UNITED STATES
Man jailed for 263 years
A former police officer from the state of Oklahoma on Thursday was sentenced to 263 years prison for raping and sexually abusing African-American women while on duty. Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty last month of rape and oral sodomy in 18 of the 36 counts that he faced. On Thursday the judge in the case issued the sentence following the jury’s recommendation. “It is what it is,” Holtzclaw’s attorney Scott Adams told reporters after the sentencing. “It wasn’t a surprise.” Prosecutors said that Holtzclaw preyed on black women in poor areas of Oklahoma City. The assaults took place between late 2013 and mid-2014. As evidence mounted against him, Holtzclaw was fired from the police department early last year. One of the victims, Demetria Campbell, filed a lawsuit against him in November 2013.
KOSOVO
Politician jailed
An international court on Thursday sentenced a leading Kosovo Serb politician to nine years in prison for war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians — a ruling that could heighten tensions in the Balkan region and prompted Belgrade to start reconsidering its EU-mediated reconciliation talks with Pristina. Judges of the EU’s justice mission in Kosovo found Oliver Ivanovic guilty of murder and torture of civilians in 1999 during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia when Serb paramilitary forces attacked ethnic Albanians amid NATO bombings. The alliance launched an air war to stop a bloody Serbian crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists. Judges said Ivanovic was a member of a paramilitary group that chased ethnic Albanians from the Serb-controlled part of the northern town of Mitrovica, separated men from women and children, and tortured and killed at least four of them. “Oliver Ivanovic was aware of the operation of expelling and killing Albanians ... he willingly complied with the plan, knowing that it would result in the killings,” the court ruled.
UNITED STATES
Crocodile found in pool
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Becky Herrin said an Islamorada homeowner called about 7:30am on Thursday to report the crocodile in his pool. A photo provided by the sheriff’s office showed the large reptile floating languidly in the shallow end of the pool. Herrin said the animal was about 2.4m long. Herrin said deputies and officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission safely removed the animal and returned it to its native habitat. The American crocodile is designated as a threatened species.
UNITED STATES
Mariah Carey engaged
Mariah Carey and Australian casino billionaire James Packer are engaged, according to a person familiar with the situation. Packer, who controls casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd, gave the singer a 35-carat diamond ring to seal the romance, E! News reported earlier. The couple, who had been dating less than a year, are yet to set a wedding date, according to E! News. The person familiar with the matter declined to be named, saying the engagement had not been made public. Packer, 48, has a net worth of US$3.7 billion, putting him fourth on Australia’s rich list, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. He is the son of the late media and gaming mogul Kerry Packer. Carey, 45, who has two children, and father-of-three Packer have both been married twice before, E! News said.
NEW ZEALAND
Baa’d day for Kiwis on lam
Sheep, it seems, are more than just prolific figures on the country’s landscape: They also have a role in law enforcement. A flock of sheep yesterday managed to stop a carload of fugitives who had led police on a 90-minute chase through Central Otago in the South Island. The sheep, who belonged to a local police officer, were being moved along a road to a new grazing block when they found themselves recruited as police deputies. A police spokesman said the fugitives had led police on a high-speed chase and even managed to elude capture when road spikes deflated a tire. The chase started when the car was pulled over for speeding and not having license plates. The driver took off at speed and refused to stop, despite several police cars joining the chase, the spokesman said. However, when confronted by the flock of sheep on a road near the resort town of Queenstown, they stopped and their time on the lam came to an abrupt end. All four were arrested.
DUBAI
Escaped lion roams streets
Residents in the Al Barsha neighborhood on Thursday might have noticed a stranger roaming their streets when a lion went out for a stroll. The Gulf News Web site reported that authorities captured the lion, which had escaped its owner’s home. Although it is illegal to keep as pets endangered or threatened wildlife in the United Arab Emirates, there have been numerous sightings of Emirati men in their luxury cars accompanied by pet lions along for the cruise.
CHINA
‘Sheep’ caused low births
A state-run newspaper yesterday excoriated population authorities for “superstition” after they blamed the inauspicious Year of the Sheep for births falling last year, despite a loosening of the one-child policy. The policy has been loosened in recent years, culminating in a two-child law that took effect earlier this month. However, total births fell by 320,000 last year to 16.55 million, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed this week.
SAUDI ARABIA
Cleric’s chess ban slammed
A video of the country’s top cleric saying that the game of chess is “forbidden” in Islam, because it wastes time and leads to rivalry among people, has provoked heated debate, and widespread criticism, among Arabic Twitter users. Some Twitter users mocked Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, saying chess is an intelligent game, while others defended his religious advice. The clip was shared on YouTube in December last year, gaining traction in recent days. Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani also previously declared that chess is prohibited, because it could be used for gambling, which is not permissible in Islam.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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