UNITED STATES
Manson still alive: official
A California prison official said former cult leader Charles Manson is alive following reports that he was hospitalized. TMZ on Tuesday reported that Manson was taken to a hospital in Bakersfield, about 95km from the California prison where he has been incarcerated. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton declined to say whether Manson has been hospitalized. Thornton said Manson, 82, is still assigned to the prison in Corcoran, but she declined to say whether he is there, citing safety and security protocols. Privacy laws prohibit her from discussing an inmate’s medical situation, Thornton said. Manson was convicted of orchestrating the murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969.
GERMANY
Alleged IS militant on trial
An alleged Islamic State (IS) militant accused of scoping out potential targets for an attack in Berlin, including the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, was scheduled to go on trial in the nation yesterday. It was to be the country’s first trial of a suspected Islamic State militant deployed to the nation from Syria. The defendant, identified only as 19-year-old Shaas Al-M from Syria, allegedly fought with the Islamic State group in Syria for two years before arriving in Germany as a refugee in August 2015. He is to stand trial in a special state security court in Berlin on charges of membership of a foreign terrorist organization, which carries up to 10 years in jail, and military weapons law violations.
THE GAMBIA
Election official flees
The head of the nation’s electoral commission has fled to Senegal fearing a plot against him, a month after declaring President Yahya Jammeh lost an election following 22 years in power, one of his relatives said. Independent Electoral Commission Chairman Alieu Momar Njie “fled to Senegal after he got information that the Gambian authorities were plotting against him and his team” one of his relatives told reporters on Tuesday. “Some of his team members have also left for Senegal,” the relative said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The relative did not elaborate on how Njie fled or say who had gone with him.
PAKISTAN
Bomb hits police vehicle
A police official said a roadside bomb has struck a vehicle carrying police in the country’s northwest, wounding four officers and 15 passersby. Local police official Mohammad Nawaz said yesterday’s attack took place in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, a gateway to the troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
UNITED STATES
US stars to be buried
Screen icon Debbie Reynolds and her daughter, Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher, are to be buried side by side, US media reported on Tuesday. ABC News said a private memorial service limited to family and close friends would take place on Thursday. Reynolds’ son Todd Fisher told ABC’s 20/20 on Friday last week he was planning a joint service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills with the help of Billie Lourd, his niece and Carrie Fisher’s daughter. “It will be exactly what they both wanted, to be together,” he said. The family is understood to be discussing a public memorial, although no plans have been announced.
‘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