INDIA
Train collision kills 12
A train overshot a stop signal and plowed into another express passenger train in Uttar Pradesh state, killing 12 people and injuring dozens, officials said yesterday. Three coaches of the Barauni Express derailed and toppled over after the Krishak Express crashed into it near Gorakhpur Station late on Tuesday, said Madhuresh Kumar, an Indian railways general manager. The bodies of 12 passengers were pulled out of the Barauni’s mangled coaches, he said, adding that 44 people from that train were hospitalized with injuries. “There were more than 100 people in my coach and many of them were getting ready to get off at Gorakhpur Station when there was this huge bang,” passenger Ramesh Chaudhry said by telephone. “I fell onto a pile of luggage and was saved, but the person standing next to me did not survive.”
BELGIUM
Drivers can breathe easier
People who drive a bit over the speed limit, forget to buckle their seat belts or park illegally can breathe easier this week as police turn a blind eye in protest against plans to raise their retirement age. The nation’s police are up in arms over plans by the incoming government to raise their pension age to 62 from 58 as part of its efforts to cut the federal budget. About 40,000 officers demonstrated against it in Brussels two weeks ago. They began the next step in their protest on Tuesday by going easy on minor infractions for the next week. “Clearly this wouldn’t cover major offenses, such as reckless or drunken driving,” said Vincent Houssin, deputy chairman of the police union.
SWITZERLAND
Physicists play collider tunes
Helping scientists to discover the Higgs boson was, it seems, just one of the Large Hadron Collider’s talents. It turns out that CERN’s particle accelerator can write a decent tune too. Seven physicists from the facility have proved it by translating data collected by the Large Hadron Collider’s four experiments into music using “data sonification” technology. What’s more, they then gathered at the facility to play the results on real instruments, in a video commissioned to celebrate the 60th birthday of CERN. The participating scientists included Pippa Wells (who played the piece based on her research data on a violin), Mathieu Baudin (harp), Diego Casadei (clarinet), Antonio Uras (piano), Chiara Mariotti (flute), Piotr Traczyk (guitar) and Paula Collins (Higgs bassoon violin).
PERU
Trapped spelunker rescued
An injured Spanish spelunker trapped in a 400m deep cave in Peru was rescued on Tuesday, fellow explorers said, ending his 12-day ordeal. Cecilio Lopez Sanchez, 40, was trapped nearly two weeks ago while exploring a cave in Chachapoyas. A 50-person team of explorers descended more than 2km to reach Sanchez, who was evacuated on a stretcher after the complicated, hours-long mission at the Intimachay cave.
JAMAICA
Pot to be decriminalized
Justice Minister Mark Golding said on Tuesday that legislation has been drafted to decriminalize marijuana on the Caribbean island where the drug has been pervasive, but prohibited for a century. Golding told reporters that lawmakers should make possession of 60g or less a petty offense before the end of this year. He also expects decriminalization for religious purposes to be authorized by then, allowing adherents of the Rastafarian spiritual movement to ritually smoke marijuana, which they consider a holy herb, without fear of arrest.
UNITED STATES
Neighbors attack ‘pirate’
The life of a pirate is not an easy one, as a Florida man dressed in a Pirates of the Caribbean costume discovered. Larry Harcar, a fan of the hit film franchise, was walking in his neighborhood in full costume — toy gun and sword included — when two spooked neighbors mistook him for a thief, the SunSentinel newspaper reported on Monday. The neighbors, Ahmed Othman, 24, and Muhamad Ahmad, 22, alerted police, pursued Harcar and then took matters into their own hands in Dania Beach, Florida. The two men pulled their guns out, forced Harcar to the ground and held a pistol to his head while verbally abusing him. Othman said he was “scared” by the costume. The pair was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, battery and false imprisonment and were released on bail after paying US$8,500 each.
UNITED STATES
Heroin smuggler jailed
A Nigerian who authorities say ran one of the most expansive heroin smuggling networks ever uncovered involving the main airport of Houston, Texas, has been sentenced to nearly 25 years in prison. Koyode Lawrence was sentenced on Tuesday in a Houston federal courtroom after having earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import a controlled substance. The case goes back to February 2001, when two men working for Lawrence were arrested at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Authorities say the pair had swallowed packets of heroin being smuggled from Nigeria. Lawrence, from Lagos, Nigeria, fought extradition for nearly 10 years, but he was transferred to the US late last year.
UNITED STATES
Paparazzi drones banned
California on Tuesday approved a law that will prevent paparazzi from using drones to take photographs of celebrities, among a series of measures aimed at tightening protection of privacy. California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a string of legislative bills that included an expansion of one against so-called “revenge porn,” when former lovers share nude photographs of their exes online. California passed a “revenge porn” law last year, making it illegal to post naked pictures of an ex-partner online and setting a jail term of up to six months for anyone convicted. The new law signed on Tuesday allows victims of revenge porn to seek damages in civil court, and also to seek a restraining order to get the offending photographs taken down from the Internet.
UNITED STATES
Elk use water stations
Elk are helping themselves to water from bottle-filling stations set up around Grand Canyon National Park by lifting the spring-loaded levers with their noses and letting the water flow. It is not exactly the kind of use officials had in mind when they installed the stations for hikers and dropped the sale of disposable water bottles. Now, they are elk-proofing the stations to outsmart the animals, conserve water and protect visitors from aggressive behavior.
UNITED STATES
World’s oldest clown dies
Floyd “Creeky” Creekmore, a former Montana rancher who held the record as the world’s oldest performing clown, has died at age 98, his son said on Tuesday. Creeky turned to rubber noses and orange wigs in the 1980s, after retiring from ranching and building homes. He joined the Shriners and put in thousands of hours of entertaining sick and well children, his son said.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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