JAPAN
TEPCO to compensate suicide
The family of a Japanese woman who fatally set herself on fire after being forced to flee the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was awarded nearly half a million dollars in damages yesterday, reports said. It was the first time that the operator of the stricken plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), has been ordered to pay compensation for a suicide linked to the 2011 incident. Hamako Watanabe, 58, doused herself in gasoline and self-immolated when she was allowed to temporarily return to her home in June 2011, reports said. Her husband and three children sued TEPCO for damages, arguing that the forced evacuation was responsible for the symptoms of depression she displayed.
THAILAND
Jellyfish kills French boy, 5
Authorities yesterday urged visitors to the popular Thai resort island of Koh Phangan to take care when swimming after a five-year-old French boy died from a sting by the world’s most toxic jellyfish. The boy, who was vacationing with his family, died on Saturday evening after he was stung by a box jellyfish — regarded as one of the deadliest creatures on Earth. While stings from the species are rare, they are potentially fatal, prompting police on Koh Phangan to urge hotels and local authorities to warn tourists to be careful in the water.
INDIA
Fetus removed after 36 years
Doctors have removed the skeleton of a fetus that had been inside a woman for 36 years in what is believed to be the world’s longest ectopic pregnancy, a doctor has said. The 60-year-old woman became pregnant at the age of 24, but suffered a miscarriage because the fetus had been growing outside of her uterus, the doctor told reporters on Monday. The woman, from a poor rural area in the center of the country, was “terrified” of having surgery at the time to remove the remains of the fetus and instead sought medication for the pain at a local clinic. Although the pain gradually subsided, it returned years later, forcing the woman to seek medical help at a hospital in western India, Murtaza Akhtar said. Doctors felt a lump on her lower right abdomen and feared it could be cancer, but further tests and scans revealed a calcified mass. “It was actually a matured skeleton encapsulated in a calcified sac,” Akhtar said.
GERMANY
Elk enters office building
A confused young elk wandered into an office building in Dresden on Monday, where he waited several hours “largely calmly” to be rescued, police said. The 800kg elk got stuck in a glass-enclosed foyer of a cafeteria at an office block used by the engineering giant Siemens. Watched by a large crowd, officers and representatives of the Dresden Zoo and hunting office at first tried to coax the animal into a large trailer. However, after several unsuccessful attempts, they used a tranquilizer on the animal so they could hoist him out of the narrow entryway.
UNITED STATES
Tourist climbs Brooklyn Bridge
A Russian tourist has been arrested and charged after scaling New York’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge to take pictures with his cellphone, authorities said on Monday. Yaroslav Kolchin was spotted climbing to the top of one of the towers supporting the structure shortly after midday on Sunday. Once there, the 24-year-old walked around and took photographs with his iPhone before safely descending back down a cable support beam as a police aviation unit hovered nearby.
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number