CANADA
Town prepares for oil
Officials in Saskatchewan were preparing a city of more than 35,000 people to deal with the disruption of its water supply as oil from a pipeline leak made its way along a major river in the province. Saskatchewan Water Security Agency official Sam Ferris said that Prince Albert gets most of its water from the North Saskatchewan River and staff there were getting ready to shut down the intakes as oil from the leak flows past the city. Ferris said the city was planning to treat water from stormwater retention ponds and other reservoirs, which he said would last approximately seven days. Between 200,000 and 250,000 liters of crude oil and other material leaked into the river on Thursday, upstream from a breach in Husky Energy’s pipeline near Maidstone, Saskatchewan. The company shut down the line and put out booms about 40km upstream from North Battleford, a city that had already shut its water intakes. Ferris said officials were working on ways to treat water for hydrocarbons if backup water supplies run out before the oil passes. He said the oil could reach Prince Albert late yesterday or early today. Ferris said that preparations were also being made further downstream after the North Saskatchewan and the South Saskatchewan rivers converge, where a Saskatchewan Water Corporation intake draws water for Melfort and other municipalities.
CHINA
Tigers kill, injure women
Siberian tigers at a wildlife park in Beijing mauled a woman to death and wounded another when the visitors stepped out of their car in an enclosure, a state-run newspaper said. A tiger pounced on one of the women after she got out of a private car in which she was touring the Beijing Badaling Wildlife World on Saturday, the Legal Evening News reported. The second woman was killed by another tiger that leaped at her after she stepped out of the vehicle to try to help her companion, the report said. The Yanqing District Government confirmed in an official microblog post that the tiger attack took place at the park, which lies at the foot of the Great Wall. It offered few details, but said the injured person was being treated. Visitors are allowed to drive their own vehicles in the park, but are forbidden from getting out while in certain enclosures, the report said. A woman who answered the telephone at the park refused to comment on the attack, saying only that the park was closed for two days due to forecasts of heavy rain.
UNITED STATES
Police stop ‘rolling wake’
A woman who drove her husband’s body on a days-long traveling wake in Alaska and used ice from canneries to keep him cold is not accused of breaking any laws. Officers responded to a call last week to find the body of a 78-year-old man inside an aluminum transport casket. Ketchikan Police Chief Alan Bengaard told the Ketchikan Daily News that the woman stopped at canneries for ice to put in the truck bed during the “rolling wake.” The man had died of natural causes, police said. A mortuary took custody of the body after the authorities were called. The family can make further arrangements, the mortuary said. Bengaard said that hopefully the woman would not take her husband back out on the road, but that he was not aware of any laws she had broken.
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