STATUS UPDATES
A week in which a text became a will, earbuds accompanied armour and corn mazes got even scarier
FOUND An unsent draft of a text message, deemed to serve as an official will. An Australian court accepted the message on the dead man’s phone. The 55-year-old, who took his life last year, had written a text addressed to his brother, pledging everything he had to his brother and nephew, the BBC reported. The man’s wife had argued that the message was not valid.
THREATENED Thousands of primary school teachers in Nigeria. Officials said more than 20,000 teachers in Kaduna State will be sacked after they failed to pass exams meant for their students. Kaduna Gov. Nasir el-Rufai promised that qualified teachers would be hired, the BBC reported. An official also promised a further round of tests — for high school teachers.
ACCEPTED Michelle Suarez. The 34-year-old has assumed her seat as Uruguay’s first transgender senator after her election. The Communist Party member had earlier in life become the first transgender person to graduate with a law degree in Uruguay, The Associated Press reported. Suarez seeks to pass an anti-discrimination law that would expand transgender rights.
JUMP-STARTING Oklahoma cold cases. Authorities are using playing cards in an attempt to solve unsolved killings and other cold cases. They are selling decks of cards featuring the cases to prisoners, following the success of similar programs in other states. At $1.42 (U.S.) a pack, they could help someone identify a suspect — or become a good Hold ’Em player.
LOST A 3-year-old boy in a Utah corn maze. Police say the child was accidentally left behind at the Crazy Corn Maze in a Salt Lake City suburb, then spent the night in child welfare custody. He had been visiting with a large family group. Staffers used a bullhorn and searched for his family in the four-hectare maze. The mother called police the next morning, police said.
PROTECTED Central London, nominally at least, by a soldier breaking protocol. The army investigated after a soldier from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment was pictured apparently listening to music on Apple earphones, outside Horse Guards. An observer told MailOnline: “He’s got 18th-century armour on and a 2017 headset. It’s all a bit odd.”
STAMPED OUT Smoking on popular tourist beaches in Thailand. And violations could prove costly, punishable by up to a year in jail. Government officials, apparently fed up with retrieving tens of thousands of butts in the sand, introduced the measure, which will apply to up to 20 beaches for now, the BBC reports. They include Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya.
ACCELERATING Travel in Morocco. Engineers conducted tests on Africa’s fastest train, said to be capable of reaching 320 km/h, for the journey from Casablanca to Tangier. It would cut travel times to two hours from five, the Daily Telegraph reports. Some have wondered if the approximate $3 billion price tag would be better spent on less glamorous priorities.