Briefly

UNITED STATES

Man who blew whistle on Boeing found dead

John Barnett, a former Boeing employee who had reportedly raised concerns about the company's production issues, was found dead in an apparent suicide, Reuters cited authorities in South Carolina as saying on Tuesday. Barnett had worked at Boeing for 32 years before leaving the company in 2017, according to the BBC. The 62-year-old died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Charleston County Coroner's Office in South Carolina confirmed on Tuesday. The Charleston City police are investigating, the coroner's office said, without giving details. Barnett was in the middle of a deposition in an ongoing whistleblower retaliation case against Boeing, according to a statement from his attorneys.

JAPAN

Space rocket explodes seconds after launch

A rocket made by a Japanese company exploded seconds after launch on Wednesday, in a spectacular failure for the startup's bid to put a satellite into orbit. Tokyo-based Space One's 18-meter Kairos rocket blasted off in the coastal Wakayama region of western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite. But around five seconds later, the solid-fuel rocket erupted in fire, sending white smoke billowing around the remote mountainous area as orange flames raged on the ground, live footage showed. Space One said it had taken the decision to "abort the flight" and details were being investigated.

INDONESIA

2 killed, 22 missing as boat capsizes

Eleven Indonesian fishermen survived after three days at sea clinging to their capsized boat, rescuers said on Wednesday as they searched for at least 22 crew still missing after the weekend incident that left two dead. The boat, with at least 35 people, capsized on Saturday in waters off the remote Selayar Islands in South Sulawesi Province before the 11 were found stranded on two separate atolls after days floating in the sea. The navy and rescue volunteers were helping with the search efforts.

UNITED KINGDOM

Convicted Post Office staff to be exonerated

Hundreds of innocent Post Office branch managers wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting as a result of flaws in an IT system will be exonerated by landmark legislation introduced on Wednesday, the UK government said. The self-employed sub-postmasters at the state-owned Post Office — many of them at the heart of their local communities — were prosecuted for alleged offenses between 1996 and 2018. Some served time in prison and many were financially ruined. Public outrage about one of Britain's biggest miscarriages of justice erupted following the TV series Mr Bates vs the Post Office in January.

Agencies Via Xinhua