UNITED KINGDOM
Prince shows up at event
Britain’s Prince William returned to public duty on Wednesday following his wife Kate’s surgery and the revelation King Charles had cancer, with the heir to the throne set to take on a more prominent role in his father’s absence. William postponed all his planned engagements to look after his three children after Kate, 42, underwent planned abdominal surgery on Jan. 16. Since then, his father has undergone treatment at the same hospital as Kate for an enlarged prostate, before Buckingham Palace announced on Monday that subsequent tests on the 75-year-old monarch had revealed he had a form of cancer. On Wednesday, William, 41, made his first official public appearance since the series of health blows to the royals when he carried out an investiture — a ceremony to hand out state honors — at Windsor Castle.
UNITED STATES
AI institute head appointed
The Biden administration on Wednesday named a top White House aide as the director of the newly established safety institute for artificial intelligence (AI). Elizabeth Kelly is to lead the AI Safety Institute at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which is part of the Department of Commerce. Currently an economic policy adviser for President Joe Biden, Kelly played an integral role in drafting the executive order signed at the end of October last year that established the institute, the Department of Commerce said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Crew missing after crash
A missing military helicopter was found on Wednesday in California but the search for the five service members who were aboard it is still ongoing, the US Marine Corps said. The five Marines were flying on a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California when “the aircraft was reported overdue” on Tuesday, the service said in a statement on Facebook. “The aircraft was located by civil authorities in Pine Valley, California” the following day, the statement said. “The 3rd Marine Aircraft wing is managing the search and rescue efforts” and is “using ground and aviation assets to locate the aircrew in coordination with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and multiple federal, state and local agencies,” it said. The Marine Corps made no mention of remains being found with the helicopter, indicating that those aboard may have survived.
ITALY
Man arrested for ‘sextortion’
An Italian man suspected of obtaining sexual photos of dozens of underage girls after threatening them online has been arrested in Iceland, Italian police said on Wednesday. Over a period of three years, the 48-year-old suspect contacted female minors on social networks and messaging platforms “to obtain sexually explicit images through threats and blackmail,” Italy’s police division charged with fighting cybercrime said. The FBI said last month of the growing threat of so-called “sextortion,” which involves “an offender coercing a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or videos.” The offender then “threatens to release that compromising material unless the victim produces more,” the FBI said. Europol recommends that the phenomenon be called the “online sexual coercion and extortion of children.” Tracking the Italian living in Iceland was difficult because he used numerous nicknames and foreign telephone numbers, Italian police said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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