UNITED STATES
SpaceX rocket self-destructs
An unmanned SpaceX rocket blew itself to pieces shortly after launch during a test flight at a development site near McGregor, Texas. the company said on Friday. Nobody was injured. The test flight involved a three-engine version of the company’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket, spokesman John Taylor said in a statement. SpaceX has been using the Falcon 9 to launch satellites and the Dragon spacecraft, which delivers cargo to the International Space Station. “During the flight, an anomaly was detected in the vehicle and the flight termination system automatically terminated the mission,” Taylor said. “Throughout the test and subsequent flight termination, the vehicle remained in the designated flight area. There were no injuries or near-injuries,” he said. A representative of the US Federal Aviation Administration was present for the flight. The “anomaly” was not specified. “With research-and-development projects, detecting vehicle anomalies during the testing is the purpose of the program. Today’s test was particularly complex, pushing the limits of the vehicle further than any previous test,” Taylor said.
UNITED STATES
Russian student found dead
A Russian student who went missing in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park has been found dead. The body of 20-year-old Aleksandr “Sasha” Sagiev was found in the park on Friday. The student from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, was reported missing on Monday last week after going for a hike. After a three-day search, Sagiev’s body was discovered below a steep traverse, known as Cache Couloir, in Glacier Gulch. Sagiev was a seasonal employee at a pizza shop in the area. About 60 searchers had been looking for him since he was last seen at work on last Sunday. Authorities say that when Sagiev was found, he was in the metallic blue “Sochi” jacket he was last seen wearing. There was no word on the cause of death.
ARGENTINA
Activist’s descendant found
The nation’s leading human rights group says tests have identified the granddaughter of one of the group’s deceased founders, whose daughter gave birth while a prisoner of the military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983 and has not been seen since. Friday’s announcement came from Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Two weeks ago, de Carlotto surprised Argentines by revealing that she had found a grandson born to a daughter of hers who was slain in 1978 by the junta. De Carlotto’s group believes that about 500 children were seized from people killed by the dictatorship and given to couples who supported it. The woman announced on Friday is the 115th such child to be identified. Her grandmother was Alicia Zubasnabar de la Cuadra, the Grandmothers’ first president, who died in 2008.
PARAGUAY
Africa-bound cocaine found
Police in Asuncion on Friday said they seized about 850kg of cocaine hidden in sacks of rice bound for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The drugs were aboard a ship set to sail from a private Asuncion port to Rio de la Plata, where it would have been loaded onto a transoceanic vessel. A scorpion was printed on each sack of cocaine, said to represent an alleged drug-trafficking group led by Brazilian Jorge Rafat Toumani, police said. The sole suspect detained by police was a customs agent. Toumani was sentenced in Brazil to 47 years in prison for money-laundering and drug trafficking.
JAPAN
Landslide toll rises to 46
The death toll from devastating landslides in the west rose to 46 yesterday, as rescuers worked around the clock to comb through destroyed houses searching for survivors. Local police said they cannot confirm the whereabouts of 41 local residents in the disaster-hit area of Hiroshima, where heavy rain early on Wednesday triggered landslides that swallowed dozens of homes. The rain had stopped by yesterday morning, but nearly 3,000 rescuers, soldiers and police officers remained wary, with meteorologists predicting another heavy downpour by evening. The city government was upholding evacuation orders for more than 4,500 local residents amid fears of fresh landslides. Emergency officials found six more bodies yesterday, bringing the toll to 46, a Hiroshima police spokesman said.
PHILIPPINES
Gunwoman seeks president
Security officials say a woman armed with a pistol tried to enter the presidential palace and was demanding to see President Benigno Aquino III. Commodore Raul Ubando, head of the presidential guards, said the woman was immediately disarmed on Friday and turned over to Manila police for investigation. Sprawling Malacanang Palace has several entrances, and the woman was stopped at a gate far from Aquino’s office and living quarters. The woman told reporters she had no intention of hurting anybody, but wants Aquino to step down because people were getting poorer under his administration. Ubando says no one was hurt and the Manila Police District would decide whether to file charges based on its investigation. Police say the woman will be examined to determine if she has any psychological disorder.
ECUADOR
Pepe the tortoise dies
“Pepe the Missionary,” a giant tortoise who rose to fame as one of the most photographed animals on Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, has died at age 60, officials said on Friday. Pepe, who lived in a corral at the Galapagos National Park’s Interpretation Center, died of natural causes, park ecosystems director Victor Carrion said. “Several of his organs had been slowly failing,” Carrion said, adding that the tortoise was also overweight. Park director Arturo Izurieta paid tribute to the tortoise on Twitter. “After 60 years of life, Pepe the Missionary will remain in our memories forever,” Izurieta said. He brightened the post with a bit of good news for conservationists: “The disappearance of Pepe the tortoise does not put his species in danger.” Pepe was a member of the Chelonoidis becki species native to Wolf Volcano on the island of Isabela. About 2,000 tortoises from the same species still live in their native habitat.
SWEDEN
TV4 apologizes to Costa Rica
A TV network has apologized to Costa Rica for using the Central American country’s national anthem to promote a comedy show. TV4 is using the anthem in a trailer for Parlamentet, a popular game show featuring some of Sweden’s best-known comedians. After receiving complaints from Costa Ricans living in Sweden, Costa Rica lodged a diplomatic protest, calling it a “grave disrespect to our national symbol.” Network spokesman Anders Edholm said on Friday that producers have apologized to Costa Rica’s ambassador in Sweden and Norway, and assured him they will not show the trailer after the first episode of the season airs today. Edholm said producers picked the tune from a music library because it was “beautiful and grand,” but were not aware it was Costa Rica’s national anthem.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the