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.
‘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