UNITED KINGDOM
Junior doctors stage strike
Hospital doctors on Tuesday staged their first strike in four decades, disrupting treatment for thousands of patients in the National Health Service and escalating political tensions over the publicly funded healthcare system. Operations were postponed and appointments canceled in a bitter dispute over pay and working hours between employers and junior doctors, a term that covers medical professionals with as much as a decade of experience. A proposed new contract would increase basic pay, but reduce the number of hours for which junior doctors receive added compensation for work, particularly on Saturdays. The government insists that doctors would not be worse off under the new contract, but that is disputed by the British Medical Association.
UNITED STATES
Selfie leads to arrest
Police in Lima, Ohio, said a man who sent them a selfie because he did not like the mug shot they were using has been arrested in Florida. Donald Pugh was arrested on Tuesday in Century and is being held on another warrant out of Georgia. Police said Pugh is also wanted for failing to appear in court and is a person of interest in several cases. They said Pugh sent them a picture of himself in a sport coat and sunglasses along with a message stating: “Here is a better photo that one is terrible.” The Lima police department posted a new mug shot of a smiling Pugh on Facebook after his arrest in Florida.
MEXICO
Hunt for wedding guests
Soldiers and police are searching for up to 17 people who were abducted by gunmen on Saturday as the group headed to a wedding in Guerrero. A state security department official said that 10 people were reported missing, but Guerrero Governor Hector Astudillo said the mayor of Arcelia reported that more people were taken away. State police had reported over the weekend that at least seven people were kidnapped by an armed group that intercepted a convoy of vehicles heading to the village of La Palma. The bullet-riddled bodies of two men were found at the scene of the abduction along with about 15 abandoned cars, including two that were burned, and two motorcycles. A third body was found 300m from the road. Hundreds of people — relatives of the missing and residents of Arcelia — on Tuesday held a protest in the town.
UNITED STATES
FBI targets Super Bowl sex
For the first time in the FBI’s efforts to crack down on sex trafficking during the Super Bowl, the agency is to try to reach out to women and girls selling sex in the lead-up to the game. FBI officials said the goal is to give them a way out and get them to turn against their traffickers. The approach would rely on local nonprofit groups making initial contact with victims before the bureau steps in to provide them with access to its advocates and other services.
UNITED STATES
Plane lands on freeway
Southern California motorists were shocked when a small plane made an emergency landing on a freeway on Monday just as the evening commute was getting underway. The California Highway Patrol said vehicles had to swerve to avoid hitting the two-seat aircraft when it touched down on State Route 23 in Ventura County. Student-pilot Danielle Lagree told the Ventura County Star she was flying with her instructor when the engine began to sputter. The instructor took over and landed the plane. Nobody was hurt.
PAKISTAN
Suicide bomber kills 15
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polio vaccination centre in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, killing at least 15 people, mainly police, officials said. The policemen had been gathering outside the center to accompany polio workers for the third day of a vaccination campaign, which are frequently targeted by militant attacks in the country, in the violence-wracked province of Balochistan, of which Quetta is the capital.
HONG KONG
Leader pushes integration
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) yesterday announced steps to boost integration with China, pinning the territory’s future on the success of Beijing’s international “One Belt, One Road” concept. Leung said during his annual policy address that the territory would play a significant role in promoting the new “silk road” spreading from Western China to Central Asia and Europe. “Hong Kong is well-positioned to capture the wealth of the Belt and Road,” Leung said. Four lawmakers were removed for heckling Leung during his speech over a lack of substance and his failure to mention concerns over the disappearance of five people linked to a publisher and bookstore, widely feared to have been illegally abducted by Chinese agents.
AUSTRALIA
MH370 search finds wreck
The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has uncovered a shipwreck deep underwater, officials said yesterday, the second such discovery since the search began almost two years ago. An Australian-led team continues to scour the southern Indian Ocean seabed in hope of finding the final resting place of MH370, which vanished on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. In July last year, a 2m-long flaperon wing part washed up on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and was confirmed to be from the ill-fated flight, marking the first concrete evidence that it met a tragic end. Nothing has been found since, despite more than 80,000km2 of the seafloor being searched. However, another shipwreck — an iron or steel-hulled vessel believed to have gone down at the turn of the 19th century — has been discovered about 3,700m deep.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
US tourist gang-raped
A US woman hiking in the country with her London-based boyfriend was gang-raped and three of her fingers slashed in a brutal attack along a famous World War II trail, a report said yesterday. Police said the pair, both aged 31, were on the Kokoda Track, which runs through the jungles of the island state off Australia’s northeastern tip, when they were attacked and stripped of their belongings including mobile phones, shoes, backpacks and 15,000 kina (USUS$5,000) in cash. “Two expatriate tourists, a male and a female, both 31, were trekking the Kokoda Track and heading towards Templeton Two [a campsite] when they were ambushed by armed men,” Assistant Police Commissioner Sylvester Kalaut told the National newspaper of the Monday ambush. “The male trekker was tied to a tree and the female tracker was repeatedly raped before three of her fingers were chopped. The incident took place for an hour before they [trekkers] were set free.” Police described the attack as a gang-rape and told the newspaper at least two suspects carrying bush knives and spears were involved. One was being held by villagers, the National added. The couple fled to a village and were taken to the capital, Port Moresby, where they were given medical attention.
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
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