COSTA RICA
Twelve killed in plane crash
A plane carrying 10 US citizens and two local crew members on Sunday crashed in a wooded area, killing all aboard, the government said. The Public Safety Ministry posted photographs and video of the crash site showing burning wreckage of the plane in Guanacaste. Authorities said that so far they had only a list of passengers provided by the airline and were awaiting official confirmation of their identities. A family in the suburbs of New York City said five of the dead Americans were relatives on vacation. They identified them as Bruce and Irene Steinberg and their sons Matthew, William and Zachary, all of Scarsdale. “We are in utter shock and disbelief right now,” Bruce Steinberg’s sister, Tamara Steinberg Jacobson, wrote on Facebook. She also confirmed the deaths in an interview with NBC News.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cars destroyed in fire
A blaze has destroyed every vehicle left in a 1,600-capacity car park serving Liverpool’s indoor arena, police said yesterday. The Liverpool International Horse Show, taking place in the city’s neighboring 11,000-seater arena, was canceled due to the fire, which broke out after dark on Sunday. Nobody has been seriously injured in the blaze, the Merseyside Police said, while all horses were accounted for. “Initial investigations indicate that an accidental fire within a vehicle caused other cars to ignite,” the force said. “We believe that all vehicles parked in the car park have been destroyed and advise owners to contact their insurance companies.”
MEXICO
Car crash kills 10
Several US citizens were among 10 people who died in a car crash and subsequent fire on the southwestern coast near tourist hot spot Acapulco, the US Department of State said on Sunday. Two other were injured in the accident late on Friday, when two cars and a motorcycle collided on the highway between Acapulco and beach city Zihuatanejo in Guerrero State, Mexico’s civil protection agency said. A one-year-old and four-year-old were killed in the accident, along with others ranging aged between 26 and 76, Guerrero’s civil protection agency said.
UNITED STATES
Seattle settles abuse suit
The City of Seattle has settled a lawsuit filed by a man who claimed former mayor Ed Murray sexually abused him when he was a teenager. City Attorney Pete Holmes late on Saturday announced that the city will pay Delvonn Heckard US$150,000 to settle the lawsuit, which led to Murray’s resignation. The lawsuit claimed Murray raped and molested Heckard as a teen and blamed the city for enabling Murray to use his political office to slander Heckard and others for months.
VATICAN CITY
Pope laments war, lies
Pope Francis in his year-end message said that last year had been marred by war, lies and injustice, and urged people to take responsibility for their actions. At his last public event of the year, an evening vespers service in St Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff said that humanity had “wasted and wounded” the year “in many ways with works of death, with lies and injustices.” While war was the most obvious sign of “unrepentant and absurd pride,” many other transgressions had caused “human, social and environmental degradation,” he said. “We must take responsibility for everything before God, our brothers and our creation,” Francis said.
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
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number