UNITED STATES
Junkers find human skulls
A pair of Connecticut junk haulers was stunned to learn on Friday that two skulls picked up from the home of a deceased man on the day before Halloween were human remains. The skulls were among thousands of occult-related items that David Odice and Charlie Inzucchi of The Junkluggers Junk Removal Co cleared out of the Fairfield home where Robert DeVitto lived until his death two weeks ago at age 56. “Being Halloween makes this real creepy and spooky, especially considering what else we found in the house,” Odice, 43, said on Friday. “There were thousands of things related to the occult: magazines, videos, crystals, amulets, all kinds of new age and metaphysical stuff.” After finishing the job on Thursday, the contractors dumped the skulls and the rest of the dead man’s paranormal and satanic-themed belongings at a Stamford recycling center. After noticing that the skulls appeared human, an attendant at the center notified police. Images of the skulls were sent to the state medical examiner’s office, which later determined the skulls, one male and one female, to be human. Stamford Police Lieutenant Diedrich Hohn said on Friday that the department will know in two weeks the ages of the skulls and whether a criminal investigation is required.
MEXICO
Kidnapped cyclists freed
Authorities say seven cyclists and an assistant allegedly kidnapped while training in the mountainous outskirts of the capital have been freed. National Anti-Kidnapping Coordinator Renato Sales told Radio Formula that the five men and three women were released after a federal police unit negotiated with the allleged abductors. The athletes were kidnapped on Thursday morning on a highway near Ajusco, a mountain south of Mexico City, and taken away in two vans. Sales says a ransom was paid to the kidnappers. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Friday that authorities will pursue those responsible.
UNITED KINGDOM
UK raises threat level
Britain on Friday told its citizens traveling overseas of a heightened risk of attacks against them from militants linked to the Islamic State group, updating its official travel advice to reflect an increase in the general threat level. “There is considered to be a heightened threat of terrorist attack globally against UK interests and British nationals from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria,” a statement from the Foreign Office said. “You should be vigilant at this time,” it added. The warning is to be included on all government travel advice Web sites.
CHILE
Pet the belly of the beast?
Dare you — double dare you — to tickle a lion’s belly. Or touch its claws. A zoo in Rancangua gives thrillseekers a chance to do just that, albeit while in the safety of a cage mounted on a safari truck. Atop it, lured by a slap of fresh red meat, is the heaving feline. Welcome to the Parque Safari Chile in central Chile, where vehicles takes visitors on a drive through a 2-hectare enclosure that is home to six lions. Travelers ride inside the caged-in back of the truck. Then it is up to the lions to decide what they feel like doing: ambling up for a sniff, climbing atop to eat the meat and look at the cowering humans below, or even lying down for a rest. Then, just stick a brave finger through the metal grates and there you are, touching the king of the jungle’s tummy. The idea is for people to see animals in a more natural habitat, with people caged, rather than the animals.
JAPAN
Dead dogs dumped by river
Police have launched a criminal investigation after the bodies of about 40 dogs were found dumped by a river in Sakura City, officials said yesterday. A passer-by on Friday reported finding the dogs, most of which were small breeds and had not been dead long. The police have yet to determine who dumped the animals. Jiji Press news agency said the police suspect an animal undertaker might have dumped the dogs, but authorities only said they were “looking into various possibilities.”
CHINA
Moon probe recovered
China yesterday successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the nation’s first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface. The eight-day trip marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after traveling around the moon. China plans to send a spacecraft to the moon in 2017 and have it return to Earth after collecting soil samples. If successful, that future mission would make burgeoning space power China only the third nation after the US and Russia to meet such a challenge. The latest mission was aimed at obtaining experimental data and testing technologies for re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft returned to Earth using a Soviet-designed method in which it first bounced off the atmosphere in order to slow its entry speed and avoid burning up. It then landed on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia just before dawn.
CHINA
Constitution Day declared
China’s legislature has designated Dec. 4 as Constitution Day amid a drive to strengthen the authority of the nation’s legal system. The National People’s Congress’ Standing Committee declared yesterday that the move aimed to increase awareness of the constitution, promote its spirit and strengthen its implementation. China has enacted a total of four constitutions since the founding of the communist state in 1949, with the current version adopted in 1982. The move is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “rule of law” campaign seen as an attempt to institutionalize the powers of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while reducing corruption and improving government efficiency. Despite promoting the constitution, the CCP has firmly rejected calls for independent supervision under the document, whose first article forbids any challenge to the nation’s socialist system.
CHINA
Man executed for murder
A Chinese man who killed a two-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a parking space was executed on Friday, a court said. Han Lei (韓磊) was convicted of taking the child from her pram and throwing her to the ground after her mother refused to make way for him to park his car in Beijing in July last year. He and a friend in the vehicle drove away and the toddler died two days later of her injuries, provoking widespread public outrage. Han, 40, was sentenced to death two months after the incident, and appealed against the penalty without success. China’s Supreme Court approved the sentence and he was executed on Friday, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said on a verified microblog account. Han had reportedly told prosecutors last year he felt so guilty and distressed that he wanted to die, according to previous Chinese media reports.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing