NEW ZEALAND
FBI gun gift seized
FBI Director Kash Patel gifted officials illegal firearms during his visit to the country earlier this year, authorities said yesterday. Patel visited the nation in July to open a permanent intelligence office and met with senior officials. Police Commissioner Richard Chambers yesterday said that he received a “coin display stand featuring an inoperable plastic 3D-printed replica pistol” from Patel during the visit. “The advice of the Firearms Safety Authority was sought the following day and the gifts were collected from recipients and secured that day,” Chambers said in a statement. “While inoperable in the form they were gifted, a subsequent analysis by the Firearms Safety Authority and Police Armoury determined that modifications could have made them operable.” The other firearms were gifted in display stands to New Zealand’s two spy agency bosses, Andrew Hampton and Andrew Clark. Chambers said that in compliance with local firearms laws, the replica pistols were destroyed. “To ensure compliance with New Zealand firearms laws, the gifts were handed to New Zealand Police the following day,” a joint statement from the intelligence services said. “Following assessment by police firearms specialists, the gifts were retained by New Zealand Police.” A US embassy Wellington spokesperson told reporters that the gift was a coin display stand that included a plastic, inert, nonfunctional replica of a firearm as a design element. “We supported New Zealand officials’ efforts to ensure this gift did not inadvertently contravene any New Zealand firearms laws,” the spokesperson said. “The embassy has indicated to our New Zealand counterparts our understanding and acceptance of their decision regarding the disposition of the director’s well-intentioned gift.”
Photo: AP
NEPAL
Girl chosen as ‘goddess’
A two-year-old girl chosen as the nation’s new “living goddess” on Tuesday was carried by family members from their home in a Kathmandu alley to a temple palace during a Hindu festival. Aryatara Shakya, at two years, eight months old, was chosen as the new kumari, or “virgin goddess,” replacing the incumbent, who is considered by tradition to become a mere mortal upon reaching puberty. Kumaris are chosen from the Shakya clans of the Newar community, indigenous to the Kathmandu valley, and revered by Hindus and Buddhists. The girls are selected between the ages of two and four, and are required to have unblemished skin, hair, eyes and teeth. They should not be afraid of the dark. “She was just my daughter yesterday, but today she is a goddess,” her father, Ananta Shakya, said, adding that there were already signs she would be the goddess before her birth. “My wife during pregnancy dreamed that she was a goddess and we knew she was going to be someone very special.”
GREECE
General strike begins
A 24-hour general strike against plans by the government to introduce a 13-hour workday began yesterday. Transport in Athens, trains and ferry services were disrupted, while teachers, hospital staff and civil servants also took part in the mobilization. Protests were planned at about noon across the country to oppose the reform advocated by the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The main private-sector union, GSEE, which spearheaded the walkout alongside public-sector union ADEDY, has said the reform “endangers the health and safety of workers and destroys the balance between professional and personal life.”
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
IMPASSE: US President Donald Trump pressed to end the filibuster in a sign that he is unlikely to compromise despite Democrat offers for a delayed healthcare vote The US government shutdown stretched into its 40th day yesterday even as senators stayed in Washington for a grueling weekend session hoping to find an end to the funding fight that has disrupted flights nationwide, threatened food assistance for millions of Americans and left federal workers without pay. The US Senate has so far shown few signs of progress over a weekend that could be crucial for the shutdown fight. Republican leaders are hoping to hold votes on a new package of bills that would reopen the government into January while also approving full-year funding for several parts of government, but
TOWERING FIGURE: To Republicans she was emblematic of the excesses of the liberal elite, but lawmakers admired her ability to corral her caucus through difficult votes Nancy Pelosi, a towering figure in US politics, a leading foe of US President Donald Trump and the first woman to serve as US House of Representatives speaker, on Thursday announced that she would step down at the next election. Admired as a master strategist with a no-nonsense leadership style that delivered for her party, the 85-year-old Democrat shepherded historic legislation through the US Congress as she navigated a bitter partisan divide. In later years, she was a fierce adversary of Trump, twice leading his impeachment and stunning Washington in 2020 when she ripped up a copy of his speech to the
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