An Indian couple visiting Canada and their three-month-old grandchild were among four people killed in a multi-vehicle collision when Ontario police pursued a liquor store robbery suspect driving the wrong way. All four people were pronounced dead at the scene on Highway 401 in Whitby, about 50 km east of Toronto, police said. Police said two of the victims, a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, were visiting from India. The couple's three-month-old grandson also died in the multi-vehicle collision. The agency said that the parents of the infant, his 33-year-old father and 27-year-old mother, were travelling in the same vehicle and were taken to hospital.
Police kill knife-wielding boy after he stabs man in Perth
A 16 year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willett. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalised online,” Cook told a news conference. “But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone,” Cook added. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.
Journo among 3 killed in Balochistan blast
Three people, including a senior journalist, were killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast that targeted his vehicle in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, police said. A remote-controlled bomb was planted near Chomrok Chowk on the outskirts of Khuzdar town and when Maulana Mengal, journalist and also president of Khuzdar Press Club, reached the spot, the bomb was set off, a senior police official said. “Maulana and two passersby were killed, while eight others were injured,” he said. Mengal was also a provincial officer-bearer of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party. A police official said it is still too early to say whether Mengal was targeted because of his media work or his work in JUI-F.
Myanmar men banned from going abroad to work
Myanmar’s junta has suspended the issuing of permits for men to work abroad, it said, weeks after introducing a military conscription law that led to thousands trying to leave the country. The junta, which is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule, in Feb said it would enforce a law allowing it to call up men to serve in the military for at least two years. This sent thousands queuing for visas outside foreign embassies and others crossing into Thailand to escape the law.
24 die in China road collapse
At least 24 people died after part of a highway collapsed due to heavy rains in southern China’s Guangdong province last week, state media said. Guangdong, a densely populated industrial powerhouse, has been lashed by rainstorms in recent weeks, causing severe flooding and landslides in some areas. The downpours have been much heavier than normal and have been linked to accelerating climate change. State news agency Xinhua said that a stretch of road between Meizhou city and Dabu county caved in, causing 20 vehicles to become trapped and involved a total of 54 people, according to Xinhua. Twenty four people have been confirmed dead, and 30 are in hospital’, Xinhua said. An aerial photo published by state broadcaster CCTV showed wrecked vehicles lying in a deep muddy pit where the highway once ran.
Trudeau’s rival calls him ‘wacko’, ejected from parliament
Canada’s main opposition politician Pierre Poilievre was ejected from the House of Commons after he called Justin Trudeau a “wacko prime minister”. During a heated exchange, Poilievre called Trudeau an extremist and a radical over his liberal govt’s support for the decriminalisation of the possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other hard drugs in British Columbia. The province said last week it would dial back the pilot project after an outcry over soaring drug use. “When will we put an end to this wacko policy by this wacko prime minister?” Poilievre asked. Speaker Greg Fergus urged the Conservative Party member several times to withdraw the question, reminding MPs “to carry themselves in a way that is dignified in this House”. Poilievre refused and in a rare move was ordered out of the Commons.
German co tests rocket powered by candle wax
German company HyImpulse successfully launched a candle wax powered rocket capable of carrying commercial satellites on a test suborbital flight into space for the first time. “We’re signalling Germany’s prowess as a space faring nation and expanding Europe’s access to space,” HyImpulse’s chief executive Mario Kobald said. The 12-metre, 2.5-tonne test rocket dubbed “SR75” lifted off in Koonibba, Australia. It is capable of carrying satellites weighing up to 250kg to an altitude of up to 250km while being fuelled by paraffin, or candle wax, and liquid oxygen. Paraffin can be used as a cheaper and safer alternative fuel for rockets, reducing satellite transportation costs by as much as 50%, HyImpulse said.
Berlin offers to gift villa once owned by Nazi minister
Berlin govt is offering to give away a villa once owned by Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to re-purpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital. “I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” finance minister Stefan Evers told state parliament. Berlin has repeatedly tried to hand off the site to federal authorities or the state of Brandenburg, where the villa lies, rather than pay for maintenance and security at the complex, which has become overgrown and fallen into disrepair.
NY synagogues, museum get fake bomb threats
At least three synagogues and a museum in New York received bomb threats but none were deemed credible by the New York police department, a city official and police said. Manhattan Borough president Mark D Levine said on X the synagogue bomb threats were “a clear hate crime, and part of a growing trend of ‘swatting’ incidents targeting Jewish institutions”. A police spokesperson said an emailed bomb threat was sent to the Brooklyn Museum and one to a synagogue in Brooklyn Heights, with no evidence of any explosive device detected. Two synagogues in Manhattan also received bomb threats, including a West Side synagogue that prompted police to evacuate 250 people, police said.
Amsterdam parking space up for grabs
Housing is at a premium and so is parking in the Netherlands, but a parking space put up for sale this week for almost half a-million euros - more than the average home price - has raised eyebrows. Located next to Amsterdam’s famous Vondel park, the indoor 18-square metre space was advertised at 495,000 euros. The parking space is a stone’s throw from the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijks museum. Dutch commercial broadcaster RTL Nieuws called it “the most expensive parking space in the Netherlands”. The parking space can also be rented for 750 euros a month. The Netherlands is facing an acute housing shortage of some 390,000 homes, according to a recent study. The average house price was 430,000 euros in the Netherlands last year.
