NIGER
Experts inspect eruptions
Local authorities and France’s Areva group have sent experts to investigate eruptions, smoke and fumes spouting from a mountain in the northern uranium mining district of Arlit, state media said on Thursday. Earlier this week, residents reported two days of activity. Geologists and chemists dispatched on Tuesday to take samples found cracks in the mountainside and rocks 400m away. There were no reports of injuries or damage to mines. “According to the witnesses who alerted the authorities, when they heard explosions, they initially thought it was an earthquake or a volcanic eruption,” state radio said in a report. “The mountain rumbled, giving the impression that it was collapsing. Black smoke rose and there was a smell of gas, as it was coming from fuel,” the report added. There were no further details immediately available.
SOUTH AFRICA
Alleged bomber charged
Prosecutors said a Nigerian suspect would be tried at the High Court in January for terrorism and attempting to harm Nigeria’s president in deadly car bombings last year. Henry Okah was arrested after the deadly Oct. 1 bombings in the Nigerian capital that killed 12 people during independence celebrations. Prosecution spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said Okah was presented on Wednesday with a five-count indictment charging he orchestrated the attacks from exile in South Africa. The 46-year-old Okah has denied involvement in the attacks. The explosions were claimed by a militant group in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta region that Okah said he sympathizes with but does not lead.
GREECE
Firefighting aid sought
Firefighters were battling at least seven large wildfires early yesterday from the Turkish border to the outskirts of Athens. The government had asked its European partners for water-dropping planes, and Spain and France responded by offering two planes each that are expected to arrive later yesterday. Portugal and Italy were also expected to contribute. The civilian protection authority said it was forced to seek help due to the large number of forest blazes across the country — about 90 broke out over the previous 24 hours — and the high risk of fire over the next few days when high winds will be scouring a countryside desiccated by months of summer heat. A state of emergency was declared in two areas in the northeast and west.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police brace for carnival
Police will be on high alert at the Notting Hill Carnival in London this weekend amid fears that Europe’s biggest street festival could be marred by a repeat of this month’s devastating riots. The annual extravaganza attracts a million spectators to see floats with powerful sound systems packed with outlandishly dressed dancers make their way through west London. The festivities tomorrow and Monday’s highpoint almost did not take place at all this year in the wake of riots that erupted in the capital and spread across England, leaving five people dead. However, the organizers were not ready to admit defeat in the face of an outbreak of civil disobedience, especially because the carnival itself originated as an act of defiant celebration in response to race riots in the 1950s. The carnival was founded in 1964 following the disturbances in Notting Hill six years earlier, which saw clashes between whites and newly arrived immigrants from the West Indies.
UNITED STATES
Papayas alert issued
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday issued an “import alert” after nearly 100 cases of salmonella in 23 states were linked to papayas imported from Mexico. Under the FDA alert, papayas from Mexico can be denied entry unless the importer proves they have been tested by an independent lab. “US and Mexican officials have been working closely together to find the source or sources of contamination of salmonella in fresh papayas entering the US from Mexico,” the FDA said in a statement.
BRAZIL
Murder plot woman freed
A 44-year-old woman was acquitted on Thursday of ordering the murder of her father, who raped her for 35 years and impregnated her 12 times, a court spokesman said. Severina Maria da Silva was charged with arranging the contract killing of her father in November 2005 and had confessed to the crime. She said that upon realizing her father was planning to rape one of their daughters, she had hired two men to kill him in his home in the northeastern city of Caruaru. Prosecutors told the jury that the woman should be freed as “she had no other solution but to commit the crime,” the spokesman for the court in Pernambuco state said. Though the woman had become pregnant a dozen times, only five of the children survived. The two men hired to commit the murder were each sentenced to 17 years in prison.
UNITED STATES
Students face kidnap charge
Two Chinese citizens have been indicted on charges they kidnapped a college classmate from his Rhode Island apartment as part of a plot to steal his US$80,000 Porsche. Attorney Peter Neronha said 25-year-old Zhenpeng “Todd” Hu, of Malden, Massachusetts, and 27-year-old Shengfeng “Alex” Cui, of East Providence, Rhode Island, are each charged with conspiracy and kidnapping. Hu is in custody and will be arraigned on Tuesday. An arrest warrant has been issued for Cui, who is believed to have fled the country. Prosecutors say the men assaulted, blindfolded and bound the victim on April 2 as part of a plan to steal his brand new Porsche.
UNITED STATES
Couple steals wedding feast
A couple of Pennsylvania newlyweds are behind bars after police said they were caught shoplifting food from a supermarket for their wedding reception. The Centre Daily Times reports 32-year-old Arthur Phillips III and his bride, 22-year-old Brittany Lurch, were arrested last Saturday after taking more than US$1,000 in merchandise from a supermarket in Centre Hall. Patton Township police said the couple was captured on surveillance footage loading a shopping cart and leaving the store without paying. The newspaper said the couple admitted taking the items when arrested. The newlyweds told officers they took the food for their wedding reception that afternoon.
UNITED STATES
Actors add burger to family
Actor brothers Donnie and Mark Wahlberg have licensed the name of a hamburger from a western New York chain of drive-in-style restaurants and plan to use it for their new eatery in Boston. Executives with Tom Wahl’s told the Democrat and Chronicle the brothers have licensed the “Wahlburger” name from the company so they can use it when they open a burger joint named Wahlburgers Restaurant in their hometown. Tom Wahl’s serves a cheeseburger called a Wahlburger and owns the federal trademark rights to the name.
‘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