Fake interpreter ‘saw angels’ at event

Fake interpreter ‘saw angels’ at event

JOHANNESBURG

The sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial says he suffers from schizophrenia and hallucinated and saw angels while gesturing incoherently just 3 feet away from President Barack Obama and other world leaders, outraging deaf people worldwide who said his signs amounted to gibberish.

South African officials scrambled Thursday to explain how they came to hire the man and said they were investigating what vetting process, if any, he underwent for his security clearance.

“In the process, and in the speed of the event, a mistake happened,” deputy Cabinet minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said.

She apologized to deaf people around the world who were offended by the incomprehensible signing.

Navajo Code Talker dies in NM at 90

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.

A Navajo Code Talker, whose words are inscribed on congressional medals given to his group and who fought to have a World War II comrade recognized for his service, died Thursday in New Mexico.

Wilfred Billey died at his home in Farmington after a short illness, said his daughter, Barbara. He was 90.

He was one of hundreds of Navajo Code Talkers who stumped the Japanese during World War II by relaying messages in their native language.

But Barbara Billey said her father never considered himself a hero.

“Whenever he talked about the military during that time, he always told people that heroes were the ones he left behind, that he was not a hero,” she said. “That everybody pitched in, including the people in the states, the people in the military.”

UN team confirms chemical attacks

UNITED NATIONS

Chemical weapons were probably used in four locations in Syria this year, in addition to the confirmed attack near Damascus in August that forced the government to abandon its secret chemical stockpile, U.N. inspectors said in a report released Thursday.

The experts, led by Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom, examined seven purported chemical-weapons attacks and said it lacked information to corroborate the allegations at two locations.

The inspectors’ limited mandate barred them from identifying whether the government or opposition fighters were responsible for any of the attacks.

Officials: Veteran stole IDs for militia

MINNEAPOLIS

A Minnesota National Guardsman and Iraq War veteran charged with fraud for purportedly stealing personal information of roughly 400 members of his former Army unit had worked in intelligence, where he likely was responsible for analyzing enemy information.

Keith Michael Novak, 25, planned to use the names, Social Security numbers and other information he is accused of stealing to create fake identities for members of his militia group. He also wanted to sell the information for money to expand his radio-communications capability, according to an affidavit and complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

Gold coin found in SA red kettle

KOKOMO, Ind.

Someone again has anonymously dropped a gold Krugerrand coin into a Salvation Army red kettle in a central Indiana city.

Salvation Army Capt. Dale Brandenburg says the South African coin was found in one of its Kokomo kettles last week, and it was sold for $1,220. The Kokomo Tribune reports this marks the fifth-straight year that a Krugerrand donation has been made in the city.

Associated Press