UNITED STATES
Newlywed on murder rap
A newlywed woman has been charged with murder for allegedly pushing her husband off a cliff barely a week after they married, according to court documents published on Tuesday. Jordan Linn Graham appeared in court in Montana on Monday accused of second-degree murder over the death of her husband, Cody Lee Johnson in July in Glacier National Park. The 22-year-old initially told police her husband, 25, had gone missing. However, she subsequently admitted she had lied. “Graham stated their argument intensified. At one point in time during their arguing, Graham turned and began to walk away. She stated Johnson grabbed her by the arm,” said a police affidavit published by the Missoulian newspaper. “After removing Johnson’s hand from her arm, Graham stated she could have just walked away, but due to her anger, she pushed Johnson with both hands in the back and as a result, he fell face first off the cliff,” it said.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Parents accuse envoy
Parents of several children have accused the Vatican’s now-sacked envoy to the nation of pedophilia, authorities said on Tuesday. “There are a number of parents who have filed reports” against Monsignor Josef Wesolowski, deputy prosecutor Bolivar Sanchez told reporters. Sanchez was tapped by Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito to lead the investigation into the case. “So far, we have interviewed three [boys] here; in another location we interviewed four more boys,” Sanchez said. “They are all from 13 to 18 years old and mainly from very poor neighborhoods,” he said. On Aug. 21 Wesolowski, the papal nuncio in Santo Domingo, was sacked without the Vatican sharing the news with the public. Last week, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told the I.Media news agency on Vatican affairs that an investigation was underway in Rome into allegations of child sex abuse against Wesolowski.
UNITED STATES
Man accused of drunken ride
University of Colorado police have arrested a man suspected of going on a drunken horseback ride through the city of Boulder. Police spokesman Ryan Huff told the Daily Camera that witnesses saw the rider and horse occasionally wandering into traffic near the school on Monday afternoon. Police pulled over the rider and gave him a sobriety test, and he was arrested on suspicion of riding under the influence. The man’s name has not been released. Police say he had a small dog in his backpack and beer in one of his saddlebags.
VATICAN CITY
Priest gives pope car
Pope Francis no longer has to be chauffeured in popemobiles, but can drive around the Vatican himself after a 70-year-old priest gave him his old Renault 4. The car is nearly 20 years old and has 300,000km on the clock. It was presented to Francis by Renzo Zocca at the weekend. Moved by Francis’ drive to create “a poor Church for the poor,” Zocca wrote to the pontiff to tell him about his work with disabled people, the poor and drug addicts in Verona, Italy. He told the Famiglia Cristiana magazine that he had wanted to give the pope a gift, “and what better than my old Renault 4?” The elderly priest was amazed when the phone rang on Aug. 10 and it was the pontiff on the line. “I didn’t know what to say, I lost my breath,” he told the magazine. The pope pressed Zocca on whether he would rather donate the car to charity, but finally accepted the gift.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in