JAPAN
Drunken man attacks robot
A man who allegedly attacked a phone shop robot in a drink-fueled rage because he was angry at customer service has been arrested, media said. Kiichi Ishikawa, 60, was captured on security camera aiming a kick at the 1.2m-tall Pepper, a talking android used by mobile phone chain Softbank to gather customer feedback. Reports suggested Ishikawa, who appeared to have been drinking, was annoyed at his treatment at the hands of a human member of staff and took his annoyance out on the automaton. Pepper, a moon-faced robot on rollers that has what looks like a tablet computer attached to its plastic body, has been billed by its makers as a human companion capable of understanding language and emotion. The alleged attack on Sunday morning in a store in Kanagawa, near Tokyo, appeared to have slowed the speed of its reactions and dulled its movement, according to Sponichi, a tabloid newspaper. Kanagawa prefecture police said they were investigating how much it would cost to fix the robot. As well as being offered for sale as a companion in robot-obsessed Japan, Pepper is also being used to sell coffee machines in one chain and greet customers at a Japanese bank.
SWEDEN
Lawn mower rider arrested
A 32-year-old was arrested for riding a lawn mower while inebriated, Swedish police said on Wednesday. The man was arrested at the wheel of his lawn mower in his yard in Uddnas, a police spokesman said. “We were called by witnesses who saw him driving visibly drunk both in his yard and in the neighborhood,” he said. The man was taken to a police station where a breathalyzer test showed he had consumed more than seven times the legal limit of alcohol. A prosecutor was looking into the case. It was not yet known whether the individual would face charges, a fine or a warning, the spokesman said.
BRAZIL
Dwarf lands cops in trouble
Anti-narcotics cops were in hot water on Wednesday after footage emerged of a nearly naked dwarf lap dancing at a party attended by officers at a police station. O Dia newspaper published mobile phone footage and still photographs of staff from anti-drugs unit Denarc in Sao Paulo apparently swigging beer, dancing to live Brazilian music and enjoying a sensual dance by a male dwarf who strips to his underpants. The Sao Paulo state governor was quoted as saying that an investigation had been opened. “You can party, but not in a public premises,” Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin said. State security chief Alexandre de Moraes said the incident showed “extremely bad taste.” Brazilians on the other side of the justice system — where criminal gangs often control the interior of prisons — are famous for holding eye-catching parties.
CANADA
Burglar caught on Webcam
A couple watched via a Webcam as a man broke into their Florida vacation home on Fort Myers Beach, before turning the video over to the authorities. The surveillance video helped Lee County sheriff’s deputies arrest 45-year-old Thomas Hinton on Sunday, the day after the burglary. He has been charged with burglary and grand theft. News-Press of Fort Myers reported that the couple reported the crime from their home in Ontario, Canada, on Saturday night after seeing the man on a Webcam. Deputies later learned the man might also be connected to other area burglaries. A deputy spotted the suspect on Sunday and arrested him.
UNITED STATES
Very concealed gun found
A Texas woman had a loaded gun hidden in her vagina when she was pulled over on Monday during a routine traffic stop, police said. “The weapon had a round chambered and a full magazine of bullets,” the Waco police department said in a statement posted on Facebook. Ashley Cecilia Castaneda, 31, told police about the gun as she was being driven to the station after police found nearly 30g of methamphetamines and a set of digital scales in her purse. “They pulled to the side of the road, the officers got out, asked her where the gun was, and the female said: ‘It’s between my legs,’” Sergeant Patrick Swanton told KWTX news. “It could have been extremely dangerous for everyone involved.” The incident is not as unusual as people would think, he said. “People don’t believe this happens in real life,” he said. “It happens much more than the average citizen would ever know.” It was not clear if the safety was engaged on the .22 caliber Smith & Wesson, which weighs about 170g and is just under 12cm long.
UNITED STATES
Baby loaded with vodka
A six-week-old girl in Wisconsin mistakenly given baby formula mixed with two shots of vodka on Monday night was due to be released from a hospital on Wednesday, police said. The baby had a blood alcohol level of 0.294, more than three times the legal limit for an adult driver, Kenosha police spokesman Bradley Hetlet said. He said investigators believe it was a mistake and the girl’s parents will not be charged for the alcohol incident. However, her father was charged separately for altercations that ensued after the girl began to suffer from the alcohol, Hetlet said. The mother told police she filled a container with water to be used for the baby’s bottle, set it on a kitchen counter and left the room. The father entered the kitchen, emptied the container and filled it with vodka, intending to take the water bottle to a friend’s home. When the mother returned to the kitchen, she mixed some of the liquid with baby formula and fed her baby. Several fights then ensued between the girl’s 22-year-old father and her mother, family members and police as rescue workers rushed the baby to a hospital.
UNITED STATES
Father allegedly stabs sons
A father on Wednesday allegedly stabbed his three young sons to death with a knife in the back seat of their car outside a South Los Angeles elementary school before it is believed he turned the blade on himself, police said. The father, said to be in his 30s, was found in his car bleeding from stab wounds to the chest, his dead sons in the back and a knife in the passenger seat. The boys, ages eight to 12, were pronounced dead at the scene. The father was hospitalized in critical condition and will be arrested if he survives, Los Angeles Police Officer Matthew Ludwig said.
UNITED STATES
Runner agrees to fine
A Colorado trail runner who in July set a record for the fastest completion of the Appalachian Trail on Wednesday agreed to pay a US$500 fine to Maine after breaking state rules by celebrating his feat with champagne at the trail’s northern terminus, his attorney said. Officials at Baxter State Park, home to the last 24km of the 3,508km trail that ends atop 1,606m tall Mount Kathadin, fined Scott Jurek for violating park rules against drinking in public, littering and hiking with an oversized group. The latter two charges were dropped in a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to public consumption of alcohol, Jurek’s lawyer said.
‘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