SOMALIA
Plane crashes in Mogadishu
A cargo plane yesterday crashed at the Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, witnesses said. The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the crash, but there was no immediate confirmation of any casualties. Photos posted from the scene show the plane’s cockpit crushed against a concrete barrier just steps from the sea. Markings on the plane indicate that it was operated by Silverstone Air in neighboring Kenya. The heavily fortified airport is home to diplomatic missions and serves as a hub for humanitarian flights in the nation.
UNITED STATES
Earthquake strikes near LA
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck southern California late on Friday, the US Geological Survey said. The earthquake hit at about 11:40pm, about 3km outside of South El Monte, near Los Angeles, the agency said. Preliminary reports indicate it was about 18km deep. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
UNITED STATES
Hoverboard dentist jailed
A dentist in Alaska who extracted a tooth from a sedated patient while balancing on a hoverboard has been sentenced to 12 years in jail for crimes including illegal dentistry, fraud and reckless endangerment. Seth Lookhart, 35, sent cellphone footage to friends that showed him removing a patient’s tooth while standing on the two-wheeled device before riding away as he stripped off his gloves and held his hands up in triumph. “Lookhart almost killed many patients by performing anesthesia thousands of times without training or consent, on patients outside his scope of training and expertise, while stealing money from Medicaid and embezzling from his bosses,” the Alaska State Department of Law said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Two killed in shooting
Two people were killed and 14 wounded early yesterday in a shooting at a backyard party in Rochester, New York, police said. Officers responding to reports of gunfire in the area found a “chaotic scene” with about 100 people running in various directions, interim police chief Mark Simmons told reporters. “In total we have 16 confirmed victims of shooting. And I’m sad to announce that two of the 16 received a fatal wound,” he said. Those killed — one man, one woman — were both between 18 and 22 years old, and had not been formally identified, he said. No arrests have been made so far and police could not say if more than one shooter was involved.
CHINA
Space program to ramp up
The government aims to set up a space program operating thousands of flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers by 2045, Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying on Friday. China is trying to catch up with Russia and the US to become a major space power by 2030. Bao Weimin (包為民), a senior official at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, told a conference that the planned space flight system would be able to meet commercial demands, according to the Xinhua report. China is aiming for breakthroughs in the core technology needed and for the building of a testing system by 2025, he said. China has taken steps in the past few years to make space flights more economical. It is developing reusable rockets such as the Long March 8 and 9, and it this month launched and landed a reusable spacecraft.
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