MI6. Reports that police had found evidence linking him to a male escort agency and that bondage equipment was found at his apartment were challenged by his family. William Hughes, 62, a cousin of Williams’s mother, Ellen, said “I don’t see any evidence of it. It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business ... It is heartbreaking that he has died so young and his family have enough on their plate without having to read these stories.” Hughes said it was possible the government or another agency might be trying to discredit Williams.
■Venezuela
Politician offers breast boost
A politician is holding an unusual raffle to raise campaign cash. The grand prize: breast implants. For a little under US$6 a ticket, donors get the chance to win the pricey operation free of charge. Breast enlargement is widely popular in image-conscious Venezuela. In recent years as many as 30,000 women have had the operation annually, according to the nation’s Plastic Surgery Society. Gustavo Rojas, who is running as an alternate for the National Assembly in Sept. 26 elections, said there is a great demand for the surgery.
■United States
Torpedo found in city
A police bomb squad had to be called to a Philadelphia construction site after someone found an old, inert torpedo. PennDOT spokesman Charles Metzger says a transportation department archeological team found two men sitting on the torpedo drinking beers on Friday morning. He says the men told the archeologists they had found the munition. Metzger says the dig team called police, who dispatched a bomb squad. The squad determined the torpedo was not explosive. The construction site is related to an Interstate 95 interchange project in the city’s Kensington neighborhood, close to the location of an old shipyard where warships were built during World War II.
■Italy
Killer wants to adopt
A US student convicted in Italy of murdering her British roommate has told an Italian lawmaker in a series of jailhouse conversations that she hopes to adopt children and be a writer when free. Lawmaker Rocco Girlanda said yesterday that he kept a diary of his frequent visits with Amanda Knox in her Perugia jail, material that formed the basis of a book being published in Italy and the US this fall. Girlanda’s Take Me With You — Talks with Amanda Knox in Prison also includes letters and poetry Knox sent to Girlanda, president of an Italian-US foundation. Knox, 23, is appealing her Dec. 5 conviction for murder and sexual assault in the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
■United States
Envoy’s girl falls to death
The 17-year-old daughter of the US ambassador to Thailand was killed on Friday after falling out of a 25th story apartment window in New York, police said. Nicole John was at an overnight party with dozens of friends when she had the accident, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “At the scene there was a camera. She may have looked out of the window to take a picture” before she fell to her death, he said. Kelly said an investigation was under way and the renter of the apartment has been placed under arrest for allowing under age drinking on his premises. The dead girl’s father is Eric John, a career diplomat and US Ambassador to Bangkok since 2007.
■United States
Hurricane Danielle weakens
Hurricane Danielle, churning in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, weakened to a Category Two storm early yesterday as it moved north well away from Bermuda, US forecasters said. “Little change in strength is forecast during the next 24 hours, and gradual weakening is expected to begin on Sunday and Sunday night,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The storm, which was turning north, was forecast to leave Bermuda unscathed as it passed well east of the Atlantic island territory late yesterday. Danielle was a Category Four storm on Friday.
‘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
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
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