UNITED STATES
Mumbai plotter not proud
An American-Pakistani who helped plot the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks came close on Thursday to expressing remorse for the bloody strikes in which 166 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. David Coleman Headley, who has admitted 12 terror charges arising out of the attacks on India’s financial capital, said during the Chicago trial of his friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, that he was no longer proud of the attacks. Toward the end of nearly three hours of cross examination, defense attorney Patrick Blegen asked Headley: “You were proud of it [the attacks] then?” “Yes,” Headley replied. “Are you still proud of it today?” Blegen asked. “No,” Headley replied without a moment’s hesitation. There was no explanation as to why he felt differently now, as the hearing then adjourned until Tuesday.
UNITED KINGDOM
London cleans up for Games
London prostitution, strip tease bars, canal boats and the homeless are being cleared away as the city prepares to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Serious Crime Directorate 9, a unit of the Metropolitan Police, conducted 127 brothel raids since it was formed in April last year, according to police data. The City of London Corp, which governs the capital’s main financial center, voted on May 5 not to grant sexual entertainment licenses to clubs and pubs. Houseboat residents near the Olympic development site in east London say British Waterways is attempting to cleanse the area, said Nick Brown, legal officer for the National Bargee Travellers Association.
SOUTH AFRICA
Granny allegedly robs men
Police are searching for an elderly woman who allegedly persuades young men at a mall to help carry heavy bags from her car, then kidnaps them from the parking lot and robs them. The woman, who works with two male accomplices, targets shoppers standing in bank queues at a mall in Johannesburg’s Soweto township and has struck at least twice recently, the New Age newspaper reported yesterday. “I never suspected anything wicked about the old woman as she looked like a pensioner and had a walking stick,” 18-year-old victim Kabelo Dube told the newspaper. He said he was waiting in line to deposit money at the bank when a young man approached and asked him for help unloading the old woman’s bags. He began to help with the bags, but then felt a gun pressed against his head and was ordered to get in the car, he said. The woman and her two accomplices then drove a short distance from the mall, took his money and forced him out of the car, he said.
AUSTRALIA
Senior fights off mugger
An 89-year-old Australian woman who used a handbag to beat off a knife-carrying would-be robber said yesterday she would do it all again, adding she would have “killed him if I could.” The woman, known only by the pseudonym Jean, was chatting with two friends in an underground car park in Melbourne on Thursday after buying a bottle of wine to enjoy after a day’s shopping when a “grubby” man approached. When he allegedly held a knife to the throat of Jean’s 82-year-old lifelong friend and demanded her handbag, Jean acted without hesitation. “I thought he was going to kill [her] and I wasn’t going to have that, and I just hit him with my bag on his face,” Jean said. The man fled after a male passer-by came to the defense of the women, but not before their 71-year-old companion had memorized the number plate of the stolen car he used to escape.
UNITED STATES
Regret over Chinese ban
Lawmakers launched a drive on Thursday for Congress to make an official statement of regret for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned immigration by Chinese workers and their naturalization as US citizens. After years of grassroots campaigning by Asian Americans, members of Congress from both major parties unveiled a bill saying that the US “deeply regrets” the exclusion act and discrimination against ethnic Chinese. “For a generation of our ancestors, including my own grandfather, who were told for six decades by the US government that the Land of the Free wasn’t open to them, it is long past time that Congress officially and formally recognizes these ugly laws and expresses sincere regret,” said Representative Judy Chu, who heads the Asian-American caucus.
UNITED STATES
‘Mob boss’ denied bail
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the reputed boss of the Philadelphia mob and an alleged high-ranking associate held without bail on racketeering and gambling charges, despite hearing arguments from defense attorneys that the indictment does not accuse them of committing violent acts that would make them a danger to the community. Judge Timothy Rice denied bail for Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi, pointing to Ligambi’s criminal record, evidence that he has a history of intimidating witnesses and his alleged stature as head of Philadelphia’s La Cosa Nostra.
UNITED STATES
Court backs Arizona law
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that allows the state to shut down businesses that hire illegal immigrants, a ruling arising from the fierce national debate on immigration policy. The decision could spur other states and cities to adopt their own tough anti-immigration measures in the workplace. At least eight other states have laws similar to Arizona’s. By a 5-3 vote, the high court rejected arguments by business and civil rights groups and by President Barack Obama’s administration that the Arizona measure must be struck down for conflicting with federal immigration law.
PERU
Protest turns violent
Hundreds of demonstrators mobbed government buildings and burned police cars in the southeastern city of Puno as a protest against mining firms intensified 10 days before a presidential election. About 5,000 protesters have descended on the city over the past two weeks to demand concessions be revoked for mining companies they say will contaminate their lands. Roads to neighboring Bolivia are now blocked, paralyzing commerce. President Alan Garcia earlier this week authorized the army to help maintain order in Puno, but it has yet to use force to end the protests.
UNITED STATES
Sex culprit caught in the act
California authorities said a registered sex offender who was banned from using the Internet was arrested while browsing Facebook — next to a sheriff’s detective in an Apple store. Investigators said Robert Nicholas McGuire, 35, was spotted on Wednesday in San Luis Obispo by the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team and was followed to the retailer. He was recognized from a previous child pornography case. The San Luis Obispo County Tribune reported that McGuire logged on to a display computer and a detective went to the system next to him and pulled up the Megan’s Law sex offender Web site, which showed McGuire is prohibited from using the Internet.
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese