UNITED STATES
Train derails spilling oil
A train towing a highly volatile type of oil on Friday derailed in Oregon State’s scenic Columbia River Gorge, igniting a fire that sent a plume of black smoke into the sky and spurring evacuations and road closures. Eleven cars derailed in the 96-car Union Pacific train and the railroad said several caught fire. The crash released oil alongside tracks that parallel the Columbia River. All the cars on the train traveling to Tacoma, Washington State, from Eastpoint, Idaho, were carrying Bakken oil, which is more flammable than other varieties because it has a higher gas content and vapor pressure, and a lower flash point. The accident immediately drew reaction from environmentalists who said oil should not be transported by rail, particularly along a river that is a hub of recreation and commerce. “Moving oil by rail constantly puts our communities and environment at risk,’’ said Jared Margolis, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in Eugene, Oregon.
MEXICO
Exhumations completed
Officials on Friday said they have finished exhuming the remains of 117 people buried by authorities in a common grave in the central state of Morelos. Shoddy practices at the gravesite intended for unidentified bodies came to light last year after a judge ordered the state prosecutor’s office to exhume a corpse and turn it over to family members. They found they had to dig around dozens of plastic-wrapped bodies without any documentation connecting them to case files. The Morelos State Government on Friday said that the bodies had been reburied at a regular graveyard. State prosecutors said DNA samples had been taken to help connect the bodies to people looking for missing relatives. Because nobody was sure how many had been buried in the pit, exploratory wells were dug to prove there were no more bodies. The exhumations came after a long battle by the families of the missing, many of whom complained of shoddy investigations into their relatives’ disappearances.
UNITED STATES
‘Glee’ star pleads not guilty
An actor who starred in the musical TV series Glee on Friday pleaded not guilty to federal pornography charges and had his Internet usage and travel severely restricted. US Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver ruled Mark Salling can be released after he posts US$150,000 bail, including US$100,000 of his own money to guarantee future court appearances. Salling, 33, answered several questions from the judge and entered a not-guilty plea during his court appearance, which also resulted in a trial date being set for next month. Salling, who played bad-boy Noah “Puck” Puckerman in the Fox musical dramedy, was charged last week with two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography after a grand jury indicted him last week. US Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said investigators found an extensive, carefully organized collection of child pornography during searches of Salling’s electronic devices.
ARGENTINA
President hospitalized briefly
President Mauricio Macri was briefly hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat, the presidency said on Friday. Macri, 57, suffered from a “light arrhythmia” at about 3pm, but he carried on working normally at the presidential residence in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, his office said in a statement. He was checked into a hospital at about 7:30pm for precautionary studies. He was released later in the evening.
INDONESIA
Helicopter crashes in Papua
A pilot was killed and three passengers critically wounded after a helicopter crashed in a remote eastern area yesterday, officials said, the latest accident to beset the country’s beleaguered aviation sector. The Bell 206 helicopter of aircraft operator Amur went down in Papua Province’s Paniai Regency. It was not immediately clear what caused the accident. Weather conditions were reported to be normal at the time. “We have evacuated the passengers to the nearby city of Nabire so they could get medical treatment,” National Police spokesman Agus Rianto said. Difficult terrain and bad weather in the province have caused several accidents in recent years. Last year, an airplane from Trigana Air crashed, killing 54 people on board.
BAHRAIN
Inmates escape from prison
Security forces yesterday launched a manhunt after a reported 20 prisoners broke out of a jail on the island of Muharraq. There was no immediate word on whether the prisoners were common criminals or political activists jailed in a sweeping five-year-old crackdown on dissent among the kingdom’s Shiite majority. The Ministry of Interior said police had recaptured some of the fugitives, but gave no details on how many remained at large. It said the breakout happened at the al-Hidd detention center near the Muharraq dry dock on Friday evening. The Akhbar al-Khaleej newspaper said about 20 prisoners had escaped. “They managed to seize a bus and get away after assaulting warders and police and wounding several of them,” the newspaper said. Police set up roadblocks on the causeways linking Muharraq to the main island, where the capital, Manama, is located, the newspaper added.
IRAN
Police arrest 132 partygoers
Iranian police have arrested 132 men and women, some of them alleged bisexuals, a judiciary Web site said on Friday, in the latest crackdown on partygoers accused of breaking Muslim rules. On Thursday night, police in Tehran arrested “more than 70 drunk men and women at a restaurant in Farahzad,” on the capital’s northwestern outskirts, Mizan Online reported. The news agency later quoted police as saying there were 40 men and 30 women, including 26 men and six women who tested positive for alcohol. “Six bisexuals were identified among those arrested,” it said. Drinking alcohol and dancing with the opposite sex are illegal. In addition, “62 men and women were arrested at another party in Bandar Abbas,” Mizan said, without giving a date. Last week, Iran arrested eight people accused of involvement in making “obscene” music videos.
AUSTRALIA
Man dies after shark attack
A surfer who lost a leg in a shark attack has died, police said yesterday, adding that his injuries were too severe for him to survive. Ben Gerring, 29, was with a group of surfers at Falcon Beach in Western Australia when a suspected great white pounced on him on Tuesday, ripping off his right leg above the knee and snapping his surfboard in half. Fellow surfers rushed to his aid, helping him from the water and giving him first aid before he could be transferred to Royal Perth Hospital in efforts praised by his family. “Tragically, the man was unable to recover from his injury and passed away last night [Friday],” Western Australia Police said in a statement. Authorities said a 4.2m shark was caught on Wednesday near to where the attack occurred, but they could not confirm whether it was responsible.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was