AUSTRALIA
Wall run sparks lawsuit
A man has launched legal action after coming off second-best to a virtual Cathy Freeman in an interactive exhibit. Visitors to Melbourne’s Scienceworks museum are invited to pit themselves against a simulation of the Olympic 400m gold medalist on a 10m dual-lane track. When Dean Smith gave it a go in June last year, he ran into a wall, severely injuring himself. Fairfax reported that Smith was now suing the Museums Board of Victoria, which operates the museum in Spotswood, for negligence for unspecified damages. “All these little things made me think I could beat her, I got a bit competitive, thinking: ‘I can take on Cathy Freeman,’” he told Fairfax. “Then when I was 30cm from the wall, I saw what was going to stop me.” In a writ lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court last week, he said that the museum had failed to prevent the risk of injury and that the track was poorly lit and should not have led to a wall. In his statement of claim, he said he had fractured one vertebra and crushed another one; fractured an occipital bone and a rib; and lost feeling in his arms, hands and fingers in the incident. He had a psychiatric disorder and subsequently had a stroke, he said.
UNITED STATES
Manhunt ends at campsite
Jeffrey Gorn, a retired school counselor, provided the break in the case of Joseph Jakubowski, alerting investigators to a man he found camping on his property about 200km northwest of Janesville, Wisconsin. A hunt for Jakubowski was launched after authorities said he broke into a gun store on April 4 and sent a threatening 161-page manifesto to the White House. “Make no mistake, what could’ve happened here was a mass shooting. That was our concern,” said Janesville Police Chief David Moore. Law enforcement officers arrested Jakubowski at 6am on Friday after setting a perimeter around him overnight. Milwaukee-based FBI special agent Justin Tolomeo said officers recovered five guns, multiple boxes of ammunition, a sword and containers of flammable liquid, as well as a protective vest and helmet. Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden said that Jakubowski “surrendered without incident. There was no use of force.” Gorn told reporters that Gorn said he was “off the grid.” Gorn said: “I told him you’re not too far off the grid. You’re on my grid.”
UNITED STATES
‘Witch’ sentenced for abuse
An Oklahoma City woman accused of terrorizing her seven-year-old granddaughter while dressed as a witch has been sentenced to life in prison. Geneva Robinson, 51, was sentenced on Thursday to three consecutive life terms, the Oklahoman reported. She pleaded guilty to five counts of felony child abuse in February. Robinson, who dressed as “Nelda” to scare her granddaughter, admitted to scratching the girl’s neck, striking her face, hitting her hand with a rolling pin and cutting her hair while she slept, according to court records.
UNITED STATES
Carrier completes trials
Newport News Shipbuilding said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the first of the navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers, has completed the builder’s sea trials. Company vice president Rolf Bartschi told the Virginian-Pilot that the carrier spent a week at sea undergoing tests of its systems with navy representatives aboard. Those trials concluded on Friday. Construction on the US$12.9 billion carrier began in 2009, meeting cost overruns and delays.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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