A huge car bomb blast killed at least 30 people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan’s eastern Logar province last week, officials said. The car detonated in Logar’s capital of Pul-e Alam near the home of the former head of the provincial council and not far from a hospital, Didar Lawang, the spokesman for Logar’s governor, said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast. Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said that the death toll could rise. Around 60 people were wounded, according to the head of Logar's provincial council, Hasibullah Stanekzai. A ministry of health spokesman said around 40 people had been taken to hospital, some in a critical condition.
Michael Collins, ‘forgotten astronaut’ of Apollo 11, dies
American astronaut Michael Collins, who stayed behind in the command module of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin travelled to the lunar surface to become the first humans to walk on the moon, died at the age of 90, his family said. He died of cancer. Often described as the “forgotten” third astronaut on the historic mission, Collins remained alone for more than 21hours until his two colleagues returned in the lunar module. He lost contact with mission control in Houston each time the spacecraft circled the dark side of the moon.”Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins,” the mission log said, referring to the biblical figure. Collins wrote an account of his experiences in his 1974 autobiography, “Carrying the Fire,” but largely shunned publicity. “I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have,” Collins said in comments released by Nasa in 2009.
US embassy limits services in Moscow
The US embassy in Moscow said it will sharply curtail its consular activities due to a Russian ban on hiring local residents to work there. The embassy said that starting May12, it will only provide emergency US citizen services and a very limited number of immigrant visas for such as life-or-death emergencies. It noted that non-immigrant visa processing for non-diplomatic travel will cease and it will stop offering routine notarial services, consular reports of birth abroad or passport renewal services for the foreseeable future. Moscow has moved to ban the US embassy and consular offices from hiring Russian and third-country nationals as part of its retaliation to a set of new US sanctions.
Washington DC police dept’s data leaked
Hacked data from the Washington, DC, police department started leaking onto the internet, making it the third police department in the US to be hit by cybercriminals in six weeks. A group called Babuk claimed responsibility for the leak. Babuk is known for ransomware attacks, which hold victims’ data hostage until they pay a ransom, often in Bitcoin. In their post to the dark web, Babuk’s cybercriminals claimed they had downloaded 250GB of data and threatened to leak it if their ransom demands were not met. They also threatened to release information about police informants to criminal gangs, and to continue attacking “the state sector,” including the FBI and the department of homeland security’s cybersecurity. The information already released appeared to include chief ’s reports, lists of arrests and lists of persons of interest.
Navalny’s offices on extremism list
Russia’s financial monitoring agency said it had added jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s network of regional campaign offices to a list of organisations involved in “terrorism and extremism”. Navalny allies said they were disbanding the network as the authorities sought to ban them. A Moscow court is also considering whether to declare Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation “extremist”, a ruling that would give Russian authorities the power to jail activists and freeze bank accounts. Navalny is serving a 2-1/2 year jail sentence for parole violations on an earlier embezzlement conviction that he says was politically motivated.
Controversial Uganda journalist arrested
Former NBS/NTV journalist Dean Lubowa Saava of Uganda has been arrested over offensive communication and cyber stalking, police CID spokesperson Charles Twiine said. Saava has been airing series of stories on his YouTube channel implicating several prominent people in crimes. In some of the stories, Saava accused one Capt Kasami and singer Eddy Kenzo of recruiting young people into homosexuality. He also blackmailed city businessman Balaam Barugahara of grabbing Namasagali school’s land. After Saava’s arrest, Balaam said the journalist will have to prove his blackmail against him and other people.
World Bank grants $100 mn aid to N Mozambique
The World Bank has granted $100 million for an emergency recovery project in northern Mozambique, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by a jihadist insurgency. An agreement for the funding - part of a three-year $700-million project - was signed by the government and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) which oversees the project. Gas-rich Cabo Delgado province has been battered by a bloody jihadist insurgency since 2017 by a group known locally as al-Shabab. In a major intensification of the violence, Islamic State-linked militants raided the coastal town of Palma on March 24, killing dozens and driving more than 25,000 out of the town. Three years of violence has killed at least 2,800 people according to Acled, an NGO.
Zimbabwe journalist who exposes corruption wins case
A Zimbabwean court dropped a charge against award-winning journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin'ono, who had been accused in January of tweeting falsehoods about alleged police violence. Chin'ono, 50, has been detained three times since he backed banned anti-government protests on social media in July, when he was first arrested and charged with inciting public violence. Two tweets landed him back in jail for allegedly obstructing justice in November and then publishing false information in January. The High Court of Zimbabwe dismissed the latter charge, declaring it had no legal basis. Chin'ono's lawyers had argued their client had been charged under a section of the criminal code that had been struck down by the Supreme Court in 2014. "The argument is upheld," high court judge Jesta Charehwa ruled.
US man dies after cops pin him down for 5 min
Police in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Alameda have made public body cam footage showing officers pinning a man to the ground for more than 5 minutes during an arrest recently that ended in his death. A police statement said Gonzalez had a medical emergency after officers tried to handcuff him, but his family contends he was killed by police who used excessive force. Gonzalez died April 19, one day before Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of murdering George Floyd by restraining him for nine minutes and 29 seconds. The video from two officers’ body cameras shows police talking to Gonzalez in a park after receiving 911 calls that he appeared to be disoriented or drunk. Gonzalez seems dazed and struggles to answer questions. When Gonzalez doesn’t produce any identification, the officers are seen to force his hands behind his back to handcuff him but he resists and they take him to the ground. One officer also appears to put a knee on his back and leaves it there for about four minutes as Gonzalez gasps for air. After about 5 minutes he seems to lose consciousness. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
2020 California fire was started to cover up murder
A California fire that killed two people last year was set to cover up a murder, investigators said. The Markley Fire was started in Solano County on August 18, 2020 near where police found the burned body of 32-year-old Priscilla Castro. Police had previously said Castro was reported missing after she went on a date with Victor Serriteno two days before the fire. “Based on an eight-month probe, we believe Serriteno deliberately set the fire in bid to conceal his crime,” the sheriff said. Serriteno, who was arrested for killing Castro, now faces charges of arson and the murders of both men who died in the fire. The Markley Fire later merged with other fires to form LNU Lightning Complex, one of the state’s largest wildfires.
