TURKEY
Bootleg alcohol kills 28
Twenty-eight people have died after drinking bootleg versions of raki in what appears to be the country’s worst-ever bout of alcohol poisoning, media said on Thursday. The death toll has been steadily climbing over the past two weeks, with scores of people being admitted to hospital in Istanbul complaining of vomiting, dizziness, headache and loss of eyesight. The victims had all consumed raki that health authorities believe had been infused with lethal quantities of methanol. Fourteen people were arrested on Saturday last week, charged with involuntary homicide for producing or supplying the spiked booze, and police have launched a nationwide crackdown, seizing thousands of bottles.
AUSTRIA
Cash shredded before death
An 85-year-old woman cut almost 1 million euros (US$1.1 million) into tiny pieces in an apparent attempt to spite her heirs, authorities said on Thursday. After the woman died, the 950,000 euros, as well as savings accounts books, were found shredded on her bed, prosecutors said. State prosecutor Erich Habitzl confirmed the discovery — first reported in the Kurier daily — but said that there was nothing he could do for the relatives. “The damage of the money in the woman’s property is not a criminal matter, so we have not begun any investigation,” Habitzl said. However, Kurier reported that the central bank said it would replace all the cash. “If the heirs can only find shreds of money and if the origin of the money is assured, then of course it can all be replaced,” a bank official told the newspaper.
UNITED STATES
School attack ‘not terrorism’
A student who stabbed and hurt four people at the University of California, Merced before being shot by police appears to have been motivated by personal animosities unrelated to terrorism or a political agenda, officials said on Thursday. The suspect, identified as 18-year-old Faisal Mohammad, on Wednesday stabbed two students in a classroom before fleeing and wounding a staff member and construction worker. He was pursued by police, who shot and killed him. The FBI carried out a comprehensive check on both the suspect and his family, but “found nothing other than his criminal behavior,” Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said.
BRAZIL
Prison mouse mule busted
Police busted jail inmates who had trained a mouse to move cocaine and marijuana by tying them to its tail, an official said on Thursday. Officers spotted the rodent with a hook tied to its tail during a routine inspection on Friday last week, said Gean Carlos Gomes, director of the facility in Tocantins. “He was so tame he let his head be stroked,” Gomes said. “Then the officers noticed that the mouse was going from cellblock A to cellblock C. The prisoners had tied a wire to its tail and were using it to carry drugs and other objects, such as a mobile telephone chip.” The mouse has been released in a nearby forest.
IRELAND
Menstrual cycles tweeted
Women are tweeting details of their menstrual cycles to Prime Minister Enda Kenny to call for a repeal to the nation’s restrictive abortion laws. “Since we know how much the Irish state cares about our reproductive parts, I think it’s only fair that the women of Ireland let our leader @EndaKennyTD know the full details of our menstrual cycle,” comedian Grainne Maguire said in a tweet this week to launch a campaign that has gone viral.
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