■ United States
Satanic candidate arrested
A fringe candidate for Minnesota governor who says he is a satanic priest -- and favors public impalement for terrorists -- was wanted on warrants pending for stalking and escape charges. Jonathon Sharkey, 41, was arrested Monday night on the felony warrants from Indiana, said Mike Smith, the Mille Lacs County jail administrator. Sharkey launched his campaign last month under the banner of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party. His platform includes an emphasis on education, tax breaks for farmers and better benefits for veterans, but he also said he favored impaling certain wrongdoers in front of the State Capitol.
■ United States
Porn distracts driver
A man who was stopped for driving erratically on a divided highway was distracted because he was looking at pornography, police in Tennessee said on Tuesday. David Kennedy, 33, of Nashville,was charged with felony reckless endangerment. A fellow motorist called police last Friday afternoon to report that he nearly ran her vehicle off the highway several times. "When I made contact with the driver of the suspect vehicle, a Mr. David Kennedy, there were several pornographic magazines on the seat next to him," Rutherford County deputy Tony Hall wrote in his report.
■ Italy
Premier not abstaining
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's reported promise that he would abstain from sex until the April 9 general election was just a joke, he said late on Tuesday during a talk show on state-run TV. "We were laughing, joking ... I don't [abstain] at all." He added that "moderation"was necessary "since I have so many commitments." On Sunday, a conservative Milan newspaper owned by Paolo Berlusconi, the premier's brother, had reported that the premier made the no-sex vow during a campaign rally the day before in Cagliari, Sardinia, with a popular TV preacher on the island and his followers.
■ Kenya
US woman in sex charge
A court on Tuesday charged an American woman with sexually assaulting several street boys at a Nairobi shelter where she was doing volunteer rehabilitation work. Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule charged Sherry Hsian Hwa-chow, 25, with "indecently assaulting five boys at the Bahati children's rehabilitation center in Nairobi between 2004 and last year" and a separate immigration count. She pleaded not guilty to both charges and Muchelule ordered her held until today when he will rule on her application for bail.
■ United States
Abortion showdown
A US federal appeals court in San Francisco on Tuesday struck down a government ban on late-term abortions, setting up a likely Supreme Court showdown on the issue in the coming months. A panel of federal judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, a measure signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003, is unconstitutional. The measure fails to provide an exception to protect the lives of mothers and imposed "an undue burden" on the ability of women to get abortions, the judges ruled. Judges said the law was also so vague that it could confuse doctors and encourage "arbitrary enforcement."
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was