Dozens of people have been killed in a prison riot in Mozambique on Christmas Day, authorities have said. The riot, reportedly at the maximum security prison in the capital Maputo, left 33 people dead and 15 injured, according to police general commander Bernardino Rafael. About 1,534 people escaped from the prison in the incident but…
Police fired Tasers during a stand-off with a knife-wielding man in Worcestershire before a firearms officer shot and killed him, the police watchdog said. Officers were called by West Midlands ambulance service to an address in Redditch at about 2pm on Christmas Eve after concerns were raised for the safety of a 39-year-old man with…
A Russian cargo ship that sank on Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea was the target of an “act of terrorism”, according to the vessel’s owner. The Ursa Major sank while it was sailing through international waters between Spain and Algeria, leaving two crew members missing, Its owner, Oboronlogistika – a company affiliated with the Russian…
An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia broke down on Wednesday, Finland’s prime minister said, the latest in a series of incidents involving cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The Finnish electricity grid’s head of operations, Arto Pahkin, told the public broadcaster Yle that sabotage could not be ruled out. Finland’s prime…
Blind and partially sighted people are being excluded from the benefits of artificial intelligence tools and facing “a new level of discrimination”, the new president of the Royal Society for Blind Children has claimed as he called for better design of everything from video games to AI agents. Tom Pey said existing difficulties for blind…
The Environmental Protection Agency is launching a formal review of five highly toxic plastic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, the notorious compound at the center of the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck fire. The move could lead to strong limits or bans on the substances. Vinyl chloride is most commonly used in PVC pipe and packaging…
A federal judge ruled on Monday that sections of an Arkansas law, which sought to impose criminal penalties on librarians and booksellers for distributing “harmful” material to children, were unconstitutional. The law, known as the Arkansas Act 372, was signed into law last year by Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. It was challenged by a…
US tax authorities have announced that special, $1,400 payments are going out to 1 million taxpayers who did not claim under the 2021 recovery rebate scheme, in what may be a final installment of pandemic-era stimulus checks. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said in an advisory that the disbursements were a “special step” after a…
Political parties are on course to hand over responsibility for examining allegations of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct by MPs to parliament’s independent investigator. A parliamentary committee is preparing to endorse proposals to refer complaints about MPs’ misconduct to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System (ICGS), instead of letting political parties deal with them. Sources…
A new scheme enabling families to sign up to free school meals has enabled 20,000 more children to be fed. As well as preventing those children from going hungry, the “auto-enrolment” pilot project is saving households hundreds of pounds a year. A total of 20 local authorities in England this year decided to identify pupils…
