GUAM
Suspect in plea agreement
A man suspected of taking part in the theft of a US Navy antenna valued at more than US$50,000 has reached a plea agreement. The Pacific Daily News reported that 44-year-old Franklin Gogo is one of five men charged in the case. Court documents filed on Thursday said Gogo agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit theft of government property, and will receive sentencing considerations for accepting responsibility and testifying in the case. Prosecutors say Gogo and the other four men entered US Navy property in Barrigada on Nov. 7, 2102, found the aluminum antenna on the ground, removed bolts and carried it off in pieces in duffel bags.
POLAND
‘Corpse’ shocks workers
A 91-year-old woman surprised morgue workers when she started moving, 11 hours after being declared dead at home, public television reported on Thursday. Janina Kolkiewicz woke up inside a body bag in a cold chamber at the morgue on Thursday last week, according to the TVP public broadcaster. “I was sure she was dead,” doctor Wieslawa Czyz told TVP. “I’m stunned, I don’t understand what happened. Her heart had stopped beating, she was no longer breathing.” “My aunt has no inkling of what happened since she has late-stage dementia,” Bogumila Kolkiewicz, the woman’s niece, told a local newspaper. “Once we got her home, she said she was freezing and asked for a hot cup of tea.”
CANADA
Gunman toured parliament
A gunman who stormed parliament last month had staked out the neo-Gothic building prior to the attack, local media said on Thursday. The Ottawa Citizen and broadcaster CTV cited anonymous sources saying security cameras captured Michael Zehaf-Bibeau taking a public tour of parliament on Oct. 4. Two weeks later, he went on a rampage, killing an unarmed soldier at Ottawa’s war memorial, before storming the nearby halls of parliament, where he died in a shootout with security officers. The Citizen suggested this points to premeditation. It also said Zehaf-Bibeau, inspired by videos of the Islamic State’s killings of captives, may have intended to behead a Canadian politician in the attack.
BRAZIL
Murder suspects go on trial
Three people charged with killing at least two women, eating parts of their bodies and using their flesh to make and sell stuffed pastries have gone on trial. A man, his wife and his mistress were arrested in April 2012 in Garanhuns and police say they have confessed to the crimes. The three allegedly lured women to their house by promising them a job as a nanny. Police found the remains of the two women in the backyard of the suspects’ house. At the time of their arrest they told police that they belonged to a sect that preached “the purification of the world and the reduction of its population.”
MEXICO
Son of drug lord captured
The army has captured the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the leader of the powerful Sinaloa drugs cartel, a government source said on Thursday. The son, Ismael Zambada Imperial, nicknamed “El Mayito Gordo,” was detained by the army in a town close to the Sinaloan capital of Culiacan, local media said. The father is believed to have taken control of the Sinaloa Cartel after the capture in February of Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, who at the time was one of the most wanted men in the world.
‘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