■CUBA
Royal Ballet catches H1N1
Five members of Britain’s Royal Ballet came down with the swine flu virus during their recently finished visit to Havana, but all have recovered, a spokeswoman for the dance company said on Monday. Tests confirmed the dancers had A(H1N1). Afterward, they were isolated and given flu medicine that the troupe had brought along on its first trip to Havana, spokeswoman Elizabeth Bell said. The outbreak forced some personnel shuffling among the 96 dancers, but performances went ahead as scheduled.
■UNITED STATES
Canadian faces sex charges
A Canadian citizen is facing charges in New Jersey that he helped arrange trips to Thailand for adults who paid to have sex with children. John Wrenshall has been extradited from London, where he was arrested in December. The 62-year-old Wrenshall faces three charges related to sex tourism and more than a dozen child pornography counts. The sex tourism charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years each. The child pornography counts range from 10 years to 15 years.
■BRAZIL
Robbers trigger zoo panic
An armed gang of 15 robbers triggered panic at a crowded zoo on the weekend, leading to a gunfight with police that left one of the criminals dead, media reported on Monday. The gang entered the zoo in Sao Paulo on Sunday, pretending to be ordinary visitors and paying the entrance fee. They then converged on a secure zone and stole 100,000 reais (US$50,000) after bundling up the personnel. As they ran out, one of the robbers fired a shot, sending many of the 18,000 people visiting the zoo running for safety and alerting police. Most of the gang escaped using waiting cars and motorbikes, but they left their trigger-happy colleague behind. He jumped on a bus with 50 passengers but was stopped by police. He was killed in an exchange of gunfire that destroyed the vehicle.
■UNITED STATES
Huge reward offered
The Department of State offered up to US$50 million on Monday for information leading to the arrests of 10 top Mexican drug suspects accused of key roles in a violent organization estimated to have imported more than US$1 billion in drugs. Attorney Benton Campbell said the reward money and new federal charges were among efforts to dismantle a powerful drug trafficking organization known as The Company, whose members came from an elite security force called Los Zetas. The only name on an indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn was Miguel Trevino-Morales, a fugitive charged with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution and firearms violations. The indictment also sought the forfeiture of US$1 billion in drug proceeds.
■UNITED STATES
Rights group wants probe
The government should launch a probe into controversial interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a leading rights group said on Monday. The letter from Human Rights Watch calling for an investigation was sent to Attorney General Eric Holder after Newsweek magazine reported that he was mulling the appointment of a criminal prosecutor to investigate abuses. The rights group said a full investigation of the actions under former president George W. Bush’s administration “would send the strongest possible signal” that Washington is committed to ending such practices.
RSS