JAPAN
Superhero foils gangsters
A mystery crime-fighting superhero is striking fear into the hearts of the nation’s criminals after bravely foiling an armed holdup by a pair of yakuza, local media reported. When the mobsters waved a replica gun in the face of a 38-year-old courier in an attempt to steal a luxury watch, they got more than they bargained for. The intrepid deliveryman — whose true identity, in the best superhero tradition, remains unknown — snatched the fake weapon and forcibly took back the package, Tokyo police said. Suspects Yusuke Kodama, 32, and Hidekazu Oba, 35, both gang members from the Matsuba-kai crime syndicate, were arrested on suspicion of attempted extortion, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
UNITED STATES
Week-long manhunt ends
A massive, week-long manhunt for a suspect in a string of violent crimes — including the killing of two relatives, the shooting of two police officers and multiple carjackings — ended on Sunday evening in a police chase and shoot-out that left the man dead in western Oklahoma. Federal and local police said Michael Dale Vance Jr, 38, was shot and killed by an Oklahoma state trooper near Leedey, Oklahoma. Earlier in the day, Vance had shot and wounded a Dewey County officer, then fled in a car, Washington Marshals Service spokesman Dave Turk said.
EL SALVADOR
Former president arrested
Former president Antonio Saca was arrested on Saturday on corruption charges that alleged misuse of public funds, the attorney general’s office said on Sunday. Saca, a businessman who ruled the nation from 2004 to 2009, was detained on Saturday night during the wedding reception of one of his sons at a reception hall in the capital. He was arrested along with high-ranking former officials of his government, including former communications minister Julio Rank and former youth minister Cesar Funes. Several hours after the arrests, Saca’s former private secretary Elmer Charlaix voluntarily surrendered to police. He faces charges of embezzling at least US$18 million.
UNITED STATES
Stranded shark dies
Officials say a great white shark has died after it was spotted struggling in shallow water in Cape Cod. Atlantic White Shark Conservancy executive director Cynthia Wigren told the Cape Cod Times that a man had spotted the shark on Sunday while walking on Nauset Beach in Orleans. Wigren said the shark had died by the time officials responded. She said the male shark had not been tagged. Researchers estimate it was more than 20 years old. State shark scientist Gregory Skomal was due to conduct a necropsy yesterday. Wigren said the incident marked the year’s first shark stranding on Cape Cod. Three sharks were stranded last year.
UNITED STATES
Two teens killed in shooting
Two teenagers were killed in a shooting that injured four others in suburban Washington on Sunday. Prince George County police said in a news release that they did not believe the shooting was a random act of violence. It occurred at about 2:45am in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Capitol Heights. Police identified the victims as 14-year-old Todd Webb of Capitol Heights and 18-year-old Brian Davis of northwest Washington. Police said another man also suffered life-threatening injuries in the shooting and remained hospitalized. The other three victims had non-life-threatening injuries.
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