UNITED KINGDOM
Flight marks millionth rider
The world’s shortest flight on Monday celebrated taking its millionth passenger on the route. The 2.7km flight between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, off mainland Scotland’s northeast coast, holds the Guinness World Record as the shortest scheduled service. The flight, in an eight-seater Britten Norman Islander aircraft, officially takes two minutes, but with favorable winds it can be done in 47 seconds. Scottish regional airline Loganair has operated the route since 1967 and on Monday honored veteran passenger Anne Rendall, presenting her with a bouquet of flowers. The Royal Bank of Scotland banker has flown more than 10,000 trips on the service, visiting island communities and tending to their banking requirements. “The route is a jewel in our network and known across the world,” Loganair managing director Jonathan Hinkles said. “However, despite its fame, it’s an essential life-line service for the people of Orkney ... It’s used by teachers, doctors, policemen and school pupils, helping them to go about their daily routines with ease and simplicity.”
UNITED STATES
Wisconsin officer fired
A police officer in Milwaukee who killed a black man in a shooting in August that sparked nights of rioting in the Wisconsin city was dismissed from the force on Monday over sexual assault charges, officials said. Dominique Heaggan-Brown, 24, was charged on Oct. 20 in state court with five crimes, including two counts of second-degree sexual assault. A criminal complaint said Heaggan-Brown sexually assaulted a man on Aug. 14, a day after he fatally shot 23-year-old Sylville Smith, local media reported. Heaggan-Brown was also charged with having sex with prostitutes and sexually assaulting another person between December last year and July, court records showed.
UNITED STATES
Child sex buyer jailed
An Australian who traveled to California to have sex with a six-year-old boy on Monday was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Michael Quinn, 33, a geneticist from Melbourne, was arrested in May by federal agents after his arrival at a Los Angeles area hotel where he had arranged to “buy” the child for sex. According to court records, Quinn came to the attention of federal agents in May after he contacted a social networking Web site that caters to individuals with a sexual interest in children. Unaware that he was talking with undercover agents, he said he was traveling to the US to meet with “other pervs” as well as “a dad who shares his young ones.” He was arrested after he paid an agent posing as a pimp US$260 to have sex with a six-year-old child. He pleaded guilty in July.
UNITED STATES
Five shot at Halloween party
An uninvited guest dressed as fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger shot five people at a Halloween party, San Antonio, Texas, police said. The partygoers who were wounded in the shooting early on Sunday were all treated and released from hospitals, but the suspect remained at large as of yesterday, Sergeant Jesse Salame said. The shooting happened after two men who were not invited showed up to the costume party. Authorities believe the man in the Krueger costume got into an argument with others and began shooting. Both men fled. Investigators are trying to determine what prompted the fight. Salame said police believe alcohol played a role in the incident. Freddy Krueger is the main character in Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street movies.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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