Cold War message in a bottle washes up in Alaska
A Cold War sailor’s 50-year-old message in a bottle has finally been read after washing ashore in Alaska.
Tyler Ivanoff discovered the handwritten Russian letter while collecting firewood, it has been reported. Mr
Ivanoff said the green glass bottle still smelled of old alcohol when he opened it, and use a screwdriver to
prise the letter out. He later shared his discovery on Facebook, where Russian speakers revealed it was from
a Cold War Russian sailor dated 20 June, 1969.
According to The Nome Nugget it read: “Sincere greetings! From the Russian Far East Fleet mother ship
VRXF Sulak. I greet you who finds the bottle and request that you respond to the address Vladivostok -43
BRXF Sulak to the whole crew. We wish you good health and long years of life and happy sailing.”
Reporters tracked down the original writer, Captain Anatoly Botsanenko. He was sceptical about whether
he wrote the note until he saw his signature at the bottom, it was reported. “There – exactly!” he said.
Wave of blasts rock Afghanistan as it marks independence
A series of bombings struck restaurants and public squares yesterday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad,
wounding at least 66 people, officials said, as the country marked the 100th anniversary of its
independence. No group claimed responsibility for the 10 bombs but both Isis and the Taliban militants
operate in the area. Isis claimed responsibility for a weekend bomb attack on a wedding reception in the
capital, Kabul, that killed 63 people and wounded nearly 200.
The Jalalabad bombs were planted near a market where hundreds of people had congregated after attending
independence day events. Senior health official Fahim Bashari said 20 children were among those wounded.
Another ceremony was disrupted in Laghman, when militants hit a venue with five rockets, officials said,
adding that six civilians were injured. President Ashraf Ghani, called on the international community to
stand with Afghanistan to eradicate the militants’ “nests” in an independence day address. Reuters
Couple who stole sand from Sardinia beach face jail
A couple on holiday in Sardinia face up to six years in jail after they stole some sand as a souvenir. The
Italian island’s white-sand beaches are highly protected, with harsh penalties for those who try to remove
any sand – from one to six years in jail for theft with the aggravating circumstance of having stolen an asset
of public utility.
The French couple were caught with 14 plastic bottles full of sand, weighing 40kg, in the boot of their car.
They claim to have not known the practice was forbidden and had no idea they were committing an offence
when they removed the sand from Chia in the south of Sardinia. The pair were about to board a ferry from
Porto Torres to Toulon, France, according to local media.
Police officer fired over chokehold death of Eric Garner
Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer filmed choking Eric Garner to death in 2014, has been fired by the New
York Police Department. Police Commissioner James O’Neill announced the decision in a press conference
yesterday.
Emerald Garner, one of Mr Garner’s daughters, said in her own press conference that the family would still
be calling for a law banning the choke-hold. “I don’t want another Eric Garner,” she said. “I will do
everything in my power to never see another Eric Garner.”