AFGHANISTAN
Tweet betrays location
An apparently errant tweet by the Taliban’s spokesman in Afghanistan gave his location as being in neighboring Pakistan. On Friday, a tweet by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claiming an attack included geolocation information that suggested he sent the message from Sindh, Pakistan. Mujahid later sent a tweet yesterday describing the location leak as an “enemy plot.” He also offered his Afghan telephone number to confirm his identity and wrote: “With full confidence, I can say that I am in my own country.” Twitter says such geolocation data is based on latitude and longitude data or other information provided by users at the time of their message.
UNITED STATES
Hydrant causes sensation
A big-rig collided with a fire hydrant on a downtown San Francisco street on Friday afternoon, sheering the hydrant from its base and sending a geyser of water four stories high. The scene just outside Yelp Inc’s headquarters kept the city’s tech-savvy workers busy posting videos and photographs of the drama outside their office windows on the Internet. Lisa Halsey, who works for the Trulia real-estate listing service, said she “heard something go pop” and rushed outside to see the water gushing. She was among those who captured the scene and posted it online.
UNITED STATES
Sheen in alleged assault
A dental technician who says Charlie Sheen punched her in the chest during an office visit is suing the actor for assault and battery. Margarita Palestino filed the lawsuit on Friday in Los Angeles seeking unspecified damages from the Anger Management star. Her lawsuit accuses Sheen of attacking her during a dental appointment on Sept. 25, including punching her in the chest and grabbing her bra. Sheen’s publicist Jeff Ballard said on Thursday Sheen had an adverse reaction to the combination of nitrous oxide and pain medication he was taking for a shoulder injury and knocked over dental instruments.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Diplomat killer stays in jail
A court has upheld a 30-year-prison sentence for a man convicted of killing a Japanese diplomat who was having an affair with his wife. Bolivian immigrant Luis Antonio Baldelomar Tirina had been convicted and received the same sentence last year for the death of Tadaomi Nakai. He was sentenced again on Friday after his previous sentence was dismissed because of a legal technicality. Nakai had worked in the Dominican Republic for Japan’s agency for international development. Prosecutors said Baldelomar had previously lived in Japan and knew Nakai there. Authorities said the Bolivian agreed initially to let his wife have sex with the diplomat in exchange for help for his family. He stabbed Nakai with a kitchen knife in the diplomat’s apartment in Santo Domingo in March 2010.
AUSTRALIA
MH370 search to resume
After a four-month hiatus, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is about to resume in a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean, with searchers lowering new equipment deep beneath the waves in a bid to finally solve one of the world’s most perplexing aviation mysteries. The GO Phoenix, the first of three ships that is to spend up to a year hunting for the wreckage far off Australia’s west coast, is expected to arrive in the search zone today. Crews are to use sonar, video cameras and jet fuel sensors to scour the water for any trace of the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in