■BRAZIL
Rubbish returns to Britain
A ship loaded with 1,600 tonnes of rubbish set sail on Wednesday to return the rotting cargo to Britain from Brazil, where it had been shipped falsely declared as plastic for recycling. Eighty-nine containers packed with trash were hoisted onto the freighter MSC Oriane. The incident sparked public anger and prompted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to criticize Britain and developed nations for urging higher environmental standards while using developing nations as garbage dumps. Criminal investigations are under way in Britain and Brazil to discover how the waste came to be shipped. Brazil has fined firms that imported or handled the waste.
■UNITED STATES
Woman tried to free pit bull
A woman was sentenced to 45 days in jail for trying to spring her pit bull from a Wyoming animal shelter. Jessica Johnson, 26, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit misdemeanor property destruction and criminal entry, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Johnson told a judge her dog had been unfairly classified as a vicious animal and she was afraid it would be killed.
■CANADA
Penis enlarger made of gold
A Saudi businessman has purchased a solid 18-carat gold penis enlarger worth nearly US$50,000. X4 Labs, a manufacturer of medical devices, received the request and recruited a Montreal jeweler to help with its design. The penis enlarger is being encrusted with diamonds and rubies and is to be delivered by armored car in October, said Rick Oh, X4 Labs co-owner. Saudi law bans the import of sex toys, but the company says the product is a medical device. “It’s an unusual request,” Oh said. “We didn’t take it seriously at first [until] he sent us a deposit.” “Obviously, there were giggles initially when we presented our project to a jeweler.”
■UNITED STATES
Passenger operates train
A Long Island Rail Road engineer let a passenger operate a train carrying nearly 400 riders to New York during the morning rush on July 2, and both men now face criminal charges, authorities said on Wednesday. The engineer, Ronald Cabrera, 40, and the passenger, William Kutsch, 47, surrendered to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department on Wednesday and have been charged with reckless endangerment in the second degree, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Cabrera, a 16-year veteran of the railroad, has also been charged with official misconduct, also a misdemeanor. Kutsch does not have a train engineer’s license.
■MEXICO
Attacks leave 17 dead
Attacks left 17 dead, including five youths in Ciudad Juarez, police said on Wednesday. The bodies of the youths were found in a van early on Wednesday, the local security ministry said. Police said they found three other bodies overnight on Tuesday in another van, also in Ciudad Juarez. Nine others died in separate attacks in the city and three other towns in Chihuahua state.
■IRAQ
Girl jailed for bomb plan
A judge has sentenced a teenage girl to seven-and-a-half years in prison for attempting to blow herself up at a police checkpoint northeast of Baghdad. Provincial Judge Zaid Khalaf said he handed down the sentence to Rania Ibrahim on Sunday. Ibrahim was 15 when she was caught wearing a suicide vest as she approached a checkpoint in Diyala last year.
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