INDONESIA
Hungry dogs eat owner
Seven dogs starved of food and water for two weeks are suspected of eating their owner after he returned home to Manado after a vacation, local media reported on Tuesday. A neighborhood guard was curious when he saw luggage lined up at the front of Andre Lumboga’s house, days after the 50-year-old returned home. He approached the house, smelled something foul and called the police, according to a report. “His skull was found in the kitchen and his body was found in the front of his house,” Eriyana, a local police chief in Batam, an island off Sumatra, told the VIVAnews Web site. Lumboga arrived home on Aug. 31, but his body was only discovered on Monday. “We suspect that the dogs were hungry, so they attacked Andre because they had not been fed for 14 days,” he said. Police also found bones of two other dogs, believed to also have been eaten by the hungry canines.
THAILAND
Dog smugglers arrested
Authorities have arrested two men who tried to smuggle 120 dogs into Vietnam to be sold for human consumption, police said on Tuesday. Acting on a tip, local officials and police officers stopped two pickup trucks carrying the dogs stuffed into bags in Nakhon Phanom Province near Laos, Lieutenant Colonel Detchai Wannapruek said. He said police arrested the two drivers, a 24-year-old Thai and a 23-year-old Vietnamese, and they confessed. They face charges of illegally transporting animals, unlicensed trade of animals and cruelty to animals. They could also be charged with transporting unvaccinated animals.
THAILAND
‘Royal basher’ arrested
Police on Tuesday said they had arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly posting pictures, audio clips and messages deemed insulting to the royal family on the social networking site Facebook. Surapak Phuchaisaeng was arrested in Bangkok on Friday, a senior police officer at the Technology Crime Suppression Division said. Under Thailand’s controversial lese majeste legislation, anybody convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count. Surapak, who also faces related charges under the Computer Crime Act, is one of the first people arrested for insulting the monarchy since a new government took power last month.
BELGIUM
Men urged to go commando
Men are being urged to “Let ’em hang!” and go brief-free tomorrow by animal rights campaigners bent on ending the pain of the 5 million piglets castrated in the country each year. “Through the ‘Let ’em hang!’ campaign we are seeking to convince farmers to allow their piglets to let them hang too,” animal welfare group GAIA said in a statement issued to save animals from a knife administered without painkillers. “We are hoping for mass participation so that supermarkets stop selling pork from castrated pigs,” campaigner Michel Vandenbosch said. GAIA said it was asking men “who can easily imagine the suffering caused by live castration” to leave their briefs and boxer-shorts in the cupboard tomorrow “to show solidarity” with the pigs. Women should “hide their partners’ underwear.” To avoid “accidents” during the brief-free show of solidarity, GAIA urged participants to opt for zipper-free pants and to “take care before sitting down and avoid low-slung hipsters.” On Tuesday, more than 3,000 men pledged to “go commando” on the group’s Facebook page.
CANADA
Man breaks into Dion house
A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into singer Celine Dion’s home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath, police said on Tuesday. He was nabbed by police in the Montreal suburb of Laval on Monday afternoon after the alarm system went off. The international pop superstar and her husband, Rene Angelil, were not at home at the time. Dion and Angelil usually live in Florida, but use the Laval residence when they come home to Quebec. Laval police spokesman Franco Di Genova said the suspect was getting ready to take a nice hot bath when police arrived with a canine unit. “He opened the water faucets, was pouring a nice warmish bath [and] he even managed to eat some pastry that was in the fridge,” Di Genova said. Di Genova said police worked their way through the house, starting with the basement, and finally confronted the man on the main floor. “The suspect was coming down the big staircase and was asking: ‘Hey, guys what are you doing here?’” Di Genova said. “So the officers replied: ‘What are you doing here?’ and they proceeded to put him under arrest.” Daniel Bedard of Laval was arraigned on Tuesday on charges including breaking and entering, auto theft and causing property damage.
MEXICO
PAN asks mayor to resign
The nation’s ruling party on Tuesday asked the mayor of the northern city of Monterrey to resign during a probe into videos of his brother receiving bundles of cash in city casinos. Jonas Larrazabal, brother of Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal, was detained on Thursday last week after the videos were publicized by Reforma newspaper. The executive committee of the National Action Party (PAN) asked the mayor to temporarily resign because his brother was implicated “in supposed acts of corruption, which has created a climate of suspicion and indignation.” The allegations came days after an arson attack on Monterrey’s Casino Royale that left 52 people dead and which authorities linked to extortion. A police officer and five suspected members of the Zetas drug gang have been detained in the probe so far.
UNITED STATES
UMass makes giant stir-fry
Staff and students at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) celebrated the start of the new semester on Monday by making the world’s largest stir-fry. Using a custom-built, 4.27m frying pan, the 1,820kg meal included 360kg of chicken, 227kg of onions, 180kg of carrots, 135kg of broccoli as well as peppers, green beans, bok choy, peanuts, basil and garlic. It was cooked in 23kg of canola oil. Ken Toong, executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises at UMass Amherst, said the purpose was to stress sustainability and promoting healthy eating as many of the vegetables were grown at a student-run farm. A Guinness Book of World Records representative was on hand to certify the record. The previous record was 1,050kg.
UNITED STATES
The Duke’s items for auction
Cowboy hats, costumes and saddles from actor John Wayne’s estate are among the items that will go up for auction in Los Angeles next month. Heritage Auctions spokesman Donn Pearlman on Tuesday said the auction would include more than 700 personal and professional items, including an eye patch Wayne wore in his Oscar-winning performance in True Grit. The auction will take place on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other