THAILAND
Gunman kills three
A masked gunman opened fire in a shopping mall, killing three people, including a two-year-old, as he robbed a gold shop then escaped, police said yesterday. CCTV footage from the Robinson mall in Lopburi Province, about 145km north of Bangkok, shows the gunman walking to a counter at about 8pm on Thursday and shooting a seller and another person before jumping on the counter and grabbing gold products. “The robber was merciless. We are looking for him in every place. Please trust us, we will definitely get this man and bring him to justice,” police commander Lieutenant General Ampol Buaruppon told reporters. The parents of the child who died in the shooting posted a message on Facebook, saying: “We love you very much. We are so sorry that we cannot protect you. Rest in peace our angel.”
UNITED STATES
Taco Bell sleeper sought
Police have asked for help to identify a man who broke into a Taco Bell restaurant in Lawrenceville, Georgia, prepared food and fell asleep early on Christmas morning. At about 12:15am on Dec. 25, a man approached the Taco Bell and entered through a drive-through window. Surveillance video showed him using the fryers to make himself a meal. After eating, he took a nap on the floor. Prior to leaving about three hours later, the suspect stole a laptop and tablet, investigators said.
UNITED STATES
Hacked sign distracts drivers
An electronic road sign that was hacked early on Thursday asked drivers on Highway 92 in Pine Knot, Kentucky, to “send nudes,” media reported. Officials with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said someone had hacked through the password-protected system. Driver Tevon Stephens said he noticed the sign while going to work. “We needed to bring awareness to it so the road departments would add cameras or add locks to the equipment to keep from distracting the drivers,” Stephens said.
UNITED STATES
Epstein video lost
Video footage of the area around Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell on a day he survived an apparent suicide attempt “no longer exists,” federal prosecutors told a judge on Thursday. Officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York believed that they had preserved footage of guards finding Epstein after he appeared to have attempted suicide, but actually saved a video from a different part of the jail, prosecutors said. The FBI also has determined that the footage does not exist on the jail’s backup video system “as a result of technical errors,” US attorneys wrote in a court filing. Epstein hanged himself in jail Aug. 10 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, officials said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was