INDIA
Building collapse kills 15
Rescuers using backhoes and shovels searched for survivors yesterday under a massive pile of broken concrete and dust left when a residential building under construction collapsed, killing at least 15 workers. Authorities suspected dozens more may have been trapped under the rubble, but were still trying to determine how many workers were on the site when the five-story structure crumpled on Saturday afternoon in the state of Goa. Witnesses reported seeing at least 40 laborers. At least 10 people were pulled out alive overnight, but the chance of finding survivors was dwindling. By yesterday morning the death toll had reached 15. Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar pledged to crack down on those responsible. Police began investigating both the building company and city officials who approved the building’s construction on a patch of marshland in Canacona.
FRANCE
Drowned teen’s mom sues
A couple who in 2012 passed by a drunk 19-year-old student who was later found drowned are now being sued by the student’s mother — a former police officer — for failing to provide assistance. Sylvie Zecca said she wanted to make an “example” of the young couple for allegedly breaching a law which requires persons to provide assistance to someone in danger. Her son, Vincent Zecca, went missing after a boozy night in Bordeaux in March 2012. His body was pulled from the Garonne River three weeks later. Police determined he drowned accidentally after drunkenly slipping into the river. Zecca said she had been given access to the police file and decided to sue a young couple who told investigators they had come upon her “very drunk, near comatose” son and “instead of helping him, laughed at him, filmed him with a smartphone and let him leave.”
FRANCE
Custody row ends in deaths
A man jumped out of the window of his ninth-floor apartment with his three-year-old son after torching the child’s mother, police said on Saturday. The tragedy occurred on Friday in Chenove near the Burgundy city of Dijon. The 25-year-old father was killed on the spot, the toddler died of his wounds soon after and the mother was fighting for her life in hospital with severe burns, prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare said. Investigators and relatives said the man doused his former partner with a flammable liquid and set her alight after a row erupted over the child’s custody.
UNITED KINGDOM
Viking treasure discovered
A Celtic treasure looted by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago has been discovered in the storerooms of the British Museum in London. An ornate, gilded disc brooch dating from the eighth or ninth century is being described as a “staggering find.” It had been concealed in a lump of organic material excavated from a Viking burial site in Lilleberge, Norway, by a British archeologist in the 1880s and acquired by the British Museum in 1891.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jet with printed parts flies
A Tornado fighter jet fitted with metal components created on a 3D printer undertook a successful test flight last month, defense company BAE Systems said yesterday. The plane was equipped with a 3D-printed protective cover for the cockpit radio, a protective guard for the landing gear and support struts on the air intake door, the firm said. It said some of the parts cost less than £100 (US$165) to make and had the potential to save hundreds of thousands of pounds.
RUSSIA
Putin plays ice hockey
A day after a run on the Sochi ski slopes, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday roped in his Belarussian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for a friendly match against former ice hockey champions at the host city of next month’s Winter Olympics. The two presidents’ team won the game against stars, including Soviet-era champion Alexander Yakushev, as Putin chalked up yet another action stunt to his name. Putin has burnished a hardman image by ensuring that his leisure activities such as fishing and horse-riding bare-chested and flying do not go unnoticed by the media.
UNITED STATES
Film producer Zaentz dies
Film producer Saul Zaentz, winner of best picture Oscars for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient, has died at age 92, US media reported on Saturday. Zaentz died due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease at his home in San Francisco on Friday, his nephew Paul Zaentz told the Los Angeles Times. Zaentz, who began in the music business before moving into films, was known for producing highbrow movies, and even ran his independent film production company from Berkeley — near San Francisco — to keep a distance from Hollywood. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) won five Oscars, including best director for Milos Forman. Zaentz and Forman teamed up again for Amadeus (1984) about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The movie won eight Oscars, including best picture, best director and best actor for F. Murray Abraham. The English Patient (1996) won nine Oscars, including best picture and best director.
UNITED STATES
Pedophile minister ‘addicted’
A former Lutheran minister from North Carolina says he suffered from sex addiction when he molested young girls during a 2009 mission trip to Haiti. The Charlotte Observer reported on Friday that Larry Michael Bollinger recounted in US District Court in Charlotte his years of frequenting adult book stores and prostitutes during his 33 years as a minister at various churches. Federal prosecutors accused Bollinger of traveling to Haiti for illicit sexual conduct with two minor girls, one 11 and the other 12. He pleaded guilty last year. A spokesman for the Lazarus Project said Bollinger had worked as a mission coordinator at the Christian charity for a several years before his dismissal.
UNITED STATES
Cuomo proposes medical pot
New York would become the 21st state to allow medical use of marijuana under an initiative New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will unveil this week. Cuomo plans to use administrative powers rather than legislative action to allow a limited number of hospitals to dispense marijuana for certain ailments. He will formally announce his plans in his state of the state speech on Wednesday. The New York Times first reported Cuomo’s plan on Saturday. It represents an about-face by Cuomo, who had previously opposed medical marijuana.
UNITED STATES
Seagal mulls governor run
Former action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor. The Marked for Death actor told KNXV-TV that he is considering a shot at the state’s highest office and has had a talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in the country, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Seagal made the comments while talking about his newly released reality series Steven Seagal — Lawman: Maricopa County.
‘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