Whale spotted swimming in New York’s East River

Whale spotted swimming in New York’s East River

NEW YORK

Officers patrolling New York City’s harbor in a police boat have spotted a whale in the East River.

The New York Police Department’s special operations division posted a photo of the unusual tourist on its Twitter account Saturday.

The whale was seen swimming along the shores of Manhattan’s upper East Side, close to Gracie Mansion, where the mayor lives.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Frank Iannazzo-Simmons says officials from his office haven’t seen the whale. But he says based on the photos it appears to be a humpback whale.

One such humpback whale was also spotted in the East River last month.

Texas family blame Apple’s FaceTime in suit over fatal crash

SAN JOSE, Calif.

A Texas couple whose 5-year-old daughter died in a crash involving a driver who was purportedly using Apple’s FaceTime video chatting app is suing the tech company.

The lawsuit filed in December in Santa Clara Superior Court accuses Apple of not implementing iPhone features that would automatically disable FaceTime based on technology that calculates highway speeds.

Apple hasn’t responded to the lawsuit and didn’t immediately respond to an email Saturday seeking a comment.

Moriah Modisette was killed in a 2014 Christmas Eve accident near Dallas. The lawsuit obtained by California television KTLA claims police found FaceTime running on the iPhone of the driver who struck the Modisette family at 65 mph.

The family claims Apple knew the risks of using FaceTime while driving because the company patented “lock-out” technology in 2008.

Efforts to end conflicts in Syria backed by UN

BEIRUT

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Saturday supporting efforts by Russia and Turkey to end the nearly six-year conflict in Syria and jump-start peace negotiations, as a fragile countrywide cease-fire wavered.

The resolution also calls for the “rapid, safe and unhindered” delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Syria. And it anticipates a meeting of the Syrian government and opposition representative in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana in late January.

The resolution’s final text dropped an endorsement of the Syria cease-fire agreement reached Thursday, simply taking note of it but welcoming and supporting Russian-Turkish efforts to end the violence.

Istanbul governor: At least 35 dead in attack on nightclub

ISTANBUL

An assailant believed to have been dressed in a Santa Claus costume opened fire at a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year’s celebrations Saturday, killing at least 35 people and wounding 40 others in what the city’s governor described as a terror attack.

Gov. Vasip Sahin said the attacker, armed with a long-barreled weapon, killed a policeman and a civilian outside the club before entering and firing on people partying inside. He did not say who may have carried out what he called a “terror attack.”

Media reports said the assailant entered the popular Reina nightclub, in Istanbul’s Ortakoy district, dressed in a Santa Claus costume. There were more than 500 people inside the club at the time, private NTV television reported.

Associated Press