Fri, Jan 05, 2024 page5

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  UNITED STATES

  SpaceX accused by agency

  SpaceX was accused by the labor board of illegally firing eight employees over an internal letter sharply critical of its chief executive officer Elon Musk. A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint against SpaceX on Wednesday, alleging that the company illegally interrogated, surveilled and retaliated against workers, agency spokesperson Kayla Blado said in an e-mail. The fired workers include authors of a 2022 open letter protesting “inappropriate, disparaging, sexually charged comments on Twitter” by Musk, their attorneys wrote when they brought the case in 2022. The NLRB’s complaint alleges that SpaceX management told workers it had terminated the employees because of their open letter, restricted others from distributing it and threatened terminations if they engaged in collective action, Blado said.

  TURKEY

  Quake tragedy trial starts

  Turkey on Wednesday opened the first major trial linked to the construction of buildings that crumbled in two massive earthquakes in February last year that claimed more than 50,000 lives. The hearing in the southeastern city of Adiyaman involves 11 defendants accused of “conscious negligence” while overseeing the construction of the Isias Hotel. Five of the 11 defendants, including the hotel’s owner, have been arrested and charged with crimes that could see them jailed for more than 20 years each. The hotel’s collapse killed 24 children from Northern Cyprus who had flown to Turkey to attend a students’ volleyball tournament. They died together with a group of parents and chaperones in what Turkish prosecutors now say was a tragedy that could have been averted had proper safety standards been met.

  UNITED STATES

  Man assaults judge

  A Nevada judge was attacked on Wednesday by a defendant in a felony battery case who leaped over a defense table and the judge’s bench, landing atop her and sparking a bloody brawl involving court officials and attorneys, officials and witnesses said. In a violent scene captured by courtroom video, Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus fell back from her seat against a wall and suffered some injuries but was not hospitalized, courthouse officials said. A courtroom marshal was also injured as he came to the judge’s aid and was hospitalized for treatment of a bleeding gash on his forehead and a dislocated shoulder, the officials and witnesses said. The attack occurred at about 11am at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. The defendant, Deobra Delone Redden, 30, was wrestled to the floor behind the judge’s bench by several court and jail officers and courtroom staff members. He was arrested and jailed at the Clark County Detention Center, and faces multiple new felony charges including battery on a protected person.

  UNITED STATES

  Imam shot dead

  An imam who was shot on Wednesday outside a mosque in New Jersey has died, the state’s attorney general said, adding that the killing did not initially appear to be driven by “bias” or domestic terrorism. Hassan Sharif was shot multiple times near a mosque in Newark, just west of New York, before being taken to hospital where he later died, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said. “We do not yet know the motivation for this crime, [but] the evidence collected thus far does not indicate that this was an act motivated by bias, or an act of domestic terrorism,” Platkin said.
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