Australia
Girl faces failed murder rap
A 14-year-old girl was yesterday charged with attempted murder after she allegedly poisoned two other children, reportedly with chocolate brownies tainted with a household substance. Queensland state police said the girl had been charged after allegedly giving two boys, aged 12 and 13, food poisoned with a substance “generally found in the home” in the Brisbane suburb of Richlands on Sunday. “Police will allege the girl attempted to poison two other children,” they said in a statement. “She has been charged with one count each of attempted murder and administering poison with attempt to harm as well as two counts of acts intended to maim.” The police would not confirm a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corp that the girl had given the two boys tainted brownies.
Mexico
Navy says ‘drug capo’ seized
The country’s navy says it has captured a key regional leader of the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel. Sunday’s communique from the navy identifies him as Carlos Carmona Caballero and it blames him for a series of violent incidents in Veracruz state, though it does not specify them. It says he was caught in a car on Friday with four other men who were also detained. The Zetas have been involved in much of the country’s drug war bloodshed in their battles with the country’s other main drug organization, the Sinaloa Cartel.
UNITED STATES
Student shooting questioned
Classmates and friends are questioning why a police officer fatally shot a University of South Alabama freshman who was naked and had been banging on a window at police headquarters. Campus officials did not give any indication that Gil Collar, 18, had a weapon when he was shot. A university spokesman said he was fatally wounded early on Saturday after an officer heard a bang on a window and went outside to investigate. A statement issued by university spokesman Keith Ayers said Collar, who wrestled in high school before enrolling at South Alabama, assumed a “fighting stance” and chased an officer before being shot. The officer tried to retreat numerous times to defuse the situation before opening fire, the school said, but sophomore Tyler Kendrick said campus authorities have not provided any satisfying answers about why Collar was killed. “Really, it just upsets me that there’s no other way to apprehend an unarmed student rather than shooting him. I don’t understand that,” Kendrick said. Student Joshua Frye said it seemed the officer could have used something other than a firearm to stop Collar. “What I feel is that a cop has more than a gun,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Maine hosts bizarre contest
A Finnish couple has added to their victories by taking first place in the North American Wife Carrying Championship at Maine’s Sunday River ski resort. Taisto Miettinen and Kristina Haapanen traveled from Helsinki, Finland for Saturday’s contest. The Sun Journal reports that the couple finished with a time of 52.58 seconds on a course that includes hurdles, sand traps and a water hole. The winners receive the woman’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash. For Miettinen and Haapanen, that meant a check for US$530. They shared their beer winnings with the second- and third-place finishers — Jesse Wall and Christine Arsenault of South Paris and David and Lacey Castro of Lewiston.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia