UNITED STATES
Parents film baby with gun
Police in Evansville, Indiana, arrested the the mother of a one-year-old baby and her boyfriend after they discovered a video of the child playing with a 40-caliber handgun, police said in a statement. Police found the video on a cellphone owned by Michael Barnes, a 19-year-old robbery suspect who was arrested on Thursday last week. Police said they searched Barnes’ phone after his arrest and found the video, which shows the boy putting the muzzle in his mouth as Barnes instructs the child to say “pow.” Police said that when they questioned Barnes’ girlfriend, Toni Wilson, she claimed the weapon shown in the video was a pellet gun. Barnes and Wilson face charges of child neglect, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and allowing a child to possess a firearm.
UNITED STATES
Measles tied to Disney parks
Health officials are reporting seven more cases of measles in an outbreak tied to visits to Disney theme parks in California last month. The new cases confirmed on Monday by the California Department of Public Health brings the total to 26 people in four states. Officials say 22 of the cases are in California and two are in Utah, with one apiece in Colorado and Washington. Most of the patients visited Disneyland or Disney California Adventure between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20, but some might have contracted the illness from others who visited. The new cases include three reported on Monday in Southern California, including two in San Bernardino County and one in Long Beach.
UNITED STATES
Camel tramples two to death
A male camel in rut trampled two people to death at the Camel Kisses farm in north Texas, KFDX television station reported on Sunday. A man had entered a pen holding a male and two female camels at the farm near Wichita Falls on Saturday, the report said. The male then charged the man, named as Mark Mere, 53. The farm’s owner, Peggye McNair, 72, tried to close the gate to the pen, but was also stomped, the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office told the television station. “It appears that both victims were trampled by the camel,” police said in a statement, according to the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, about 240km northwest of Dallas. McNair, a former bank executive, had raised camels for nearly two decades, the newspaper said. Mere entered the pen because a water trough was frozen over, Wichita County Sheriff David Duke told KFDX. Authorities were given permission to put down the male camel.
UNITED STATES
Dog a regular bus rider
A black Labrador named Eclipse just wants to get to the dog park. So if her owner takes too long finishing his cigarette and their bus arrives, she climbs aboard solo and rides to her stop — to the delight of fellow Seattle bus passengers. KOMO-TV reports that local radio host Miles Montgomery was amazed to see the pooch get off the bus, without an owner, at a dog park last week. The dog and her owner, Jeff Young, live right near a bus stop. In Young’s words, “She’s a bus-riding, sidewalk-walking dog.” Young says his dog sometimes gets on the bus without him and he catches up with her at the dog park three or four stops away. Bus riders report she hops onto seats next to strangers and watches out the window for her stop. “All the bus drivers know her ... she makes everybody happy,” commuter Tiona Rainwater said.
CHINA
‘Apple Man’ mocked
A man arrested on charges of attempting to smuggle 94 smartphones into the nation by strapping them to his body was mocked by netizens yesterday after pictures of his “iPhone armor” went viral. Online images of the man show him covered in dozens of handsets, held together under his outer clothes with clingfilm and masking tape, with commentators comparing him to comic book superhero Iron Man. He was held in Shenzhen as he tried to enter from Hong Kong with his hidden cargo, the People’s Daily said on Monday. “When the person passed through the metal detector gate, it made a loud and clear alarm,” the report said. Netizens on microblogging Web site Sina Weibo labeled the man “Apple Man,” using a Chinese character commonly used for superheroes, particularly Marvel’s Iron Man. “I just keep thinking this guy is trying to imitate Iron Man,” one said.
INDIA
Bootleg liquor kills 17
Officials say a bad batch of bootleg liquor killed at least 17 people and sent another 122 to hospital in northern Uttar Pradesh. Most of the victims had been among more than 200 people who had gathered to watch a cricket match on Sunday evening in a village on the outskirts of the state capital, Lucknow. While officials said 17 people had died, unconfirmed reports early yesterday put the death toll at 22. Government official Anil Garg said 14 of those hospitalized were in serious condition, and some had lost their eyesight. District official R.K. Pandey said police arrested a shop owner who sold the 200-milliliter pouches of alcohol for about US$0.30 each.
AFGHANISTAN
Officer kills superior, official
A policeman shot and killed his commanding officer and a district governor in Helmand Province, officials said yesterday, in an attack claimed by Taliban insurgents, who said the policeman had defected to their movement. Nawzad District Governor Sayed Murad Sadat and police commander Shamsullah were killed in the attack during a meeting on Monday, deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said. “An investigation has already started to find out the reason for the shooting,” Rasoulyar said, adding the police officer suspect was shot dead after the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility on Twitter. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for a car bomb that killed two people in western Kabul yesterday. The bomb attached to a civilian vehicle detonated in front of a mosque, Kabul police chief spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said.
JAPAN
Police tally non-urgent calls
A quarter of all calls to police emergency lines last year were not emergencies, including one in which the caller asked for help removing an insect from their ear. More than 2 million of those who dialed 110 — the nation’s emergency police number — sought assistance in less-than-dire situations, a survey by the National Police Agency has shown. They included a report that a vending machine had not coughed up the right change, a blocked toilet at home and someone having trouble recalling a forgotten smartphone password. In another case, someone rang police to report the toilet paper had run out in a public toilet. Jiji Press, citing agency figures, said on Sunday that frivolous calls last year were down slightly on the year before, but still accounted for more than 24 percent of more than 8.5 million that police received.
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
‘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