INDIA
Electrocution kills 11
A freak electrocution killed at least 11 people, including two children, when their vehicle snagged overhead transmission lines and burst into flames as they rode in a religious procession, authorities said yesterday. More than a dozen people were also injured in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur District after the vehicle, a 2.7m-high structure fashioned in the form of a chariot and pulled by worshipers, hit the high-voltage lines. “I hope those injured recover soon,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter as he offered condolences to the bereaved. Some of those injured were hurt in falls following the electric shock and others, who scrambled to escape the flames, when they jumped from the chariot, which carried statues of Hindu deities in addition to the devotees. The chariot, which had been wending its way back to a nearby temple, was left a charred ruin.
PHILIPPINES
Manila pulls ‘Uncharted’
Manila has pulled the plug on all domestic screenings of a Hollywood film called Uncharted over a scene showing a disputed map of the South China Sea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The move comes shortly after Vietnam, another claimant in the South China Sea, also banned the Sony Pictures action movie, which stars Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. It was released in the Philippines on Feb. 23. A two-second frame in the movie contains an image of the so-called “nine-dash line,” which marks China’s claims in the South China Sea. The scene “is contrary to national interest,” the ministry said in a statement. The U-shaped line is a feature used on Chinese maps to illustrate its maritime territory in a region where Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines all have competing claims. Sony’s Columbia Pictures Industries Inc was ordered to stop screening the film and has complied, the ministry said.
UNITED STATES
Twitter followings fluctuate
Some Twitter users, former president Barack Obama among them, have shed thousands of followers since Elon Musk’s planned purchase of the social media platform was announced, while numbers have soared for others. Musk on Monday struck a deal to buy Twitter for US$44 billion. The news was greeted with enthusiasm by fans of Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, and horror by proponents of online content moderation. Promises to leave the platform were trending under hashtags such as #LeaveTwitter. Obama, the most popular person on Twitter with more than 131 million followers, lost 300,000 of them nearly overnight, news firm NBC reported. However, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene gained nearly 100,000 to her official congressional Twitter account in just 24 hours. Greene praised the acquisition by Musk. “Prepare for blue check mark full scale meltdown after @elonmusk seals the deal and I should get my personal Twitter account restored,” she wrote, referencing the site’s system for verifying users. “It really is something how conservative accounts are getting massive follower increases today,” Representative Matt Gaetz wrote on Tuesday. Twitter told reporters that while it was monitoring the situation, the fluctuations appeared to be organic and largely due to new accounts being created and existing ones deactivated.
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
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number