UAE
Drugged man kills neighbor
A drugged Emirati walking his pet monkey poured sand into his neighbor’s mouth, choking him to death, in a dispute over a barmaid, the National daily reported on its Web site on Tuesday. “A drugged-up man walking his monkey kicked his neighbor to the ground, bit his nose and poured sand into his mouth before leaving him to die in a dispute over a barmaid,” the daily said. The two men had an argument over the woman — the victim’s girlfriend — as the defendant, identified by the daily as 31-year-old SE, was walking his monkey. SE told the Dubai Criminal Court his neighbor “attacked him with a razor blade and slashed his head” as he was “tying his monkey to a pole” before spraying sand in his face and poking him in the eye. The defendant responded by punching him in the face and kicking him. The man took his monkey and fled after he noticed his neighbor’s condition deteriorating, the newspaper added.
GAZA STRIP
Police capture crocodile
Policemen say they have captured a crocodile that has been on the lam since fleeing a zoo two years ago. Lieutenant Colonel Samih al-Sultan says police had been chasing the reptile for weeks after he was spotted in a sewage pond. He says they did not know how to catch him, so they searched online for a solution. Sultan says they finally caught the crocodile by entangling him in shark nets. He was returned to the zoo on Tuesday. The policeman says the 1.75m reptile had not hurt anybody, but was frightening sanitation workers.
SOUTH AFRICA
Argument leads to shooting
An argument over a parking space between parents at a Johannesburg primary school prize-giving ended in a shooting that left three people injured and one man facing attempted murder charges, police said. Times newspaper said two mothers were arguing with another parent over the same parking spot at Culembeek Primary School west of Johannesburg before one of them ran off to get help from a relative. “When the man arrived, the argument escalated,” the paper quoted a mother who witnessed the Monday evening incident as saying. “The gunshots came from nowhere,” she said. “The person just pulled out a gun and started going wild.”
ARGENTINA
Policeman kills ex-girlfriend
A policeman firing a shotgun killed his ex-girlfriend in a police station as she filed a harassment complaint against him, authorities said on Tuesday. The policeman and the woman separated a few months ago and a judge had issued a restraining order against the officer. The shooting took place in Puerto Iguazu, the town closest to the famed waterfall of the same name.
UNITED STATES
Driver to wear ‘idiot’ sign
A woman caught on camera driving on a sidewalk to avoid a Cleveland school bus that was unloading children will have to stand at an intersection wearing a sign warning about idiots. Court records show a Cleveland Municipal Court judge on Monday ordered 32-year-old Shena Hardin to stand at an intersection for two days next week. She will have to wear a sign saying: “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.” The judge ordered her to wear the sign from 7:45am to 8:45am both days. Hardin’s license was suspended for 30 days and she was ordered to pay US$250 in court costs.
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