UNITED STATES
Penis injection kills man
A New Jersey woman who police say injected a man’s penis with silicone, resulting in his death, has been charged with manslaughter. The Essex County prosecutor’s office said 34-year-old Kasia Rivera gave 22-year-old Justin Street the injection on May 5. Such injections are often used to enlarge body parts, such as the buttocks. Street died the day after the injection. His death was ruled a homicide following a medical examiner’s determination he died of a silicone embolism. Rivera also faces charges for the unauthorized practice of medicine. She was arrested on Friday and is being held on US$75,000 bail.
UNITED STATES
Bestiality ban to stay
The Pentagon said sex with animals would still be illegal even if Congress should repeal a military rule on sodomy. Conservative groups are upset over a proposed change in the bill to finance the Department of Defense that would eliminate Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The code states that any person who engages in “unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy.” The Pentagon said in a statement on Friday that all animal abuse, including bestiality, would be considered “prejudicial to good order and discipline.”
UNITED STATES
Children rob classmates
Police in Warren, Michigan, say two children used a toy gun to rob their classmates of candy and chips. Police on Friday were seeking the suspects, ages 10 and eight. The five victims were walking home earlier this week when one of the boys pulled the plastic gun, The Macomb Daily newspaper in Michigan reported. Warren Detective Lieutenant Dan Beck said the two young suspects could be charged with armed robbery because one of the children thought the gun was real. “The suspect pointed the gun to the head of one of the victims and said: ‘Where’s the money?’” Beck said.
UNITED STATES
TV bachelor acquitted
A former contestant on Fox TV’s The Sexiest Bachelor in America pageant has been acquitted in the killing of his girlfriend, a former adult film actress. A California jury found 47-year-old Brian Randone not guilty of the murder and torture of 31-year-old Felicia Lee, who was found dead on Sept. 11, 2009, in their apartment in Monrovia near Pasadena. Prosecutors argued that Randone had severely beaten and suffocated Lee, while his defense attorneys argued she died of a drug overdose. Lee appeared in several adult films under the name Felicia Tang, and had bit roles in the mainstream movies Rush Hour 2 and The Fast and the Furious.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Woman killed by 25 dogs
A 60-year-old woman was mauled to death on Friday by up to 25 Rottweilers she was keeping on her property in Radonice-nad-Ohri, a village about 65km north of Prague, police said. “Several dogs attacked their owner around 6am. She died immediately after suffering serious wounds,” police spokesman Daniel Vitek said. “An investigation was launched to confirm all the circumstances of the incident.” After being called to the scene by the woman’s daughter, police removed 25 dogs from the property, but were not immediately able to confirm whether the woman was involved in breeding the canines for dog--fighting. The dogs were “abused and starving,” according to TV Nova, a local Czech broadcaster.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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