Blog Archive

In New York, buildings rise with sections that seem to hover in midair

NEW YORK – Ask a child to draw a picture of a skyscraper and he or she will probably sketch a familiar form: perhaps a skinny rectangle standing on its end, or a tapered block that culminates in a pointed spire. After all, for more than a century, that is typically how tall buildings have been designed. But in New York, where land is scarce and the streetscape is increasingly crowded, a growing number of residential projects are turning the conventional skyscraper on its head. By building with cantilevers, they start narrow at the street but expand as they rise, more lollipop than traditional wedding cake. Despite the structural challenges inherent in making large parts of buildings seemingly hover in midair, there are many potential advantages to doing so, depending on the limitations of a building site. Sometimes, pushing more of a building’s allowable square footage up to higher floors by adding cantilevers is a way to create more apartments with better views and light. Other times, when developers are limited by a height restriction, building sideways over a neighbour is the only way to maximise square footage as part of an air rights deal. In still

US says it will no longer seize reporters' records in leak probes

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States government said on Saturday (June 5) that it would stop secretly obtaining reporters’ phone and e-mail records during investigations into political leaks, ending a practice that was often criticised as undermining press freedom. The New York Times this week reported that under Mr Donald Trump’s administration and continuing under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department fought a covert legal battle to access e-mail logs of four of its reporters in a hunt for leak sources. The Department of Justice said in a statement that “in a change to its longstanding practice – (it) will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media”. It added that it had “completed a review to determine all instances in which the Department had pending compulsory requests from reporters in leak investigations. “All reporters involved have now been notified”. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the president’s policy direction”. Among other media outlets, CNN reported last month that the Trump administration had secretly sought and obtained phone and e-mail

Jordanian police attacked; witnesses cite anger over banned lawmaker

AMMAN (REUTERS) – There were “armed attacks on security forces” on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital of Amman on Saturday (June 5), state media reported, citing the Interior Ministry, and witnesses told Reuters the attacks were triggered by tribal supporters of a lawmaker who was banned from Parliament. The lawmaker, Osama al Ajarma, was banned from Parliament for a year last week for insulting the body in a speech, inciting calls for protests by members of his tribe. In a separate statement published by state news agency Petra on Saturday, Jordan’s Police said four members of a security force “dealing with the riots in the Naour area were injured and they are under treatment.” The police media spokesman said the security force had been dealing on Saturday evening with riots and burning vehicles in the Naour. The Interior Ministry said on Saturday that it would not allow any gatherings that breached the law governing public gatherings. Clashes between some unruly members of Jordan’s powerful frequently take place in a country where tribes are the backbone of the security forces and the army.

More than 100 people killed in terror attack in Burkina Faso

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO (NYTIMES) – Armed assailants killed more than 100 people in an attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Saturday (June 5), burning houses and leaving many more injured in one of the deadliest assaults the West African nation has seen in years. The attackers struck early Saturday morning, first at a gold mine near the village of Sobha, near the border with Niger, according to Mr Rida Lyammouri, a Washington-based expert, before then going after civilians. They also attacked the village market, the government said in a statement. “It’s definitely one of the deadliest attacks in Burkina Faso in years,” said Mr Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Centre for the New South, a Morocco-based think-tank. Burkina Faso and its neighbours have faced a resurgence of extremist violence in recent years, much of it carried out by Islamist terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Once one of the most stable nations in West Africa, Burkina Faso has been trapped in spiralling violence since Islamist terrorist groups claimed their first attacks in 2015. Since then, the country has faced hundreds of attacks, some carried

British PM Johnson calls on G-7 to vaccinate world against Covid-19 by end of 2022

LONDON (REUTERS) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday (June 5) called for leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) rich nations to make a commitment to vaccinate the entire world against Covid-19 by the end of 2022 when they meet in Britain next week. Johnson will host the first in-person summit in almost two years of G-7 leaders – which follows a meeting of the group’s finance ministers which wrapped up earlier in the day – and said he would seek a pledge to hit the global vaccination goal. “Vaccinating the world by the end of next year would be the single greatest feat in medical history,” Johnson said in a statement. “I’m calling on my fellow G-7 leaders to join us to end this terrible pandemic and pledge we will never allow the devastation wreaked by coronavirus to happen again.” The leaders of Germany, France, the United States, Italy, Japan, the European Union and Canada will join Johnson for the three-day summit in Cornwall, southwest England, which begins on Friday. It will be the first overseas trip for US President Joe Biden since he took office in January. While the richest nations have been

Passenger tries to break into cockpit on US flight

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A passenger on a US airplane tried to smash his way into the cockpit until another traveller and members of the air crew tackled him and pinned him down, witnesses said. The Delta Air flight from Los Angeles to Nashville made an emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the man was dragged off the plane with his hands and feet secured by zip ties. He had repeatedly screamed “Stop this plane” as he was wrestled to the floor at the front of the cabin, according a phone camera footage of the incident on Friday. An unnamed passenger told CNN that the man “seemingly unprovoked, just got up and rushed the pilot’s cabin and began banging on the doors.” Another passenger, Jessica Robertson, described the scene as “terrifying” but praised flight attendants for acting quickly. The FBI in Albuquerque confirmed on Twitter that it had responded to the incident. Delta, in a statement to US media, expressed “thanks to the crew and passengers of Delta Flight 386, LAX to Nashville, who assisted in detaining an unruly passenger. “The aircraft landed without incident and the passenger was removed by law enforcement.”

Mysterious brain syndrome grips small Canadian province

MONTREAL (NYTIMES) – Forty-eight people from the same small Canadian province struck with a baffling mix of symptoms including insomnia, impaired motor function and hallucinations such as nightmarish visions of the dead. A quixotic neurologist working 12-hour days to decipher the clues. Swirling conspiracy theories blaming the illness on cellphone towers, fracking or even Covid-19 vaccines. These are just some plot lines of a mystery that has stumped Canada’s medical establishment, attracted the attention of some of the world’s top neurologists and fanned fears among residents of New Brunswick, a picturesque province of about 770,000 on Canada’s Atlantic coast. In the past six years, dozens of people have fallen ill from the disease and six people have died. “People are alarmed,” said Ms Yvon Godin, the mayor of Bertrand, a village in the Acadian Peninsula in north-eastern New Brunswick where residents have been afflicted. “They are asking, ‘Is it environmental? Is it genetic? Is it fish or deer meat? Is it something else?’ Everyone wants answers.” As the coronavirus raged across the country the past 15 months, the medical enigma was initially slow to gain national attention. Canadian health authorities, distracted by the need to respond

Exodus of Hongkongers triggered by national security law unlikely to dent city’s home prices, say analysts