JAPAN
Eighty hurt in ferry accident
A ferry collided with what apparently was a marine animal off an island, injuring more than 80 people, local media reported. The accident happened just after noon on Saturday off Sado Island, Kyodo news agency reported, citing Japan’s coast guard. Five of the injuries were serious and a 15-centimeter crack was found at the ferry’s stern. Ferry operator Sado Steam Ship Co said the jetfoil ferry still reached its destination on the island, located off the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu. Coast guard officials said the ferry might have struck a whale or some other sea animal.
NIGER
Forty-five dead in attack
Seven soldiers and 38 militants died in an assault by the militant group Boko Haram in the southeast of the nation, the Ministry of Defence ministry said on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks that have shattered months of relative calm near the Lake Chad basin. “Armed forces ... strongly repelled an attack by the terrorist group Boko Haram on the outskirts of Gueskerou,” the ministry said in a statement read on state television.
PAKISTAN
Climbers found dead
Two European mountain climbers who went missing on the Pakistani mountain Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-tallest, were confirmed dead on Saturday by Italian Ambassador to Pakistan Stefano Pontecorvo. Pontecorvo tweeted that the search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard ended after a team confirmed that telescopic pictures of two silhouettes spotted at a height of about 5,900m were the bodies of the two climbers missing since Feb. 24. Ballard’s disappearance hit his homeland particularly hard because he is the son of Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone. She died at age 33 descending the summit of K2.
UNITED STATES
Thirty injured in turbulence
A Turkish Airlines passenger jet traveling from Istanbul to New York hit severe turbulence on Saturday as it approached its destination, with 30 people suffering injuries before it landed safely, officials said. The injured were taken from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to local hospitals, mainly for treatment of bumps, cuts and bruises. One flight attendant had a broken leg, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman said. The Boeing 777 was over the Atlantic Ocean, about 45 minutes from landing, when it struck the turbulence, Coleman said.
UNITED STATES
R. Kelly released from jail
R. Kelly on Saturday walked out of a Chicago jail after someone, who officials say did not want to be publicly identified, paid US$161,633 that the R&B singer owed in child support. Kelly, who was on Wednesday taken into custody after he said he did not have the entire amount he owed, briefly spoke with reporters, telling them: “I promise you, we’re going to straighten all this stuff out.’”
UNITED STATES
J-Lo engaged to A-Rod
Jennifer Lopez has said yes to Alex Rodriguez’s proposal. The couple late on Saturday posted an Instagram photograph of their hands with a massive engagement ring on Lopez’s ring finger. The former Yankees shortstop captioned his photo with “she said yes” and a heart emoji. The couple has been dating since early 2017. It will be Lopez’s fourth marriage and Rodriguez’s second.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
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