Facebook apps hit by outages
SINGAPORE • Facebook and its related apps Instagram and WhatsApp went down yesterday evening, with several users taking to other social media to say they were experiencing difficulties.
Facebook began to experience issues at about 6.30pm, according to tracking website downdetector.com.
The site's outage map showed that several parts of Europe, South-east Asia and North America were affected. As at 9pm, issues with the three services appeared to have been resolved for Singapore users.
According to downdetector.com, there were more than 14,500 incidents of people reporting issues with Facebook at the peak of the outage.
2 people found dead on Okinawa
TOKYO • A US Navy sailor and a Japanese woman were found dead on the Japanese island of Okinawa in what the police are investigating as a murder-suicide.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said the sailor appeared to have fatally stabbed the woman and then killed himself with the same knife.
The sailor, 32, and the woman, 44, were found by Okinawa police on Saturday in an apartment in Chatan, on the island's south-western coast, according to public broadcaster NHK and local news media. They were not publicly identified.
About 25,000 US service members are stationed on Okinawa. Violence committed by US service members or related personnel on the island has long caused friction between Washington and Tokyo.
NYTIMES
Media firms face contempt charges
SYDNEY • Three dozen Australian journalists and publishers are to face court today over their coverage of Cardinal George Pell's trial for child sex abuse, with prosecutors seeking fines and jail terms over accusations of breached gag orders in the case.
Prosecutors in the south-eastern state of Victoria have accused the 23 journalists and 13 news outlets of aiding and abetting contempt of court by overseas media and breaching suppression orders.
Among those facing contempt charges are Nine Entertainment, the Age, the Australian Financial Review, Macquarie Media and several News Corp publications.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
