BRAZIL
Car kills baby on promenade
A car on Thursday plowed into a crowd on Rio de Janeiro’s tourist-packed Copacabana seaside promenade, killing a baby and injuring 17 people, authorities said, with the driver telling investigators he suffered a seizure. The black car, its windshield shattered and the front caved in, came to rest on the beach, where some of the injured were frantically being treated. Health officials said that a nine-month-old baby girl was killed and 17 people injured in the crash. The driver “lost control of his vehicle, which went up on the sidewalk of the promenade” and was taken for questioning, police said. “The driver explained at the police station that he had an epileptic seizure, and anti-epileptic drugs were found in his vehicle,” a military police colonel said. The early-evening incident happened while many people were enjoying the long promenade during the summer holiday. Witnesses described chaotic scenes, with badly injured victims waiting in agony for treatment.
RUSSIA
Putin takes icy Epiphany dip
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday stripped off to his bathing trunks and immersed himself in the freezing waters of a lake late on Thursday, observing an Orthodox Christian ritual to mark the feast of Epiphany. State TV showed 65-year-old Putin marching onto the ice of frozen Lake Seliger, about 400km north of Moscow, dressed in a sheepskin coat and felt boots. With his coat and boots removed, he walked down a set of wooden steps into a hole in the ice, crossed himself and dipped his head under the water before surfacing. Air temperatures at the time were about minus-6°C. Each year on Epiphany, Orthodox believers immerse themselves in rivers and lakes to commemorate the baptism of Jesus. Putin, who is campaigning for re-election in a March 18 presidential poll, has become a frequent participant of Russian Orthodox ceremonies and has given the church a major voice in society.
UNITED STATES
Christie sent to back of line
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is learning life as an airline passenger is different when you are no longer governor. When Christie and his New Jersey State Police security detail arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday, two days after he left office, they headed to a special access area used by dignitaries for security clearance. However, a law enforcement official familiar with the encounter said that an airport police officer and a Transportation Security Administration officer directed them to the regular screening line for all passengers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. The official said Christie complied and did not attempt to use the special entrance.
‘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