MEXICO
Murder suspect arrested
Mexico City prosecutors said they have arrested a third suspect in the killings of a photojournalist and four women in a case that drew attention around the world. City prosecutor Rodolfo Rios Garza on Friday said that Cesar Omar Martinez had been arrested earlier in the day on the city’s south side. Martinez is 32 years old and his name partly corresponds to one mentioned by the second suspect arrested in the case, a former policeman. Three men were seen by surveillance cameras on Friday leaving the apartment building where the killings occurred. The victims included photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and activist Nadia Vera. Also killed were a 19-year-old aspiring makeup artist, a woman from Colombia and their 40-year-old housekeeper.
UNITED STATES
Man urinates on plane
An Oregon man faces charges after authorities said he urinated on passengers on a flight from Anchorage, Alaska, to Portland, Oregon. Jeff Rubin, 27, was arrested early on Friday after JetBlue Flight 47 arrived at Portland International Airport, KOIN-TV reported. A police report said passengers and airline employees told officers Rubin had been sleeping for most of the flight. About 30 minutes before landing, they said, he stood up and began urinating through the crack between the seats in front of him onto the passengers sitting there. The report said he lost his balance and fell backward, splashing urine on passengers, seats and luggage. Rubin spent about five hours in jail and was released on his own recognizance. He faces charges of criminal mischief and offensive littering.
UNITED STATES
Self-euthanasia bill approved
California lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. The measure to allow doctors to prescribe life-ending medication succeeded on its second attempt after the heavily publicized case of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, a woman with brain cancer who moved to Oregon to legally take her life. Her relatives tearfully watched the debate from the US Senate floor. The measure faces an uncertain future with California Governor Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian who has not said whether he would sign it. Senators approved the bill on a 23-14 vote after an emotional debate on the final day of the legislative session. Opponents said the measure could prompt premature suicides. The revised measure includes requirements that the patient be physically capable of taking the medication themselves, that two doctors approve it, that the patient submit several written requests, and that there be two witnesses.
SYRIA
Eleven killed in Damascus
Eleven people were killed in evening rebel rocket fire on the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday. The Britain-based monitor said the deaths were in the Duwaylaa neighborhood of Damascus, adding that most of those killed appeared to be civilians. At least 20 people were also injured in the Friday shelling, the monitor said. Rebels in strongholds on the outskirts of the capital regularly fire rockets into Damascus, often killing scores of people, many of them civilians. The regime also regularly carries out air strikes on rebel-held areas around Damascus, particularly the Eastern Ghouta region, where aerial assaults in August alone killed 377 people, according to Doctors Without Borders. Rights group.
INDIA
Derailed train kills two
Nine coaches of a train derailed in southern India before dawn yesterday, killing at least two people and leaving several injured, officials said. Police and rescuers helped pull out scores of passengers from the coaches that fell on their side near Gulbarga in Karnataka state after the train derailed at about 2:15am, Indian Railways spokesman Anil Saksena said. The injured were taken to hospitals in Gulbarga, about 600km north of India’s technology hub of Bangalore. The cause of the derailment was not immediately known. Railway accidents are common in India and have mostly been blamed on human error and old equipment. Last month, two passenger trains derailed over a bridge in central India while crossing a track that was flooded by heavy monsoon rains, killing at least 24 people.
EGYPT
Bomb kills woman and child
An Egyptian woman and child were killed in a car bomb, and four soldiers died in a separate explosion on Friday in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where the military is engaged in a sweeping campaign against militants, the army said. The army said the woman and child were killed in a car bomb in Rafah, on the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The four soldiers were killed in a bomb attack during clashes with militants, also in northern Sinai, a spokesman said in a statement, without giving further details. On Monday, the military launched a vast offensive against militants affiliated with the extremist Islamic State group, which has seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria. The army said 232 militants had been killed in the operation. It was not possible independently to verify the claim. The army is struggling to contain an militant insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since 2013, when the army ousted former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
JAPAN
Earthquake wakes Tokyo
A moderate earthquake hit Tokyo early yesterday, waking residents and shaking buildings in the Japanese capital, but there was no immediate report of any damage. At least 11 people were injured in the capital in connection with the jolt, “but no one was seriously injured,” a Tokyo fire department official said. The magnitude 5.4 quake, with its epicenter in Tokyo Bay, struck at 5:49am, according to the US Geological Survey. The Japan Meteorological Agency said no tsunami warning had been issued and that the quake was 70km deep. However, the agency warned sizable aftershocks could strike in Tokyo at least in a few days, while calling on residents to stay vigilant against possible landslides in the wake of heavy rain that hit the region earlier this week. Residents said the quake was not strong enough to knock things from shelves, while at least five people were temporarily trapped in elevators, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said. It also temporarily stopped Tokyo subways and trains, but service was quickly resumed. The tremor did not cause any damage to the region’s nuclear facilities, according to the government, and did not affect the areas that host the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which went through meltdowns after a magnitude 9 quake and tsunami disaster in 2011. It served as a reminder that a huge earthquake could strike the Japanese capital — which has a population of about 13 million people — at any time. Experts have long warned Japan to stay vigilant for the next “big one,” and a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the coast in May. Residents and officials of Japan routinely hold emergency drills.
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