Headline

700 Arrested, 200 Police Officers Injured In French Protests

Published

11 months ago

June 30, 2023

At least 667 people across France were arrested till Friday as Paris and other parts of the country burned for the third consecutive night over the killing of a 17-year-old boy.

Riots broke out in and around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the teen of North African descent, identified as Nahel M, 17, was shot during a traffic check, VOA said.

Police and firefighters struggled to contain protesters and extinguish numerous blazes that damaged schools, police stations and town halls or other public buildings, the national police said.

The police officer accused of shooting the teenager reportedly sought forgiveness from the boy’s family, his lawyer has said.

The lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard said, “The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family.

“He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people. He didn’t want to kill him.”

Lienard said the officer had aimed down towards the driver’s leg but was bumped, which caused him to shoot towards his chest. “He had to be stopped, but obviously [the officer] didn’t want to kill the driver,” he said.

The lawyer added that his client’s detention was being used to try to calm rioters.

The officer was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide after prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met”.

The prosecutor said Nahel died from a single shot through his left arm and chest while driving off after being stopped by police.

According to VOA, the officer alleged that he opened fire as he feared that he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car.

French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to hold an emergency government meeting later on Friday.

“These acts are totally unjustifiable,” Macron said at the beginning of Thursday’s emergency security meeting, which aimed at securing hot spots and planning for the coming days “so full peace can return”.

Headline

Google To Offer AI-generated Answers In Search Results

Published

10 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Editor

Google has announced it would introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years.

“I’m excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, ‘AI overviews,’ to everyone in the US this week,” Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said at an event in California on Tuesday, May 14.

Google’s search results will feature an AI summary at the top of the page before the more typical unfurling of links.

The AI answers generated by Google’s Gemini technology will offer succinct summaries of what it found on the internet with links to the online sources that supplied the information.

“You can ask whatever’s on your mind or whatever you need to get done – from researching to planning to brainstorming – and Google will take care of the legwork,” said Google Search team boss Liz Reid.

The change comes as Google feels growing pressure from AI-powered search engines like Perplexity, and from the rumors that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is building its own AI search tool.

Searches through AI chats have also appeared on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with users able to get information from the web without Google.

The change will soon spread to other countries, Pichai added, making it accessible to more than a billion people.

Headline

College Volleyball Player Killed In US Nightclub Shooting

Published

10 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Editor

Albany State University volleyball player Mariam Creighton has been tragically killed in a nightclub shooting in Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Department said on Tuesday, May 14, that the incident happened around 2:28 AM on Sunday, May 14, when officers responded to shots fired at the Elleven45 establishment.

Six people were shot, two of whom were pronounced dead at the scene, Creighton and 20-year-old Nakyris Ridley.

The police department said in a statement;

“Preliminary investigation indicates the shooting occurred during a physical dispute at the location that escalated to gunfire.”

Creighton was a member of the ASU Golden Rams volleyball team, and was one semester from graduating from the HBCU with a biology degree.

Her family said she was at the club on Sunday celebrating her niece’s birthday. “It’s just senseless,” Creighton’s sister, Tiffany, said. “My sister was just out having a good time, and now our lives are just altered forever.”

Headline

Nigerian Burnt To Death In Bangkok Car Crash

Published

11 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Editor

A 35-year-old Nigerian man identified as Daniel was burnt to death in a car accident in Bangkok, Thailand.

Bangkok’s Prawet Police Station, confirmed the identity of the Nigerian national in a statement on Tuesday, May 14, 2024,

Daniel, whose Thai wife came to confirm his identity with the police, died on Saturday, May 11, when his car crashed into a road median and caught fire.

This serious road accident occurred at 5:30 a.m. on a three-lane road near Soi Phatthanakan 53/1, Suan Luang Subdistrict and District, Bangkok.

When officials received the report and arrived at the scene, they found a gray Toyota Vios with Samut Prakan province license plates overturned and engulfed in flames, blocking the middle of the road.

The officers spent about 10 minutes spraying water to extinguish the fire, but the car was completely damaged by the flames.

At that time, rescuers had to use cutting and prying equipment to remove the driver’s body from the wreckage and send it to the Police Hospital for an autopsy. They found a document with a front-facing photo of a foreign man.

Eyewitnesses stated that they saw the car driving at high speed in the far right lane before losing control and crashing into the road median.

The car spun and hit a palm tree with such force that it flipped over and ended up on its roof in the middle of the road.

At that moment, good Samaritans tried to pry open the door to help the unconscious driver, but before they could pull him out, sparks ignited, and the car quickly caught fire.