UNITED STATES
Gunman, officer killed
A police officer and a gunman have died after a shootout at a bus station on Thursday in Virginia. Police said the attacker repeatedly shot at a state trooper who had approached him. Two other police officers returned fire before the man was eventually subdued. The gunman and the injured trooper, who was named as 37-year-old Chad Dermyer, were both taken to hospital where they died from their injuries. Two women who were at the Greyhound bus station were also hurt in the incident, but their injuries were not thought to be serious.
CANADA
Court asks for chat records
A court has ordered a Canadian news outlet to hand over records of a reporter’s online chat with an alleged extremist to federal police, according to the ruling obtained by media on Thursday. The information includes screenshots of an online chat between Vice Media reporter Ben Makuch and Farah Shirdon, a Canadian charged in absentia in September last year with leaving the country to join a banned terrorist group, threatening Canada and its allies, and related offenses. Shirdon is suspected of involvement with the Islamic State group. Police said he traveled to Iraq or Syria join the group in March 2014. Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian MacDonnell said in his ruling that the information is important evidence in a serious criminal case, in which there is a strong public interest.
UNITED STATES
Internet subsidies planned
Low-income Americans are expected to be able to apply for help from the federal government in paying for Internet access in December. The US Federal Communications Commissioners voted, 3-2 along party lines, on Thursday to expand the US$1.5 billion Lifeline program, a US$9.25-per-month subsidy, to Internet as well as phone service. It is the latest federal government attempt to close a “digital divide” between those who have access to the Internet and those who do not.
UNITED STATES
Convicted man executed
The state of Georgia on Thursday executed a man convicted of murder in a fatal beating as a teenager, despite last-ditch appeals to spare his life. Joshua Bishop’s execution was carried out at 9:27pm, according to a statement from the Georgia Department of Corrections. The 41-year-old “accepted a final prayer and recorded a final statement,” it said. At the age of 19, during a night of drinking, Bishop and a friend, Mark Braxley, beat a man named Leverett Morrison to death after he refused to give them the keys to his Jeep. After realizing that Morrison had died, the two disposed of his body, set his Jeep ablaze and then returned to drink in the bar they had been to previously. Bishop confessed to police and was subsequently put on trial and sentenced to death. Braxley was sentenced to life in prison.
PERU
Remains of victims returned
The remains of 40 villagers killed more than two decades ago by Maoist-inspired rebels have been returned to their loved ones for burial, the government said on Thursday. Justice Minister Aldo Vasquez asked for forgiveness on behalf of the Peruvian state for its role in the conflict at a ceremony held on Wednesday with the support of the International Red Cross in the central highland village of Ccano. Many of the victims, including children and the elderly, were killed while praying inside a church that was attacked by Shining Path guerrillas in 1991.
‘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