UNITED STATES
Fox settles defamation case
Fox News has reached a settlement with Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil, the network said on Sunday, ending a defamation case in which Khalil said he was falsely accused on air of helping to rig the 2020 US presidential election against former US president Donald Trump. Khalil had filed a defamation suit against the news outlet and former host Lou Dobbs, arguing in filings that they had fabricated claims that he and other Venezuelans were involved in “orchestrating a non-existent scheme to rig or fix the election” against the former Republican president. A short letter sent to US District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan on Saturday said the parties had reached a “confidential agreement to resolve this matter” and expected to file a joint stipulation of dismissal next week.
UNITED STATES
Puppy survives police chase
A puppy that was thrown out of a moving pickup truck in Los Angeles during a high-speed police chase “miraculously” survived, authorities said. The Los Angeles police department on Saturday said that on April 7, just after midnight in a southeast part of the city, officers chased a suspect who was wanted in connection to an attempted murder and carjacking that occurred the previous month. The pursuit crossed through multiple cities across Los Angeles county, including Inglewood and Westchester, when a puppy was placed in a brown Michael Kors designer bag and then “tossed from the suspect’s moving vehicle,” police said. The puppy, an eight-week-old beige mixed breed, “miraculously emerged unharmed and was rescued by responding officers,” the police department said. The puppy is reportedly in the care of South Los Angeles Animal Services.
UNITED STATES
Senior resumes bank heists
A 78-year-old woman with two past bank robbery convictions faces new charges after authorities alleged she handed a teller a polite note demanding cash during a recent Missouri heist. Bonnie Gooch has been jailed on a US$25,000 bond after she was charged with one count of stealing or attempting to steal from a bank in the holdup on Wednesday in Pleasant Hill, local media reported. She was convicted of robbing a California bank in 1977 and one in a Kansas City suburb in 2020. Her probation in the second heist ended in November 2021. Court documents filed in Cass County in the latest case said the robbery note demanded “13,000 small bills,” adding: “Thank you sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.” Surveillance video also recorded her banging on the counter, asking the teller to hurry, prosecutors said. She smelled strongly of alcohol when officers stopped her less than 3.2km away, with cash scattered on the vehicle’s floorboard, they added. “It’s just sad,” Pleasant Hill Police Chief Tommy Wright said.
UNITED STATES
Hawaii surfer bitten by shark
A surfer was in serious condition after being bitten in the leg by a shark on Sunday morning off Honolulu, authorities said. The 58-year-old man was attacked shortly before 7am near Kewalo Basin, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said. Paramedics responded and “administered life-saving treatment to a patient who was surfing and suffered shark bite to right leg.” it said in a statement. “Honolulu Ocean Safety will continue to patrol the waters off of Kewalo Basin and Ala Moana after this morning’s shark bite. Lifeguards posted signs in the area,” EMS spokesperson Shayne Enright said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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