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.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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