SOUTH AFRICA
Baby kidnapper found guilty
A judge on Thursday found a woman guilty of kidnapping a newborn baby nearly two decades ago from a hospital and raising the girl as her own, just a short distance from where her devastated biological parents were living. Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said. The judge revoked bail and the woman is to be detained until her May 30 sentencing, he said. Hlophe mentioned in court that the woman could face a 10-year prison sentence, Ntabazalila said. State prosecutors said the woman snatched a three-day-old baby from her sleeping mother’s hospital bedside in Cape Town in April 1997. The prosecution also said the woman defrauded authorities when she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003 under a false birth date.
NIGERIA
Building collapse kills 34
The collapse of a building complex under construction has killed 34 mainly foreign workers in Lagos, officials said on Thursday. National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye said 13 people were saved from the rubble in the rescue operation that started after the pre-dawn collapse on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday night. He said most victims were from Benin and Niger. Lagos State said it had ordered work to stop because the five-story structure was beyond the height approved by a building permit. It ordered directors of the Lekki Gardens property development to turn themselves into the police to be prosecuted. Buildings often collapse in Nigeria because corruption has builders cutting corners. In 2014, a building of televangelist T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations caved in and killed 116 people, dozens of them South African. A court last year ordered that the church and two structural engineers be prosecuted for criminal negligence. The church is challenging the order.
KUWAIT
US citizen stabbed
A US citizen has been stabbed and the man who assaulted him is in police custody, the US embassy said on Thursday. The embassy’s security message for US citizens said that the victim’s injuries are not life-threatening and that the embassy is not aware of any specific or credible threats against Americans. The advisory cautioned that extremists might attack in groups or alone and advised US citizens to exercise caution in areas frequented by Westerners. No details were released regarding the identity of the attacker. Though terrorist attacks are rare in the Persian Gulf country, an Islamic State group affiliate detonated a suicide bomb in Kuwait City in June last year, killing at least 27 people.
UNITED STATES
Irish records made public
Just in time for St Patrick’s Day, genealogical research Web site Ancestry.com is making 10 million Catholic parish records from Ireland — some dating to 1655 — available online for free to help people trace their Irish heritage. The goldmine of information, available without cost for a week that began yesterday, includes baptism, confirmation, marriage and burial records from more than 1,000 parishes in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. “This will really help people reconstruct their family story,” said Lisa Elzey, a family historian at Ancestry, which now offers access to 55 million Irish records. “There’s all kinds of mysteries within these records.” More than 33 million Americans claimed Irish ancestry in 2014, according to the latest US Census data, or about 10 percent of the nation’s population.
PUERTO RICO
Two saved on Mona Island
The US Coast Guard on Thursday rescued two US tourists after heavy winds and churning seas ran their boat aground on an uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico. The agency said the boaters from Hayes and Hartfield, Virginia, were rescued from Mona Island. Authorities said their 10m sailing vessel named Sea Angel was exposed to 3m waves and winds of up to 25 knots. The coast guard said the men ran aground late on Tuesday and abandoned the boat to find rangers with Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources stationed on the island. A helicopter later flew the two men to the northwestern coastal town of Aguadilla.
UNITED STATES
Blow to the head killed Lesin
An autopsy has found that blunt force trauma to the head was the cause of death for a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose body was found in a Washington hotel room. District of Columbia police spokesman Officer Hugh Carew confirmed the autopsy results for Mikhail Lesin on Thursday. Carew said the DC Medical Examiner’s Office found the manner of death to be undetermined. Carew said police continue to investigate Lesin’s death, as they have since his body was found at the Doyle Dupont Circle Hotel in November last year. After his death, Russian media reported that he had suffered a heart attack, citing his family members. Lesin was a media adviser to Putin who helped found the English-language news service Russia Today.
MEXICO
US man accused of murder
A judge in Mexico has ordered an American man to stand trial in the death of his American girlfriend in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen. A prosecutor’s office employee on Thursday said the judge ordered John Loveless to stand trial for the murder of Tamra Turpin. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Turpin, 36, of St Louis, Missouri, was found dead last week in a condo the couple had rented. A forensic examination concluded she died of asphyxia by strangulation. Loveless later told the woman’s sister that Turpin overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide attempt after an argument. According to the prosecutors’ office in Quintana Roo state, where both Playa del Carmen and Cancun are located, Loveless faces charges of criminal homicide. Loveless was detained at the Cancun airport before he was to board a flight to Atlanta, Georiga. A woman who answered the telephone on Monday at his law office in St Clair Missouri, said there was no comment.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia