INDIA
Building collapse kills 15
Rescuers using backhoes and shovels searched for survivors yesterday under a massive pile of broken concrete and dust left when a residential building under construction collapsed, killing at least 15 workers. Authorities suspected dozens more may have been trapped under the rubble, but were still trying to determine how many workers were on the site when the five-story structure crumpled on Saturday afternoon in the state of Goa. Witnesses reported seeing at least 40 laborers. At least 10 people were pulled out alive overnight, but the chance of finding survivors was dwindling. By yesterday morning the death toll had reached 15. Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar pledged to crack down on those responsible. Police began investigating both the building company and city officials who approved the building’s construction on a patch of marshland in Canacona.
FRANCE
Drowned teen’s mom sues
A couple who in 2012 passed by a drunk 19-year-old student who was later found drowned are now being sued by the student’s mother — a former police officer — for failing to provide assistance. Sylvie Zecca said she wanted to make an “example” of the young couple for allegedly breaching a law which requires persons to provide assistance to someone in danger. Her son, Vincent Zecca, went missing after a boozy night in Bordeaux in March 2012. His body was pulled from the Garonne River three weeks later. Police determined he drowned accidentally after drunkenly slipping into the river. Zecca said she had been given access to the police file and decided to sue a young couple who told investigators they had come upon her “very drunk, near comatose” son and “instead of helping him, laughed at him, filmed him with a smartphone and let him leave.”
FRANCE
Custody row ends in deaths
A man jumped out of the window of his ninth-floor apartment with his three-year-old son after torching the child’s mother, police said on Saturday. The tragedy occurred on Friday in Chenove near the Burgundy city of Dijon. The 25-year-old father was killed on the spot, the toddler died of his wounds soon after and the mother was fighting for her life in hospital with severe burns, prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare said. Investigators and relatives said the man doused his former partner with a flammable liquid and set her alight after a row erupted over the child’s custody.
UNITED KINGDOM
Viking treasure discovered
A Celtic treasure looted by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago has been discovered in the storerooms of the British Museum in London. An ornate, gilded disc brooch dating from the eighth or ninth century is being described as a “staggering find.” It had been concealed in a lump of organic material excavated from a Viking burial site in Lilleberge, Norway, by a British archeologist in the 1880s and acquired by the British Museum in 1891.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jet with printed parts flies
A Tornado fighter jet fitted with metal components created on a 3D printer undertook a successful test flight last month, defense company BAE Systems said yesterday. The plane was equipped with a 3D-printed protective cover for the cockpit radio, a protective guard for the landing gear and support struts on the air intake door, the firm said. It said some of the parts cost less than ￡100 (US$165) to make and had the potential to save hundreds of thousands of pounds.
RUSSIA
Putin plays ice hockey
A day after a run on the Sochi ski slopes, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday roped in his Belarussian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for a friendly match against former ice hockey champions at the host city of next month’s Winter Olympics. The two presidents’ team won the game against stars, including Soviet-era champion Alexander Yakushev, as Putin chalked up yet another action stunt to his name. Putin has burnished a hardman image by ensuring that his leisure activities such as fishing and horse-riding bare-chested and flying do not go unnoticed by the media.
UNITED STATES
Film producer Zaentz dies
Film producer Saul Zaentz, winner of best picture Oscars for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient, has died at age 92, US media reported on Saturday. Zaentz died due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease at his home in San Francisco on Friday, his nephew Paul Zaentz told the Los Angeles Times. Zaentz, who began in the music business before moving into films, was known for producing highbrow movies, and even ran his independent film production company from Berkeley — near San Francisco — to keep a distance from Hollywood. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) won five Oscars, including best director for Milos Forman. Zaentz and Forman teamed up again for Amadeus (1984) about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The movie won eight Oscars, including best picture, best director and best actor for F. Murray Abraham. The English Patient (1996) won nine Oscars, including best picture and best director.
UNITED STATES
Pedophile minister ‘addicted’
A former Lutheran minister from North Carolina says he suffered from sex addiction when he molested young girls during a 2009 mission trip to Haiti. The Charlotte Observer reported on Friday that Larry Michael Bollinger recounted in US District Court in Charlotte his years of frequenting adult book stores and prostitutes during his 33 years as a minister at various churches. Federal prosecutors accused Bollinger of traveling to Haiti for illicit sexual conduct with two minor girls, one 11 and the other 12. He pleaded guilty last year. A spokesman for the Lazarus Project said Bollinger had worked as a mission coordinator at the Christian charity for a several years before his dismissal.
UNITED STATES
Cuomo proposes medical pot
New York would become the 21st state to allow medical use of marijuana under an initiative New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will unveil this week. Cuomo plans to use administrative powers rather than legislative action to allow a limited number of hospitals to dispense marijuana for certain ailments. He will formally announce his plans in his state of the state speech on Wednesday. The New York Times first reported Cuomo’s plan on Saturday. It represents an about-face by Cuomo, who had previously opposed medical marijuana.
UNITED STATES
Seagal mulls governor run
Former action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor. The Marked for Death actor told KNXV-TV that he is considering a shot at the state’s highest office and has had a talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in the country, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Seagal made the comments while talking about his newly released reality series Steven Seagal — Lawman: Maricopa County.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
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