FRANCE
Man shot dead at Orly airport
Security forces at Paris Orly Airport yesterday shot dead a man who grabbed a weapon from a soldier. The second-largest airport in Paris was evacuated following the shooting at about 8:30am, airport authorities said. “A man took a weapon from a soldier then hid in a shop in the airport before being shot dead by security forces,” Ministry of the Interior spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said. He said no one was wounded in the incident. Demining operations were underway to determine if the man had explosives on him. About 3,000 people were evacuated from the southern terminal, but those in the other one had been “confined,” the ministry said.
UNITED STATES
Pentagon denies bombing
The Pentagon on Friday released an aerial photograph of a pulverized building in Syria in an unusual defense of a US airstrike that officials said killed dozens of al-Qaeda operatives at a meeting place — and not civilians at a mosque, as activists and local residents said. However, far from settling the debate, the photograph prompted fresh challenges from local activists who said that the building was part of a religious complex. Some of them distributed their own photographs of the devastation. The Pentagon has not said which al-Qaeda leaders it believes were killed, but suggested it might make that information public once it receives confirmation.
CANADA
Government regrets torture
The government on Friday formally apologized in a statement to three of its citizens who were tortured in Syria, in which Canadian officials allegedly played an indirect role. The government said it had settled civil suits with three Canadians — Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin — who were arrested and tortured in Syrian custody just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and detained until 2004. “On behalf of the Government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr Almalki, Mr Abou-Elmaati and Mr Nureddin, and their families, for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to their detention and mistreatment abroad and any resulting harm,” Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale and Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said.
UNITED STATES
Monopoly tokens booted out
If you have ever wanted to rampage through a game of Monopoly like a dinosaur, you are in luck. The board game is changing out three of its playing tokens, swapping a penguin, Tyrannosaurus rex and rubber ducky in for the thimble, wheelbarrow and boot, Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based toymaker Hasbro Inc said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Robot feared ‘botnapped’
The “shy bot” has stopped communicating. The small robotic vehicle, designed to avoid people as well as plants and rocks, last month started its off-road journey as part of a sprawling art exhibition known as “Desert X.” Now it is missing and its data stream is dead. The six-wheeled vehicle could have malfunctioned and crashed into a cactus beyond the zone predicted by its last known coordinates. However, Desert X curator Neville Wakefield is calling the disappearance a likely “botnapping” and is arranging missing-bot billboards offering a US$1,000 reward. The robot’s creator, an Italian artist who uses the alias Norma Jeane, said: “I don’t think shy bot has been destroyed or harmed. My instinct is that somebody with electronics experience probably picked her up to keep her.”
‘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
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
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