UNITED KINGDOM
Lightning hits gas plant
A lightning strike on Monday hit a food waste recycling plant, sending a huge fireball into the night sky and cutting power nearby. Severn Trent Green Power, which runs the Cassington anaerobic digestion facility near Yarnton, England, said that the strike “caused an explosion in our biogas tanks.” The company said: “Thankfully no one has been hurt and we are working with the emergency services to make sure the site is safe so that we can assess the damage as soon as possible.”
UNITED STATES
Satellite owner fined
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday said that it has issued its first space debris enforcement fine, of US$150,000 for DISH, which failed to properly deorbit its EchoStar-7 satellite. The wholly owned unit of DISH Network admitted liability and would adhere to a compliance plan, the FCC said, adding that the company’s action “could pose orbital debris concerns.” DISH relocated its satellite at the end of its mission to a disposal orbit “well below the elevation required by the terms of its license” after launching it in 2002, the FCC said.
UNITED STATES
Plane kills mower driver
A woman riding a lawnmower next to an airport runway was struck and killed by the wing of a small airplane, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said on Monday. Samantha Hayes, 27, of Idabel died on Friday at Broken Bow Municipal Airport, police said in a report. James Baxter, the pilot of the single-engine aircraft, a Bonanza A36, told investigators he saw Hayes after touching down on the runway at about 2:30pm and tried to pull up and fly over her, but she was hit by a wing, police said. “We’re investigating whether any charges could filed against the pilot,” police spokesperson Sarah Stewart said. “Did the pilot do anything wrong or was this just unavoidable?” Stewart said other questions about the episode remained under investigation, including whether the woman saw the airplane.
UNITED STATES
Mummy to be buried
A mummified man known as Stoneman Willie would receive a proper burial after being on display at a funeral home in Reading, Pennsylvania, for 128 years. The unidentified man was an alcoholic who died of kidney failure in a local jail on Nov. 19, 1895. He was accidentally mummified by a mortician experimenting with new embalming techniques, Auman’s Funeral Home said. Dressed in a suit with a bow tie, the gaunt man is displayed in a coffin with a red sash across his chest. His hair and teeth remain intact, and his skin has taken on a leathery appearance. Because the man gave a fake name when arrested for picking pockets, Stoneman Willie’s identity was unknown for many years and local officials were unable to locate relatives. The funeral home had petitioned the state for permission to keep the body instead of burying it to monitor the experimental embalming process. However, Auman’s Funeral Home says it has now identified Stoneman Willie using historical documents and would reveal his name later this week when they lay the body to rest. “We don’t refer to him as a mummy. We refer to him as our friend Willie,” funeral director Kyle Blankenbiller said. “He has just been become such an icon, such a storied part of not only Reading’s past, but certainly its present.” On Saturday, he is to make his final journey through the streets of Reading and be buried at a local cemetery, where his real name will finally be inscribed on his tombstone.
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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