IRAQ
Twin bombings kill 10
Twin bombings yesterday at a market in a town northeast of Baghdad killed at least 10 people and wounded 20, security and medical officials said. The 10am blasts in Saadiyah came one day after a suicide bomb in the nearby town of Khanaqin killed 30 people, and one day before the nation is due to hold its first parliamentary elections since 2010. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant yesterday claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, in which the bomber blew himself up among a group of Kurds celebrating the TV appearance of ailing President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has been in Germany for medical treatment since 2012.
ALGERIA
Bouteflika begins new term
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was sworn in on Monday for a fourth term, a year after suffering a mini-stroke that was expected to end his 15-year grip on power. Sitting in a wheelchair, Bouteflika placed his right hand on the Koran as he repeated in a frail voice the oath read out by Supreme Court head Slimane Boudi. The 77-year-old has hardly been seen in public since the stroke.
MALAYSIA
Alleged militants arrested
Police yesterday arrested a woman believed to be part of a radical Islamic terror group, reports said, bringing the total number of those detained this week to 10. Nine Malaysians were nabbed on Monday in raids near Kuala Lumpur and in Kedah state on suspicion of being involved in a militant group. Police are expected to make more arrests, the New Straits Times quoted Home Minister Zahid Hamidi as saying. The Star daily quoted an unnamed source as saying that the radical Islamic group intended to carry out bomb attacks against government targets in what it saw as a “holy war.”
CHINA
Labor activist arrested
Police have placed labor activist Lin Dong (林東) under criminal detention, formally accusing him of causing a disturbance after they said he distributed information online about a factory strike, his manager and father said yesterday. Lin, a 27-year-old activist who works for the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labor Dispute Service Center, was taken into custody a week ago, his manager Zhang Zhiru (張治儒) said. Zhang also said police in Dongguan had told him on Monday that Lin had spread information through the popular QQ instant-messaging tool about a strike at a Taiwanese-owned factory, Delta Electronics, in the city.
NEW ZEALAND
Trio missing at sea
Three Germans, including two 19-year-old tourists, are missing after their sailboat vanished. Police yesterday said that an aerial search had ended after turning up no sign of the 7.5m craft. The boat’s last communication was April 16 when it left the South Island port of Bluff bound for Preservation Inlet. It was reported missing on Thursday last week. The boat’s captain, 33-year-old Andre Kinzler, is a German who had been living and working in the country for the past four years.
INDIA
Revenge rape alleged
A Muslim woman from the state of Jharkhand has alleged she was gang raped by more than a dozen men because of her work helping the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the ongoing elections, police said yesterday. The woman filed a complaint on Monday, alleging that a mob had attacked her and also assaulted her 13-year-old daughter.
UNITED KINGDOM
Student, 15, kills teacher
Police arrested a 15-year-old male pupil after a female teacher was stabbed to death at a Catholic school on Monday. Anne Maguire, a 61-year-old Spanish teacher, suffered multiple stab wounds in the incident, which was witnessed by other children at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. Police said teachers at the school captured the suspect at the scene. The teacher died in hospital.
UNITED STATES
Mob associate sentenced
A Boston mob associate who spent years on the lam in Idaho as a cattle rancher was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Monday in a string of federal crimes, including the 1989 attempted murder of a man who later became the boss of the New England Mafia. Enrico Ponzo was convicted in November last year in the attempted killing of Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme. Ponzo fled Massachusetts in 1994 and initially lived in Arizona, where, prosecutors said, he helped manage a marijuana-trafficking organization. He later settled in Marsing, Idaho, where he became a cattle rancher known as Jay Shaw.
MEXICO
Mayor’s alleged cartel ties
The mayor of a town that serves as a key drug-trafficking port was detained on Monday for alleged ties to the Knights Templar drug cartel. Authorities arrested Lazaro Cardenas Mayor Arquimides Oseguera for his “alleged relationship with the leader of the criminal organization, and his probable participation in crimes like kidnapping and extortion.”
UNITED STATES
Politician faces fraud charge
Representative Michael Grimm was indicted on Monday on fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice charges, accused by federal prosecutors of making US$1 million “disappear” from the books of a business he owned. The former FBI agent and a second-term Republican from Staten Island was taken into custody and brought to federal court, where he pleaded not guilty.
UNITED KINGDOM
Noma is best in world
Danish restaurant Noma was crowned the world’s best restaurant on Monday, pipping last year’s Spanish winner to reclaim the increasingly influential title it held for three straight years. Noma’s chef-owner Rene Redzepi, 36, with his new Nordic cuisine, knocked Spain’s El Celler De Can Roca into second place at an award ceremony at London’s Guildhall. Noma in Copenhagen won the top award for three years from 2010 until 2012, with its menu boasting original dishes such as sea urchin toast, beef tartar and ants, and pear and kale.
UNITED KINGDOM
Underground strike starts
Workers on London’s Underground train system began a 48-hour strike at 9pm on Monday, threatening chaos for commuters and hitting soccer supporters attending Arsenal’s match with Newcastle. The action was called by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) in protest at plans to close all ticket offices on the “Tube” system, which they say will jeopardize hundreds of jobs and safety standards.
AUSTRIA
Python discovered
Police are looking for the owner of a large python. Police on Monday said they were called late last week to a scene about 100km west of Vienna after an unidentified driver stumbled onto the 2.5m reptile packed in a jute sack in a forest near a highway.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number