FRANCE
Passengers face whip-round
The crew of an Air France plane that was rerouted via Damascus on Wednesday asked passengers how much cash they could stump up after Syrian authorities refused a credit-card payment to refuel the aircraft, the French airline said on Thursday. Ultimately it found an alternative arrangement, it said. The plane that was headed for Beirut on Wednesday night was diverted due to civil unrest in the Lebanese capital and it sought to go to Amman, but it was forced to land in Syria due to a lack of fuel. Air France stopped its flights to Damascus in March as fighting in the country escalated, and relations between France and Syria collapsed after Paris demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down. On landing, the airport authorities said they could not accept a credit-card payment and would only take cash, an Air France spokeswoman said. “As a precaution, and in anticipation, the crew asked how much money the passengers had in cash to pay to fill up with fuel,” the airline spokeswoman said. She said the airline was eventually able to pay the bill without taking money from passengers, but she declined to say how it had paid or how much the fuel stop cost.
FRANCE
Minister sent severed finger
A prison inmate has mailed part of his own severed finger to the justice minister hoping the desperate gesture would help his plea to be moved to another prison, officials said on Thursday. An envelope containing the chunk of finger was delivered on Thursday to the offices of Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, accompanied by a letter arguing for a transfer to a jail nearer to the inmate’s family, a police official said. A Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed a piece of finger had been delivered. “It’s a sad affair, there are many inmates asking for transfers,” spokesman Olivier Pedro-Jose said. French jails are plagued by overcrowding, with the prison population hitting a record 67,000 this year compared with about 50,000 a decade ago, according to Justice Ministry figures.
NORWAY
Car misses moose, hits bear
A driver who swerved his car on a rural road to avoid running into a moose hit a bear instead, authorities said on Thursday. The driver spotted the moose on a country road near Hanestad, 225km north of Oslo, at about midnight on Wednesday and tried to go around the animal, not realizing that a bear was also nearby. “The driver had lost a bit of speed as he tried to avoid the moose, before hitting the bear,” said Svein Erik Bjorke of the local wildlife authority, who was out in the forest searching for the wounded animal. “We are currently tracking the bear and we have found traces of blood indicating internal injuries,” he said. The driver escaped uninjured, while his car suffered some damage.
UNITED KINGDOM
Killer spills grave location
Notorious jailed killer Ian Brady, who murdered five children in the 1960s, may have revealed the grave site of one of his victims to a long-term visitor, police announced on Thursday. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said in a statement that Brady, also known as the Moors Murderer, may have revealed the burial site of 12-year-old Keith Bennett, the only one of his victims whose body is yet to be found. The force also announced that it was questioning a 49-year-old woman after she was arrested in Wales on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful exercise. “On 30 July 2012, GMP received information that led officers to believe that Ian Brady had recently given details of the location of Keith Bennett’s body to one of his long-term visitors,” the GMP statement said. Officers made the arrest after working closely with Ashworth hospital, the psychiatric institution in northwest England where Brady, 74, is being held. Between 1963 and 1965, Brady and his partner Myra Hindley lured five children and teenagers to their deaths, burying four of them on remote moorland near Manchester. Hindley died in prison in 2002, aged 60.
UNITED STATES
Serial killer jailed
A Philadelphia man with a history of mental illness has been convicted of strangling three women during sex and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against 23-year-old Antonio Rodriguez. DNA evidence linked Rodriguez with the deaths, which gripped the city’s Kensington neighborhood in late 2010. The victims have been described as struggling with addiction and sometimes working as prostitutes. Their half-nude bodies were found in trash-strewn abandoned lots or homes. Rodriguez did not testify at the non-jury trial. A judge also convicted Rodriguez on Thursday of a string of other charges, including the rape and abuse of a corpse.
UNITED STATES
Killer granny pleads insanity
Lawyers for a 73-year-old German woman accused of drowning her five-year-old grandson in a bathtub of a Florida Panhandle beach house say she was legally insane in part from injuries brought on by a World War II bombing raid. Marianne Bordt is facing a possible death sentence if she is convicted of murder in the death of Camden Hiers in January 2010. Her lawyer contends she is not guilty by reason of insanity, due in part to wartime psychological damage. The judge has encouraged lawyers to resolve the case by reaching a plea agreement.
UNITED STATES
Iraqi war donkey dies
Smoke, the Iraqi donkey whose journey from a desert battleground to a peaceful retirement in the US captured the attention of the world, has died in Nebraska. Smoke became lethargic and died this week after frolicking with miniature horses at Miracle Hills Ranch and Stable north of Omaha. Smoke had served as an equine therapy animal to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Smoke’s Facebook page has friends from around the world. Smoke was taken in by marines after he showed up malnourished and wounded at Camp Taqaddum in Anbar Province in 2008. Regulations prohibited keeping the donkey, but marine Colonel John Folsom of Omaha, then commander at the camp, found a navy psychologist to designate Smoke as a therapy animal because he reduced stress among marines. Folsom, now retired, said Smoke may have died of colic. “He was a great little donkey,” Folsom said.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
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