UNITED STATES
Marines confirmed dead
Twelve marines missing at sea when two military helicopters apparently collided in Hawaii last week are dead, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said on Wednesday. The CH-53E helicopters crashed on Thursday last week off the island of Oahu with six crewmembers aboard each. “Our hearts go out to the loved ones and family members of 12 marines missing since an apparent helicopter collision off the coast of Hawaii last week,” Carter said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Second execution of the year
Texas on Wednesday executed a man who killed a transvestite during a sex game, prison officials said. Richard Masterson, 43, who failed in a desperate last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court, received a lethal injection and died at 6:53pm, a spokesman for the local prison administration said. He was the second person executed in the nation this year. Masterson was convicted of strangling to death Darin Honeycutt in 2001 in Houston. Masterson admitted strangling Honeycutt, but said that it was an accident and that the victim died of a heart attack during consensual sex.
ECUADOR
Assange to face questioning
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange is to be questioned shortly at the nation’s embassy in London, President Rafael Correa told reporters in Quito on Wednesday. Correa said that questions submitted by Swedish prosecutors will be asked of Assange by Quito government officials “in the coming days.” The questions relate to accusations of sexual assault made by two women. “This is finally going to happen, what could have been done three years ago,” Correa said.
ARGENTINA
Airspace security tightened
The government has announced tighter new rules for the nation’ airspace, including a measure that could let the air force shoot down planes suspected of illegal activities. The rules include expanded radar coverage aimed at detecting and deterring drug and flights. Opponents have jumped on the protocol for potentially shooting down unresponsive planes, saying it amounts to a death sentence, but Secretary of Homeland Security Eugenio Burzaco on Wednesday said that would only be a last resort.
UNITED KINGDOM
Spelling error brings police
The family of a 10-year-old Muslim boy on Wednesday demanded an apology after he was quizzed by police for writing that he lived in a “terrorist” house instead of a “terraced” house during an English class. Police interviewed the boy at his home in Lancashire on Dec. 7 and examined the family computer following his mistake, according to the BBC. Since July last year, teachers have been legally obliged to report any suspicious behavior by pupils. “You can imagine it happening to a 30-year-old man, but not to a young child,” the boy’s cousin told the BBC. “If the teacher had any concerns it should have been about his spelling… He’s now scared of writing, using his imagination.” A terraced property is a term for a townhouse that shares its side walls with others. Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, the nation’s largest umbrella group for Islamic associations said: “There are huge concerns that individuals going about their daily life are being seen through the lens of security and are being seen as potential terrorists rather than students.”
‘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
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
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