■CHINA
Political prisoner released
One of the country’s longest-held political prisoners was released yesterday after serving 16 years of a 20-year jail sentence for setting up an opposition party. Hu Shigen (胡石根), 53, was greeted by family members when he emerged from a Beijing prison, his brother said. Hu’s family had traveled from their hometown in Jiangxi Province for his release. Hu could not be interviewed because he is still deprived of his political rights for four more years.
■JAPAN
Serial bag snatcher nabbed
Police have caught a serial handbag snatcher who was dubbed “the chameleon” after eluding arrest for at least four years by stripping off as he fled the scenes of his crimes by bicycle. Hiroshi Ishihara, a 42-year-old Osaka resident, would wear three to five extra T-shirts or sweaters and take them off as he fled, a police official said yesterday. “By the time we radioed in that the culprit was wearing black clothes, he was wearing white or red.” Police caught Ishihara earlier this month as he cycled to his car after being identified on security cameras. He has confessed to snatching more than 60 purses, but police believe he was responsible for 200 to 300 thefts.
■NEW ZEALAND
Patients’ drugs stolen
Christchurch Hospital called in police yesterday after discovering that someone had stolen patients’ pain relief medication and replaced it with water, news reports said. No details were given about the thefts, but Radio New Zealand said morphine or another synthetic narcotic was probably involved.
■INDONESIA
‘Tree Man’ goes home
A man dubbed the “tree man” because of gnarled growths on his body has returned from hospital after 6kg of warts were surgically removed from his body, a doctor said yesterday. Dede, 37, first noticed the warts after cutting his knee as a teen. Over time, he was fired from his job, deserted by his wife and shunned by neighbors as the horn-like extensions covered most of his body. “He cannot be 100 percent cured, but his life quality has improved,” one of Dede’s doctors said. A US doctor said previously that the warts were a result of severe Human Papilloma Virus infection.
■AUSTRALIA
Pickpockets flying in
Teams of professional pickpockets from as far away as Brazil were arriving on fly-in fly-out missions that last just a couple of weeks, the Sydney Morning Herald said yesterday. The theft sprees were organized by a local crime boss who takes a percentage of the loot, a police spokesman said.
■VENEZUELA
Python kills keeper
A 3m Burmese Python killed a student zookeeper in Caracas on the weekend and was caught trying to swallow its dead prey when horrified coworkers arrived, Venezuela’s El Universal newspaper reported on Monday. The other employees of the Caracas zoo had to beat the serpent to make it release the body of 29-year-old Erick Arrieta, whose head it was swallowing. The daily reported that Arrieta had been working the nightshift alone on Saturday. The university biology student had broken the park’s rules by entering the cage holding the snake, zoo management said. A snake bite on his arm indicated the python had attacked Arrieta before wrapping itself around him and crushing him to death.
■CANADA
Singer survives plane crash
The lead singer of the pop band Barenaked Ladies and three other people survived a plane crash in rural southeastern Ontario, authorities said on Monday. Ed Robertson’s Cessna 206 float plane crashed in a wooded area near Bancroft, Ontario, on Sunday afternoon as he was trying to take off from Baptiste Lake, Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Bruce Quigg said. Quigg said no one in the plane was injured. Robertson’s friend Gord Peel told the Belleville Intelligencer newspaper that the other passengers were Robertson’s wife, Natalie, and their friends. The four had to get out through the windows, but did not have a scratch, he said.
■UNITED STATES
Tuskegee Airman dies
Lieutenant Colonel Howard Lee Baugh, who flew scores of World War II combat missions as one of the original members of the all-black Tuskegee Airmen, died on Saturday. He was 88. Baugh died at a suburban Richmond, Virginia, hospital after a brief illness. “He fought for this country and helped open some doors,” said a son, Howard Layne Baugh. “He helped show people the idea of black people as second-class citizens ... was wrong.” Baugh enlisted in the Army in 1942 and joined the all-black fighter group that trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He flew 135 combat missions as part of a fighter squadron in Sicily, Italy. Tuskegee Airmen Inc said that fewer than 140 of the unit’s pilots are estimated to be still living.
■BRAZIL
Rapporteur calls for rights
A UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights on Monday urged the government to do more to overturn “critical” health and educational deficiencies and combat economic woes suffered by its native population. James Anaya, a US legal scholar descended from Apache Indians, spent nearly two weeks visiting indigenous areas. “The health and educational situation is critical for many indigenous peoples,” he told reporters in Brasilia. He questioned whether many social programs implemented, in fact, reached the Aboriginal population, and said that a government scheme to boost infrastructure projects appeared to run roughshod over opposition from affected indigenous communities.
■CANADA
Six prisoners escape
Five prisoners described by police as dangerous and possibly armed have escaped from the Regina Correctional Center in Saskatchewan. Police said on Monday that six prisoners escaped on Sunday night, but one was apprehended shortly before midnight. Police say no one was injured during the escape. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Regina Police Service are investigating.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
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