NETHERLANDS
Power outage disrupts flights
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was temporarily closed early yesterday as a large power outage hit all operations at one of Europe’s busiest airports. Authorities closed off roads to Schiphol and stopped train traffic to the airport at about 4am to “ensure the safety of travelers,” the airport said, as check-in procedures had become impossible and the airport’s main halls overflowed with waiting passengers. Roads to the airport were reopened at about 5:30am, as power was restored, but the disruption of services would have “severe consequences for air traffic during the day,” airport spokesman Jacco Bartels said.
GREECE
Fighter jets to be upgraded
A panel of senior government and military officials has approved a 1.2 billion euro (US$1.45 billion) deal to upgrade more than half of the country’s US-made F-16 warplanes. Officials said the deal approved by the Cabinet on Saturday would give 85 of the country’s fleet of F-16s capabilities similar to the much more advanced F-35 fighters except stealth technology. The terms of the agreement call for the country to pay for the improvements until 2027 or 2028, but the US agreed to cap annual payments at 150 million euros after that.
UNITED STATES
Subway masturbator caught
Police in New York City have said a man spotted by officers ripping down wanted posters of himself had been accused of masturbating on a subway train. The photograph of Kosta Kolaci that is on the posters was taken this month by a rider who was in the same subway car. The rider handed over his photographs to police, who made the posters. The 61-year-old suspect was arrested on Friday when officers saw him in a Brooklyn station, tearing down the posters. He is charged with public lewdness.
UNITED STATES
Deputy engages in cow chase
A Texas deputy constable proved he is fleet of foot while facing down an agile cow that had a beef with motorists along a rural road. Harris County Deputy Andrew Ries was patrolling an unincorporated area northeast of Houston late on Thursday when he stopped to assist motorists involved in an apparent traffic accident. He learned one of the cars had struck a cow. The bovine did not appear harmed, but it turned on Ries and chased the deputy around his patrol car, at one point striking the front of the vehicle. The motorists are seen on video hopping on top of a car to avoid the animal, which ran away. Harris County Precinct 3 Constable Sherman Eagleton wrote on Facebook that his department often encounters “the good, the bad and the big.”
UNITED STATES
Lost trucker hikes 58km
A trucker who was missing for four days in a snow-covered part of Oregon after his GPS mapping device sent him up the wrong road walked 58km and emerged safely on Saturday from a remote and rugged region of the state. Jacob Cartwright, 22, showed up near the town of La Grande, where an intensive search involving aircraft had been taking place since he went missing on Tuesday last week. Cartwright was being evaluated in an emergency room but appeared okay, said nursing supervisor Danita Thamert at Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, in eastern Oregon. “He looks to be pretty good,” she said. “He’s a big boy.
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