IRELAND
Town fed up with sex calls
Residents of Westport have a message for the sexually desperate: Please, babe, let us sleep. Politicians and regulators said that Westport residents are being besieged by nighttime callers seeking lines operated by a British porn site, Babe Station. Numbers for Westport and Babe Station both start with 098. Many Irish callers are failing to dial the British international code first. Mayo lawmaker Michael Ring said he hoped the British regulator of pay-per-call numbers would persuade Babe Station to find a new number. Irish regulators said they have no power of their own to compel any change. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland chief executive Michael O’Keeffe said he was lobbying UK counterparts of harassed Westport residents “as a matter of courtesy.”
AUSTRIA
Drunk, nude biker arrested
State broadcaster ORF said a nude and drunk biker was detained after a nighttime joyride that included trying to steer his cycle through the revolving door of a hotel, pulling a fire alarm and then dropping his bike to sprint through part of the southern city of Villach with police in hot pursuit. Not much else was hot. ORF on Tuesday said that temperatures dipped to minus-13°C late on Monday, the night of the caper.
UNITED STATES
Woman strikes officer
A New Hampshire woman is accused of striking a police officer in the face with her hands while demonstrating a sword trick. Police responded to the Manchester home of 51-year-old Lisa Bunker on Monday night for a report of a possible domestic disturbance involving a sword. They said Bunker accidentally struck herself with the sword, causing a cut over her eye. Her ex-husband suffered small cuts to both hands while trying to take the sword away. When police arrived, authorities said Bunker started demonstrating sword tricks and struck an officer in the face with her hands. She was charged with resisting arrest, simple assault and reckless conduct.
UNITED STATES
Agents probe Trump threat
The Secret Service is investigating a Twitter posting by a Kentucky woman who suggested someone could assassinate President Donald Trump. The agency’s field office in Louisville has interviewed Heather Lowrey and conducted a background check. The tweet, according to a screenshot provided to the Courier-Journal, says: “If someone was cruel enough to assassinate MLK [Martin Luther King], maybe someone will be kind enough to assassinate Trump.” Special Agent Richard Ferretti on Tuesday said that once the investigation concludes, the results will be sent to the US Attorney’s office, which would decide on any potential charges. Federal law prohibits threats to the president and the crime is punishable by at least one year in prison and a maximum of five years.
UNITED STATES
Woman escapes carjacking
A sheriff’s office said that a woman narrowly escaped being carjacked after spotting what she thought was a child sitting in the middle of the road in the dark of night. It turned out to be a dummy, dressed in children’s clothing. As the woman slowed her car, two men wearing dark hoodies approached and pulled on her door handles. She sped away and called for help as the suspects fled, said the sheriff’s office in Carteret County, North Carolina. Major Jason Wank said authorities destroyed the dummy later on Sunday. He is asking for help finding those responsible.
‘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