SPAIN
Warrants issued for Russians
A judge has issued arrest warrants for 12 Russians, including some senior officials, who are alleged to be linked to one of Russia’s largest criminal syndicates that operated out of Spain, a court document showed. After a decade-long investigation into the activities of the Tambov Gang, authorities want officials, including Vladislav Reznik, a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, to stand trial in Spain, the unpublished document said. Other prominent Russian officials named in the document included General Nikolai Aulov, deputy head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service and a former KGB colleague of Russian President Vladimir Putin; and former deputy head of the Russian prosecution service’s investigation committee, Igor Sobolevsky. Reznik has previously denied the allegations and Russian prosecutor General Yuri Chaika was quoted as saying in March that Russia will not extradite Reznik. According to the document, all 12 people had dealings with the gang’s alleged leader, Gennady Petrov, who was arrested in Spain in 2008 with his wife and another man, but who has since fled the country. The prosecution also issued warrants for their rearrest.
ITALY
Court rules theft not crime
Stealing food from a supermarket might not be a crime if you are homeless and hungry, the nation’s highest appeals court ruled. In a case that has drawn comparisons to Les Miserables, the Supreme Court of Cassation threw out the conviction of a homeless man from Ukraine, Roman Ostriakov, who was caught trying to take 4.07 euros (US$4.70) worth of cheese and sausage from a store in Genoa without paying for it. A trial court in February last year sentenced him to six months in jail and a fine of 100 euros. “The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the merchandise theft took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of need,” and therefore the theft “does not constitute a crime,” the appellate court wrote in its decision, which was reported on Monday by news agency ANSA. The decision went far beyond what the appeal in the case had sought. Valeria Fazio, the prosecutor at the Genoa court where the trial was held, said in a telephone interview that her office understood that Ostriakov had stolen only out of need, and had appealed in hopes that the court might set a more lenient sentence. However, the court decided that he “doesn’t have to be punished at all,” Fazio said. The court has yet to release its full reasoning in the case, but Gherardo Colombo, a former member of the Supreme Court of Cassation, said it seemed to rely on a legal doctrine: “Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur.” The term is Latin for “no one is expected to do the impossible.”
VENEZUELA
Police kill gang leader
Police and special forces killed the nation’s most-wanted criminal, gang leader Jose Antonio Tovar Colina, in a shootout on Tuesday. The shootout went down in the central town of El Sombrero in a neighborhood where Tovar Colina and his gang led a reign of terror, Minister of the Interior Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez said. Three other gang members were killed alongside Tovar Colina, who was wanted for multiple homicides, hired killings, robbery, kidnapping and drug trafficking. “The pursuit continues of the other members of this paramilitary gang, which has done so much damage to the country,” Gonzalez Lopez said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was