FRANCE
Woman’s arms reattached
A woman whose arms were sliced off in a train accident has had the limbs successfully reattached in a rare and complicated operation, doctors said on Friday. The 30-year-old woman lost both arms above the elbow after falling between a train and the platform at the Chambery station in the foothills of the French Alps earlier this month. Quick-thinking medics who arrived on the scene shortly afterward were praised for helping preserve her arms by wrapping them in sterilized material and ice before transferring them quickly to a hospital. Two hours after the accident, a medical team of 10 at the hospital in nearby Grenoble began the operation to reattach the limbs. “The muscles can’t be reactivated completely, so some movements will be problematic for the patient, particularly with her hands, but it will be much better than having a prosthesis,” CHU Grenoble Alpes surgeon Michael Bouyer told reporters on Friday.
INDIA
Kashmir rebels attack camp
Rebels in Kashmir yesterday stormed a police camp in the disputed region, killing two paramilitary soldiers and a police officer, an official said. At least two gunmen entered the camp in the southern town of Pulwama firing guns and grenades at the sentry, Police Director-General S.P. Vaid said. In the initial attack, a policeman was killed and four other personnel, including a paramilitary soldier, were wounded. Police and paramilitary soldiers responded to the attack, while reinforcements of soldiers and counterinsurgency police encircled the camp, Vaid said, adding that in the ensuing firefight inside the camp, two paramilitary soldiers were killed. Government forces evacuated dozens of police families, he said. No rebel group immediately claimed the attack.
UNITED STATES
Oil tanker runs aground
The coast guard said an oil tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of fuel has run aground in a shipping channel between New York and New Jersey, but there is no indication any fuel has spilled. There have been no reports of injuries and an initial assessment has found no structural damage to the ship, the agency said. The Kamome Victoria ran aground south of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Friday evening while traveling outbound and notified the coast guard, the agency added. The coast guard said it is investigating the incident and would determine a salvage plan. The Kamome Victoria sails under the flag of Panama.
UNITED STATES
Soldier missing after crash
A UH-60 Black Hawk on Friday crashed off Yemen’s coast during a training mission and a search was under way for one service member, the military said. US Central Command said in a statement that five other service members aboard the aircraft had been rescued after the crash, which took place about 32km off Yemen’s southern coast at 7pm. An official told reporters that the cause of the crash was under investigation. There have been a number of aviation mishaps involving military aircraft in the past few months. The coast guard said that it had suspended its search off Hawaii for five Army aviators missing since their Black Hawk helicopter crashed earlier this month. In April, an army Black Hawk crashed on a Maryland golf course, killing one crew member and seriously injuring two others. Last month, a military transport plane crash killed 16 service members, including elite special operations forces, in northern Mississippi.
‘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