UNITED STATES
Rocket motors arrive in LA
Two giant rocket motors required to display the retired NASA space shuttle Endeavour as if it is about to blast off arrived at a Los Angeles museum on Wednesday, completing their long journey from the Mojave Desert. The 35.3m motors, which are giant white cylinders, were trucked for two days from the Mojave Air and Space Port to Exposition Park, where the California Science Center’s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is being built to display the Endeavour. Donated by Northrop Grumman, the motors are the largest components of the two solid rocket boosters that would be attached to a space shuttle’s external tank to help the main engines lift the orbiter off the launch pad. Schoolchildren were among several hundred people who watched the move — the latest spectacle in the yearslong process of preparing to put Endeavour on permanent display vertically as if it was about to blast off.
UNITED STATES
Officer loses finger to bite
A New York City police officer lost his left ring finger up to the first knuckle when a reckless driving suspect bit him, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Lenni Rodriguez Cruz, 28, faces 25 years in prison for leading police on a car chase, crashing into several vehicles and biting a sergeant who was trying to put him in a holding cell, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. On Sept. 20, an officer patrolling in the Jamaica section of Queens spotted Rodriguez Cruz driving a car with license plates that were not registered to the vehicle, Katz said in a news release. The officer tried to pull Rodriguez Cruz over, but he sped off, mounted a sidewalk and drove through a park, scattering parkgoers as they ran to safety, Katz said. Rodriguez Cruz kept driving and hit four vehicles, including an unmarked police car that was part of a barricade set up to stop him, Katz said. When officers pulled Rodriguez Cruz out of his crashed car, his breath smelled of alcohol, his speech was slurred and there was a cup containing an alcoholic beverage inside the car, Katz said. Officers took Rodriguez Cruz to the local police station, where he spit on the sergeant and bit the sergeant’s finger tip off, Katz said.
UNITED STATES
Man gives back cash
A Connecticut man who found a bag containing nearly US$5,000 in cash outside a bank had a criminal charge against him dropped on Wednesday after he gave the money back. Robert Withington, 57, went to Bridgeport Superior Court for a court hearing, but a state prosecutor informed Withington’s lawyer the charge was being dropped. Withington found the bag with US$4,761 on May 30 outside a bank in his hometown of Trumbull. It belonged to the Trumbull tax collector’s office, and a town employee had dropped the bag while walking to the bank to deposit the money, police said. A police officer had escorted the town employee to the bank, but neither noticed the bag being dropped, police said. Withington, a dog trainer, picked up the bag and drove off, police said. He was identified through surveillance video and arrested on Aug. 25. Before Wednesday’s court appearance, Withington had given the town a check in the amount of the missing money. Withington said that he did not do anything wrong. “They dropped the money. Someone from the town should be fired for being so irresponsible, but I did nothing wrong,” Withington said in a telephone interview. “I just found a money bag. It was just a big joke. They wasted my time. They slandered my name. It was very upsetting.”
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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