UNITED STATES
New virus test unveiled
Abbott Laboratories on Friday unveiled a portable device that can tell if someone has COVID-19 in as little as five minutes. The Food and Drug Administration has given it emergency authorization to begin making the test available to healthcare providers as early as next week, the company said. The device, which is the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology, also shows negative results within 13 minutes, it said. “The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus,” Abbott president and chief operating officer Robert Ford said.
UNITED STATES
Subway driver killed in fire
A New York City subway driver was killed and several other people were injured early on Friday in a fire on a train that is being investigated as a crime, officials said. Fires were reported at three other stations nearby at the same time, police said. “We are investigating it as a criminal matter,” New York Police Department Deputy Chief Brian McGee said, adding that no arrests have been made. The fire killed the motorman who was helping passengers to safety, officials said, and came the day after two of his fellow New York City Transit employees fell victim to COVID-19.
UNITED STATES
Tom Hanks returns to LA
Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, on Friday returned to Los Angeles after spending more than two weeks in quarantine in Australia after testing positive for COVID-19. The actor and Wilson were photographed smiling while driving a vehicle in the city. Celebrity Web site TMZ said the photographs were taken shortly after the pair landed at a small Los Angeles area airport. The New York Post’s Page Six column said that Hanks was seen touching the tarmac and dancing after getting off a private jet.
UNITED STATES
Missing girl found with dog
Searchers on Friday found a four-year-old girl who had been missing for two days in a wooded area in east Alabama. The girl was in good condition with a dog at her side when rescuers approached, authorities said. They said the child had disappeared from her babysitter’s sight on Wednesday afternoon while they were walking in a backyard with a hound dog. A member of the search team that found the girl told media outlet WRBL-TV that they were searching the woods when they heard a dog bark, and then the girl “popped her head up” and they saw her bright red hair. He said the girl drank some Gatorade offered to her and was talking “like it was no big deal” what she had been through.
LATVIA
Locals aid stranded circus
A traveling Czech circus stuck abroad under a coronavirus lockdown has been overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers helping to feed its troupe of animals after canceled shows left it penniless. The family-run Circus Alex has been unable to perform or return home since borders were closed this month. Its desperate owners were forced to turn to social media to ask for help to feed their horses, goats, a llama and themselves. “We have been overwhelmed by the support of strangers,” circus owner Anna Polachova told reporters, adding that the circus has received “more food for ourselves and our animals than we can eat.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of