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.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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