■KAZAKHSTAN
Ex-boss blamed for thefts
The recently imprisoned former head of the state nuclear power agency stole the majority of the nation’s uranium deposits, security officials alleged on Monday. Former Kazatomprom head Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other company officials illegally shifted ownership of uranium mines worth tens of billions of dollars through a network of offshore companies, the KNB security service said. “Our information confirms the illegal tranfer of more than 60 percent of the state’s uranium deposits into the property of Dzhakishev and the companies he owned,” a KNB spokesman said. Authorities did not explain how Dzhakishev managed to steal more than half of the country’s uranium deposits out from under the government’s nose. All uranium deals in Kazakhstan are heavily monitored and audited by the state.
■CHINA
Dogs killed in rabies scare
Authorities in Shaanxi Province killed more than 20,000 dogs to quell a rabies outbreak, a local official and state media said yesterday. Eight people have died from rabies since March in Hanzhong, with another two suspected cases in the hospital, Xinhua news agency reported. Rabies has spread to 11 counties, and more than 5,000 people have been bitten or scratched by dogs since March, the head of the Hanzhong agricultural bureau was quoted as saying. It was not clear if all the dogs were rabid. Xinhua said government teams under the direction of the police killed dogs in areas of the outbreak, including wild dogs and dogs in public spaces.
■CHINA
Restaurant defends dish
A restaurant in Foshan, Guangdong Province, yesterday defended a controversial practice of killing chickens with snakebites, saying the resulting dish was healthy and kept the customers flooding in. The reaction came after claims of animal cruelty spread on the Internet in relation to the specialty, known as “Snake-bitten Chicken” and popular in the province and in Chongqing. “We’ve been offering the dish for many years and our customers keep coming back,” said a staff member at Shunde Renjia Restaurant. “This is our most successful dish.” She said that after heating, the snake toxin turns into an enzyme that can help keep the human body warm and clear blood vessels. The online criticism, which follows newspaper reports last week, has been extremely harsh, with some blasting people who eat and prepare it as “barbarians.” The Chongqing Business Daily reported last week that city authorities are investigating the practice and will order restaurants to stop serving the dish, but no timetable was given.
■FINLAND
Rwandan man charged
A prosecutor has charged a Rwandan man with genocide and murder in his home country in 1994, officials said on Monday. State Prosecutor Raija Toiviainen said the case against Francois Bazaramba, who lives in Finland, will begin later this year. If found guilty, Bazaramba will face life in prison. He has denied the charges. “It’s obvious, according to the pretrial investigation, that the man has committed a crime of genocide in the municipality of Nyakizu in April and May 1994 with intent to destroy the Rwandan Tutsis partly or totally,” Toiviainen said. Bazaramba, 58, has lived in Finland since 2003. He has been held in police custody since April 2007 on a court order. In February, Helsinki declined a request by Rwanda to extradite him, saying he might not receive a fair trial in his home country.
■IRAQ
Snakes on a plain
A plague of snakes has caused panic in the southern province of Nasiriyah, biting cattle and worrying residents as the reptiles flee parched marshes. “We have been surprised in recent days by the unprecedented number of snakes that have fled their habitat because of the dryness and heat,” said Wissam al-Assadi, a veterinary officer in Shabaysh town. “They have attacked cows and buffalo and farmers have come to us looking for vaccines but we don’t have any.” Experts say the country faces agricultural disaster this summer if Turkey continues to retain waters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers via its dams.
■NIGER
Clashes over president’s plan
Several people were hurt on Monday when protesters clashed with authorities over the president’s plan to change the Constitution so he can run for a third term, witnesses and media said. TV news showed demonstrators damaging official buildings and vehicles. Clashes broke out as people in Dosso attacked a group of the president’s supporters who were holding a meeting supporting him in front of the local governor’s building.
■ISRAEL
Man kills over disturbance
A man killed one man and seriously wounded another early yesterday for disturbing his meditation session and asking for cigarettes, police said. In the first incident, the 48-year-old man shot dead a Palestinian man who approached him outside the Old City as he was meditating in the pre-dawn hours, they said. A short while later in another part of the city, he opened fire at two men wearing Jewish skullcaps after they asked him for cigarettes. One of the men was seriously wounded while the other escaped unharmed. National police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man appeared to be mentally unbalanced and that the crime did not seem to be politically motivated.
■FINLAND
Journalist seeks asylum
A campaigning Russian journalist sought asylum after receiving threats in her homeland, where other investigative reporters have been murdered, a rights group said on Monday. Elena Maglevannaya “submitted her asylum application last Thursday to police,” said Anu Harju, a member of the group Finrosforum. Maglevannaya, who worked for the Volgograd-based daily newspaper Free Speech, attended a seminar in Helsinki last week organized by Finrosforum, an organization promoting democracy and human rights in Russia. Harju said Maglevannaya had angered authorities by writing articles on poor conditions in prisons.
■UNITED STATES
Crime dips for second year
The FBI reported on Monday that the nation’s crime rate dropped for a second consecutive year last year, falling 2.5 percent compared with 2007. The FBI’s yearly assessment saw nationwide declines in all four violent crime categories tracked by the agency. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter were down 4.4 percent; assault dropped by 3.2 percent; rape declined by 2.2 percent and robbery was down by 1.1 percent.
■IRAQ
Kuwait payments attacked
Iraqi members of parliament (MP) on Monday called for a halt to reparation payments to Kuwait for Saddam Hussein’s 1990 occupation, with some wanting the emirate to compensate Iraq for its role in the US-led 2003 invasion. “We request a parliamentary debate to seek financial compensation from Kuwait for having allowed American forces to use its territory for the attack on Iraq and to cause damage and destruction here,” Sunni MP Ezzedine al-Dawla of the National Concord Front said. Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman said Iraq “cannot accept the new border with Kuwait because it was imposed on us” by the UN in 1991 after Saddam’s forces were driven out of Kuwait.
■UNITED STATES
Lawyer Kahn dies after fall
Kenneth Kahn, a criminal defense attorney with a side career as a comedian, known for his work with high-profile clients such as Larry Flynt, has died. He was 66. The recently retired Santa Monica resident died last Wednesday in a hospital in Cuzco, Peru, after falling while climbing alone on the mountain above the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, Kahn’s public relations consultant, Bob Mazza, told the Los Angeles Times. In his legal role, Kahn may best be known for defending convicted spy Andrew Daulton Lee, portrayed by Sean Penn in the 1985 movie The Falcon and the Snowman. He also was Ike Turner’s defense attorney, representing the musician on a probation violation. And he defended when the Hustler magazine publisher was charged with desecrating the US for wearing a flag as a diaper in a courtroom.
■UNITED STATES
Man jailed for bone theft
A commercial fossil hunter, whose discovery of the world’s best-preserved dinosaur brought scientific acclaim, will serve 60 days in jail for stealing raptor bones from private land. Nathan Murphy, 51, a self-taught paleontologist, was convicted in March of felony theft for taking the raptor fossil from a ranch in northern Montana. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 in a separate federal case involving more fossils taken from Bureau of Land Management land. In 2000, Murphy discovered a mummified, 77-million-year-old duckbilled hadrosaur known as Leonardo, which is considered the best preserved dinosaur in the world.
■UNITED STATES
Gunman kills soldier
Two soldiers were shot on Monday, one fatally, outside a military recruiting center in Arkansas by a gunman who police said was opposed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police said the suspect, Abdulhakim Muhammad, drove up to an Army-Navy recruiting station and opened fire with an assault rifle, firing more than a dozen rounds into the building. Soldier William Long, 24, died in hospital, while Quentin Ezaegwula, 18, sustained injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Authorities said Muhammad, described only as a “black male,” has been charged with one count of capital murder and 15 counts of committing a terroristic act, and for firing a weapon into an occupiable structure.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number