UNITED KINGDOM
Reggae star dies during raid
Media are reporting reggae star Smiley Culture has died during a police drugs raid on his home. The London-born musician — whose real name is David Emmanuel — reportedly died from self-inflicted wounds on Tuesday when police officers swooped on his home in east Surrey, Britain’s Press Association said. The reggae singer had appeared before magistrates in September last year charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine. Britain’s police watchdog said on Tuesday it had been called in to investigate an incident during which a 48-year-old man apparently suffered a stab wound and died. The watchdog said formal identification has not yet taken place. Culture shot to fame in the 1980s with hits including Cockney Translation and Police Officer.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mega-lobster dodges pot
One of the biggest and oldest lobsters ever caught in Britain has been saved from the pot and will live out the rest of its long life in an aquarium. The massive crustacean measures close to 1m in length and weighs more than 4kg. “He’s a fantastic specimen and by his size alone he has got to be at least 50 years old,” said Lindsay Holloway of the Blue Reef aquarium in Portsmouth, southern England where the lobster now lives. “He is an amazing creature and it’s quite an achievement to have reached such an impressive age,” he said. The lobster was caught by an angler fishing for sole. Lobsters are among the planet’s oldest inhabitants with fossil remains found dating back more than 100 million years. They are also extremely long-lived with some reaching ages of over 80 years. The aquarium said the heaviest recorded crustacean is an Atlantic lobster nicknamed Mike who tipped the scales at 19kg.
UNITED KINGDOM
Tot treated for alcoholism
Hospital authorities say they have treated a three-year-old child for alcoholism. The Heart of England NHS Trust that runs three hospitals in central England confirmed on Tuesday that a child had been treated by medical staff after being given alcohol regularly. The trust revealed the data in response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act by a newspaper, which requested data on underage drinking.
Latvia
Latvians honor SS fighters
Hundreds of Latvians gathered in downtown Riga yesterday to commemorate World War II veterans who fought on the side of Nazi Germany in Waffen SS detachments. A small group of mainly ethnic Russians also assembled nearby to protest the ceremony, which they claim glorifies fascism and discredits the Soviet Union’s enormous sacrifice in defeating Nazi Germany. A large police contingent was on hand to keep the two sides apart. Participants in yesterday’s ceremony, including a small number of veterans, were due to attend a church service and then proceed to the Freedom Monument, where they were to lay flowers and sing patriotic songs.
UNITED KINGDOM
Clock winds up London
A giant clock counting down to the 2012 London Olympics stopped for several hours on Tuesday, less than a day after being unveiled in Trafalgar Square. The digital clock, which is made by Olympic sponsor Omega, was stuck at 500 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, 56 seconds until workers tried to fix the problem. The clock was fixed several hours later. “It’s one of those windups set to test us, but it’s working again,’’ London organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe said.
NIGERIA
Opposition cries ‘sabotage’
The House of Assembly has ordered a probe into a ram-and-goat-filled airstrip that forced a plane carrying an opposition candidate to crash land. The House said on Tuesday they would investigate last week’s incident at the rural northern Bauchi airport. Opposition Representative Olufemi Gbajabiamila criticized the government for calling it a force majeure. He said: “force majeure means an act of God ... This was not an act of God, it was an act of negligence.” The vice-presidential candidate for Action Congress of Nigeria was unhurt, but the plane was damaged. The main opposition party claimed “sabotage.” The airstrip is unfenced though funds had been approved to fence it. Animals often wander across rural Nigerian airstrips.
UNITED STATES
California sued in Sikh case
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the state of California alleging that a Sikh inmate who refused to trim his beard for religious reasons was unfairly disciplined. Sukhjinder Basra, serving time for a drug offense, has said that guards told him he violated a rule prohibiting inmates from growing facial hair longer than 1.25cm. As punishment, Basra said he was ordered to perform extra prison duties and spend 10 days confined to his bunk. He also lost 30 days of credit for good behavior. Sikhs are required by their religion to wear unshorn hair wrapped in a turban and a beard.
UNITED STATES
Nude run canceled
The president of Tufts University in Massachusetts has put an end to the student tradition of running around nude to mark the end of the fall semester. President Lawrence Bacow said in an op-ed piece in the student newspaper on Monday that the Naked Quad Run has become too dangerous because of excessive alcohol consumption, slippery sidewalks and dangerously low temperatures that put student health at risk. He also noted that police consider it illegal. He says two students who participated in December were hospitalized with high blood-alcohol levels. The run dates to the 1970s. Disappointed students say it was a way to blow off steam at the end of the semester.
UNITED STATES
‘Vampire’ sentenced
A man has been sentenced to three years of probation for stabbing a man who refused to let him suck his blood. Maricopa County Superior Court says 24-year-old Aaron Homer pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced on Monday. The Arizona Republic reports 25-year-old Robert Maley once let his roommates suck his blood, but when Maley refused a second time on Oct. 4, he was stabbed. Chandler police said Maley lived with Homer and his girlfriend. Maley said the two men were into “vampire stuff.”
UNITED STATES
Man injects wife with poison
Police say a man in New York injected his wife with a poisonous liquid, then drank some himself and later died. The 35-year-old woman, Erlendy Flores, is in a coma in critical condition. Police said the couple had argued on Sunday and the woman spent the night at her sister’s apartment in the same Bronx building. The next day, police say, she returned to her apartment to collect her things, while her brother waited outside for her. Police say the husband, 41-year-old Flavio Godoy, stuck a syringe in Flores’ buttocks while she was bent over packing her clothes. He then drank the same liquid from a cup. Authorities are examining the liquid.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema