JAPAN
US forces put under curfew
The commander of the US forces in Japan says US military personnel will be subject to a curfew and other restrictions following allegations that two US sailors raped a woman in Okinawa. Lieutenant General Salvatore Angelella gave no specific details about the curfew. He said yesterday that US military personnel in Japan will have to take “core values training.” Angellela says US military personnel are “held to a higher standard.” He apologized for the case, which drew protests from the Japanese government and an outcry on Okinawa, host to more than half the US bases in Japan. Seaman Christopher Browning of Athens, Texas, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker of Muskogee, Oklahoma, were in Okinawa on a brief stopover at the time of the alleged incident. Both are 23.
AUSTRALIA
Flight crew finds sailor
A lucky sailor is back on dry land after passengers and crew on a commercial flight from Canada helped find his crippled yacht adrift in rough seas hundreds of miles off the Australian coast, rescue authorities said. The Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Sydney was one of two diverted on Wednesday to look for solo yachtsman Glenn Ey, who activated an emergency beacon after his 11m yacht flipped and was dismasted. The Boeing 777 dropped down to 1,500m and cut its speed while the crew peered out using binoculars borrowed from passengers. “As we got to about two to three miles of this yacht, the first officer said: ‘There it is, I see it,’” Andrew Robertson, the captain of the Air Canada flight, told Australian television. “A lot of passengers said it was very exciting to be involved in a search like this,” he added. After a second Air New Zealand flight confirmed the location, a rescue crew battled heavy seas and strong winds to reach Ey, who had drifted about 500km from the Australian coast.
CHINA
Teenager gets life in jail
A Chinese court has sentenced a teenager to life in prison for killing a medical intern and stabbing three other workers at a hospital in northeastern China. The attack by 17-year-old Li Mengnan was part of a recent spate of violence by patients against medical staff that has been seen as a symptom of public frustration over China’s dysfunctional healthcare system. Li’s uncle, Li Chunming, said by telephone that a court in the northeastern city of Harbin found his nephew guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced him yesterday morning. Li Mengnan had been seeking treatment for a chronic spinal condition when he attacked medical staff with a fruit knife on March 23 after a dispute with his doctor.
UNITED STATES
Florida gunman kills three
A gunman opened fire in a central Florida beauty salon on Thursday, fatally shooting three women and wounding a fourth before leaving the scene and killing himself, police said. The gunman entered Las Dominicanas M & M Salon in Casselberry shortly after 11am, police spokeswoman Sara Brady said. Two women escaped the salon. Police have not identified the victims or the gunman. Brady said the shooting appears to be part of a domestic dispute. Brady said the fourth victim was being treated at an Orlando hospital. Her condition was not immediately released. Casselberry is about 24km northeast of Orlando.
CANADA
Chihuahua tagged a ‘danger’
A Canadian city has declared Molly, a 1.36kg teacup chihuahua a “dangerous dog” and ordered her muzzled after the animal bit a postal worker, local media said on Thursday. “I don’t even know if they have muzzles that size. I just think it’s kind of silly, to the extreme,” Molly’s owner Mitzie Scott told PostMedia News. “The dog is literally three pounds — it’s the size of an adult shoe.” The controversy erupted after Molly bit a mail carrier’s ankle in August after escaping through an open gate at Scott’s Windsor, Ontario, home. That meant under a city bylaw that Molly must be registered as a “dangerous dog” and the owners would have to obtain a million-dollar liability insurance policy for their dog, muzzle Molly and keep her on a leash at all times. The city also ordered the family to put up signs at the doors of their home which read: “Warning: Dangerous Dog on Premises.” The mail carrier was prescribed an antibiotic cream by her doctor for the injury — four small puncture wounds.
UNITED STATES
Woman angry at Obama slur
An 80-year-old woman has been arrested after tearing down political signs showing an image of President Barack Obama with an Adolf Hitler-style moustache. Nancy Lack tells WVIT-TV she was offended and took down three posters that were hung last week near the post office in Hebron, Connecticut. Workers for frequent presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who were putting up the signs, called police. Lack says she knew she would get in trouble, but said she lived through World War II and was angry that someone would portray the president as a Nazi. She was charged with larceny and breach of peace and released on a promise to appear in court next week.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cops in harsh wrongful arrest
British police apologized on Wednesday for using a stun gun to subdue a blind stroke victim they wrongly thought was carrying a samurai sword, a bizarre case of mistaken identity that left the man fearing for his life. Colin Farmer told British broadcasters that he thought he was going to die after he heard a commotion, felt electricity surge through his body and was knocked to the floor by an unknown assailant. The incident occurred in the town of Chorley, in northern England’s Lancashire County, last Friday. “This seemed to be going on forever ... I was convinced I was being murdered in plain sight,” the 61-year-old told Sky News television. “He [the officer] jumped on the small of my back with his knees ... wrenched my arms up my back and cuffed me so tightly I was in great pain.” Farmer told the BBC he was shouting: “I’m blind! I’m blind!” Lancashire Police Chief Stuart Williams said police brought the victim to a local hospital to be checked out after they realized the officer had used the weapon against the wrong man.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
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