Two men dressed in women's clothes try to ram US spy agency NSA gate, one killed

Two people tried to ram their vehicle into the National Security Agency's entrance gates near Washington on Monday before guards shot one of them dead, officials said.

The two, who were dressed in women's clothes and may be transgender, tried to ram a sport utility vehicle into an entrance gate at the spy agency's Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters, a senior US official said.

Their motive was not immediately known but officials said there was no evidence the incident was linked to terrorism. One official said investigators were looking into whether drugs were involved.

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China joins Japan, South Korea in stopping Thai airline expansion on safety concerns

China has joined South Korea and Japan in stopping Thai airlines from flying charters and new routes because of safety concerns highlighted by an international audit, Thai officials said on Monday.

The move will come as a blow to Thai carriers that have just started recovering after a poor 2014 when political protests slashed the number of tourists visiting Thailand.

The halt is disrupting the peak travel season around the Thai new year in April. About 100 charter flights to Japan alone have been cancelled and some 30,000 tickets either refunded or modified, the director-general of Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) Somchai Piputwat told reporters on Monday.

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Solar Impulse lands in China after 22-hour flight from Myanmar

Solar Impulse 2 landed early Tuesday in China, the world's biggest carbon emitter, as it completed the fifth leg of its landmark circumnavigation of the globe powered solely by the sun.

With pilot Bertrand Piccard at the controls, the revolutionary plane landed in Chongqing airport at 1.35 am after a 22-and-a-half hour flight from Myanmar, its vast wingspan lit up by rows of LED lights.

The plane had been expected to make just a brief stop in the south-western city and quickly travel on to Nanjing, about 270km from Shanghai, but that has been delayed due to weather and safety concerns, with the team now expecting to stay a few days waiting for better conditions for the trip east.

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McDonald's starts table service in Germany in effort to reinvent itself

McDonald's Corp is introducing table service in Germany as it reinvents itself as a "modern, progressive burger company" under new chief executive Steve Easterbrook, it said on Monday.

Diners at its Frankfurt Airport restaurant in Germany, one of the company's toughest markets, will now be able to be served at their table after placing an order either at the front counter, a digital kiosk or with waiters carrying a tablet PC.

"This is completely new for McDonald's," Thomas Brand, head of development and restaurant innovation for Germany, told a company magazine. The special edition was handed out to guests at the reopening after renovation of the restaurant, McDonald's biggest in Germany, which has more than 500 seats.

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Prince William starts new job in the skies - as air ambulance pilot

Britain's Prince William took up his new job as an air ambulance pilot on Monday, though he will start flying rescue missions only later this year, his office said.

"The Duke of Cambridge has today started work as an employee of Bond Air Services," Kensington Palace, his London residence, said in a statement.

"He will undertake job-specific training before he begins piloting missions for East Anglian Air Ambulance during the summer," it added.

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