BOLIVIA
Carnival bomb kills four
A bomb caused an explosion that killed four people and wounded 10 during carnival celebrations, authorities said on Wednesday. The blast occurred late on Tuesday in the city of Oruro, the capital of President Evo Morales’ home province. Police General Faustino Mendoza told reporters the bomb was made of dynamite, ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, all commonly used in homemade explosives. He added that the blast dug a crater nearly 1.3m wide and 43cm deep. On Saturday night, an explosion along the carnival route two blocks from Tuesday’s attack killed eight and injured 40. Police had blamed the first explosion on a food vendor’s gas canister, but said they were re-evaluating that in the wake of the second attack. Officials said three people had been detained for questioning in the second explosion.
CHINA
Jiangsu reports bird flu
The nation has reported the first human case of the H7N4 strain of bird flu in a woman in an eastern coastal province, though she has since recovered. In a statement late on Wednesday, the Hong Kong government’s Centre for Health Protection said it had been informed of the case by mainland China’s health ministry, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which said it was the first case of human infection with the H7N4 strain in the world. It involved a 68-year-old woman in Jiangsu Province who developed symptoms on Dec. 25, was admitted to hospital on Jan. 1 and discharged on Jan. 22. “She had contact with live poultry before the onset of symptoms. All her close contacts did not have any symptoms during the medical surveillance period,” the Hong Kong government said. Since 2013, at least 600 people have died in China and more than 1,500 people have fallen sick as a result of H7N9 bird flu virus.
MEXICO
Presidential hopeful hurt
An indigenous woman who is running for president was injured on Wednesday and a member of her campaign was killed when the van transporting them ran off the road, her party said. Maria de Jesus Patricio, who is known to supporters as “Marichuy,” has been touring the nation trying to collect the signatures needed to become the first indigenous woman to make it onto the presidential ballot. The accident happened in a remote region of the state of Baja California Sur. Patricio has apparently broken her left arm and is being airlifted to the state capital, La Paz, state health minister Victor George Flores said. President Enrique Pena Nieto sent his sympathies.
UNITED STATES
Baio denies sex misconduct
A spokesman for Scott Baio said the actor denies “each and every one” of the allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by two of his former co-stars on the TV show Charles in Charge. Brian Glicklich read a statement from the actor at a news conference on Wednesday held in response to new allegations disclosed by actor Alexander Polinsky. An attorney for Baio, Jennifer McGrath, characterized the claims made by Polinsky and actress Nicole Eggert as “ever-changing” and evidence of a “hunger for publicity.” Baio live-streamed the news conference on his Facebook page, but did not attend. Glicklich and McGrath said the actor was at a school party with his daughter. Polinsky said Baio exposed himself and talked about gay sex acts with the young actor. Eggert said Baio sexually assaulted her when she was a minor while they worked together on the hit show.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.