UNITED STATES
Mine accident probed
Investigators on Friday were trying to figure out what led to an elevator accident inside a former Colorado gold mine that killed a tour guide, injured four others and left a separate group of 12 people trapped for six hours at the bottom of the tourist attraction 305m beneath the surface. The elevator was descending into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine on Thursday in the mountains near Colorado Springs, when at about 152m down, the person operating the elevator from the surface “felt something strange” and stopped it, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said. The elevator was still operable, and those on board were brought back up within 20 minutes, he said, adding that the elevator’s door was damaged. The exact circumstances of the death of Patrick Weier, 46, were not disclosed, but the sheriff said he died because of the elevator’s mechanical issue.
FRANCE
Paris adopts anti-sexism law
Filmmakers looking to shoot on the iconic streets of Paris would have to promise to fight sexism, discrimination and sexual violence on set under a regulation adopted on Friday by city lawmakers. The regulation, due to take effect on Jan. 1 next year, requires production companies seeking a permit to film in the capital to sign a charter pledging to promote gender balance on set, train crews against sexism and fight gender discrimination and violence. Companies would also have to put special measures in place to protect those involved in shooting sex scenes — a side of the industry that has been transformed since the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017.
UNITED KINGDOM
Creepy parent killer jailed
A woman who murdered her parents and then lived for four years alongside their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment and told she would not be eligible for parole for 36 years. Virginia McCullough, who spent her parents’ money and went to great lengths to cover her tracks with family and friends through a web of lies, had pleaded guilty to murdering her parents in June 2019 at a previous hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court in southeast England. Judge Jeremy Johnson said at the sentencing hearing that McCullough’s actions represented a “gross violation of the trust that should exist between parents and their children.” In September last year, McCullough, 36, admitted to poisoning her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks and that a day later she beat her 71-year-old mother Lois McCullough with a hammer and fatally stabbed her.
UNITED STATES
Kayak turtle smuggler caught
A woman from Hong Kong on Friday pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across Vermont’s Lake Wallace into Canada by kayak. Wan Yee Ng, 41, was arrested on the morning of June 28 at an Airbnb in Canaan as she was about to get into an inflatable kayak with a duffle bag, according to a Border Patrol agent’s affidavit filed in federal court. Royal Canadian Mounted Police had notified agents that two other people, including a man who was believed to be her husband, had started to paddle an inflatable watercraft from the Canadian side toward the US, court documents showed. The agents found 29 live eastern box turtles individually wrapped in socks in her duffle bag, the affidavit states. The turtles are known to be sold on the Chinese black market for US$1,000 each, it 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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