COLOMBIA
Mora’s daughter freed
President Juan Manuel Santos says the kidnapped daughter of a high-profile security official has been freed after two days in captivity. Santos told reporters that the 11-year-old girl is in “stable condition” and back with her parents. Her father is Diego Mora, director of the National Protection Unit, which is in charge of protecting high-profile public figures, including ministers and members of congress. Santos credited pressure from public security forces for her liberation. The girl was kidnapped on Thursday in the city of Cucuta. Police found her on Saturday on the road from Zulia to El Cornejo in Norte de Santander, 400km northeast of Bogota, Cututa Mayor Donamaris Ramirez said.
UNITED STATES
Teen manages clean sweep
A high-school senior in southern California achieved a surprising academic clean sweep — he was accepted to every Ivy League school. Fernando Rojas, 17, the son of Mexican immigrants whose schooling stopped in the eighth grade, is planning on attending Yale University in the fall. The national speech and debate champion from Fullerton High School told the Orange County Register in Saturday’s editions that he applied to all the elite schools hoping he might be accepted to one. However, they all wanted him. He told the newspaper he was “excited and scared” after realizing he would have to choose among them. Rojas attributed his success to hard work and guidance from his siblings.
UNITED STATES
Strip club eyes graduates
Advertisements outside the Little Darlings strip club in Las Vegas encourage recent high-school graduates to apply, promoting stripping as a way to earn money for college. KVVU-TV reported that Little Darlings manager Rick Marzullo said the ads fit in with the character of Las Vegas. The signs have slogans like “Now auditioning the class of 2015” and “Pay your way through college.” Marzullo said he is offering a way for young women 18 and older to make good money in a struggling economy. He said entertainers at his club make up to US$1,000 per night and he has noticed more and more women turning to stripping to help with rising college costs.
COLOMBIA
FARC rebels destroy plant
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels blew up a water plant in the southwest, military officials said on Saturday, in the latest alleged attack by the guerrilla movement on the nation’s infrastructure. Fighters with FARC “detonated a high-power explosive device” that destroyed the facility in the town of Algeciras, disrupting service to about 13,000 people, a military statement said. The attack follows two others over the past week on Colombian utilities, both on electrical plants, which led to major power outages. Presumed FARC rebels on Tuesday blew up an electrical tower, plunging the southwestern town of Tumaco into darkness.
CHINA
Girl dies in freak accident
A three-year-old girl has died after falling from a bouncy castle that was blown into the air in southern China on Thursday evening. The Xinhua news agency reported that the girl was playing in the inflatable castle outside a supermarket when a freak gale blew it away. It quoted Li Zhongji, of the county’s work safety bureau, as saying the castle was an unlicensed business. An official on duty from the Tianyang County government in Guangxi confirmed the incident.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
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