GERMANY
Police interrupt erotic lesson
Police on Thursday said they rushed to an apartment in southwestern Neustadt after receiving a call about suspected domestic abuse — only to barge in on a voluntary class on Japanese bondage. Neustadt police said a concerned neighbor called to report that two men were abusing a half-naked woman in a nearby apartment. When police arrived, they instead found the tenant, a teacher of Japanese bondage, instructing a couple in the basics of erotic bondage. In a statement titled “Fifty Shades of Neustadt,” police said that “the couple was well and in a good mood” when they inquired about their situation on Wednesday night, adding that they even offered to have the officers participate in the class, which was politely declined.
ISRAEL
Flash floods kill nine teens
Flash floods on Thursday killed nine teenagers who were hiking south of the Dead Sea, Israel Fire and Rescue Services said. The casualties were all 18 years old. Local media said eight of the fatalities were female and one was male. Police said another hiker is still missing. Earlier, agency spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 25 students in a pre-army course were “caught off guard” and some were “washed away” by heavy rains while they were hiking in the area. Rosenfeld said 15 hikers were rescued. “The state of Israel is mourning the loss of young promising lives in the heavy disaster,” President Reuven Rivlin said on Twitter. The downpour caused parts of a security barrier with the West Bank to collapse, Rosenfeld said. Police and army helicopters were deployed to search for the missing member of the group, but search operations were suspended by nightfall until the morning due to harsh conditions, police said.
VENEZUELA
Ties, air links re-established
The government and Panama on Thursday agreed to restore their respective ambassadors and re-establish air links as they seek to patch up a bitter diplomatic row, President Nicolas Maduro said. “We have agreed to return ambassadors to Panama and Venezuela ... and resume air links from tomorrow,” Maduro told reporters after speaking by telephone with Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela. A Panamanian government source confirmed the agreement. Maduro said the conversation with Varela was mediated by Dominican President Danilo Medina. The diplomatic crisis erupted late last month, when Panama said it had added a string of senior Venezuelan officials, including Maduro, to a list of individuals deemed at “high risk” of money laundering. On April 5, Caracas promptly suspended economic ties with about 100 Panamanian businesses, including Copa Airlines, one of the main carriers linking Venezuela to the rest of the region.
‘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