UNITED STATES
Second prison officer arrested
A second prison worker was arrested and charged on Wednesday over the escape of two convicted killers weeks ago from a maximum-security New York State jail. Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, used power tools to cut their way out of their cells at the Clinton Correctional Facility before dawn on June 6. Corrections officer Gene Palmer, 57, was charged with promoting prison contraband, two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of official misconduct, New York State Police Major Charles Guess said in a statement. Palmer allegedly helped smuggle tools and other banned items hidden in frozen hamburger meat, said Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie, according to ABC News.
UNITED STATES
Gay couples’ kids fine: study
Scientists agree that children raised by same-sex couples are no worse off than children raised by parents of the opposite sex, according to a new study co-authored by a University of Oregon professor. The new research, which looked at 19,000 studies and articles related to same-sex parenting from 1977 to 2013, was released last week, and comes as the US Supreme Court is set to rule by the end of this month on whether same-sex marriage is legal. “Consensus is overwhelming in terms of there being no difference in children who are raised by same-sex or different-sex parents,” University of Oregon sociology professor Ryan Light said on Tuesday. The studies showed some disagreement among scientists on the outcome of same-sex parenting in the 1980s, but it largely subsided in the 1990s, and a clear consensus had formed by 2000 that there is no difference between same-sex and different-sex parenting in the psychological, behavioral or educational outcomes of children, Light said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Fossil worm had eyes, teeth
Nature has produced many oddities, but an ancient creature resembling a prickly sea worm is one of the few to have left scientists so baffled they were unable to distinguish its head from its the rear. The organism, called hallucigenia sparsa, was once one of the world’s most common creatures, but its unearthly appearance has led it to be regarded as an evolutionary misfit — not least because this basic anatomical question has remained unresolved. Now the discovery of a pair of simple eyes and a ring of needle-like teeth, has finally confirmed which way around the animal faced. The worm, which was around 35mm long, lived in the oceans about 505 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion when most major animal groups first appear in the fossil record. Early descriptions in the 1970s suggested that it walked on its spikes with a row of waving tentacles on its back. However, scientists later concluded that they had the creature upside down and it is now clear that they also had front and back confused. Researchers in England and Canada reported the new results in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
UNITED KINGDOM
The history of twerking
Twerking has been admitted to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary — and lexicographers said its origins go back almost 200 years. The dictionary now describes twerking as dancing “in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance.” It had previously listed the word, but then to refer to a twisting or jerking movement or twitch. Researchers found it had been used with that meaning already in 1820.
CHINA
Apartment fire kills 13
An early morning fire yesterday killed 13 people in a seven-story apartment buildingin Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said. The fire erupted on the ground level, but did not spread far on a rainy night, CCTV reported. It said the deaths occurred on the top floor, meaning the victims likely died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Multiple people were hospitalized with burn injuries, the broadcaster said, and the Zhengzhou No. 1 People’s Hospital confirmed that four people were under urgent medical treatment for burn injuries. CCTV said the cause of the fire was not known. Many apartments in the country are not properly maintained, and haphazard remodeling projects have left behind safety hazards, such as improper wiring, bad ventilation and the removal of supporting struts.
JAPAN
Hoverboard comes to life
The future is here already — or at least the one imagined for Marty McFly — with a carmaker unveiling a real, working hoverboard, like that used in the Back to the Future film franchise. Toyota’s luxury car brand Lexus says it has created a prototype that glides frictionlessly just above the ground with technology similar to that used in so-called maglev trains. A teaser video posted online appears to show the hoverboard floating, although the sequence ends before a skateboarder actually begins to ride it. While the hoverboard Michael J. Fox’s character rides in Back to the Future II floats above anything — except water — the Lexus model requires magnets to be embedded in the ground, limiting its range to special tracks.
JAPAN
Murder plot leader executed
A man who robbed and killed a woman after plotting the crime with accomplices he met online was executed yesterday. The execution brings to 12 the total number of death sentences carried out since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took power in 2012. Tsukasa Kanda, 44, was hanged for killing 31-year-old Rie Isogai in Nagoya in 2007. He met his two accomplices via a mobile phone-based web service and the three of them together devised a plan to target a random woman victim. The men kidnapped Isogai from a Nagoya street and suffocated her by wrapping her head and neck with a plastic bag, adhesive tape and rope, before battering her head with a hammer, according to Ministry of Justice records. Kanda’s accomplices are serving life sentences. Kanda did not appeal his death sentence after the original district court ruling Japan and the US are the only major industrial nations that continue to have capital punishment.
VIETNAM
Flash floods kill seven
A disaster official says flash floods triggered by a tropical storm have killed seven people and left four others missing in the north. Tran Viet Phuong in Son La Province yesterday said that authorities are still searching for the four missing, including a four-year-old boy whose house was washed away. Flash floods washed away more than 20 houses in the province, he said. Tropical Storm Kujira, which slammed northern coast on Wednesday, has now dissipated, according to the national weather forecasters. The storm has dumped up to 20cm of rain on many parts of northern region over the past two days.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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