A criminal trial has begun in the Canadian province of New Brunswick over the deaths of two boys believed to have been suffocated by a 4.3m-long python.
Connor Barthe, six, and his brother Noah, four, had spent the night at a friend’s house in 2013. Early the next morning, the two were found dead.
Soon after, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police alleged the pair had been killed by an African rock python — one of the world’s largest snakes.
Police said that the python, which was being kept as a pet in the apartment, had escaped its enclosure and slithered into the ventilation system. The weight of the 45kg snake collapsed a ventilation shaft, sending the snake crashing into the living room where the two boys were sleeping.
Autopsies later determined the boys died from asphyxiation.
“We recognize that this has touched the hearts of people across the world and that people want to know how this could have happened,” police spokesman Alain Tremblay said at the time in a statement.
The snake, which was euthanized shortly after the incident, had been found close to the boys’ bodies, he said.
Jean-Claude Savoie, a former pet store owner and owner of the apartment, is facing a charge of criminal negligence causing death.
Savoie, 39, has pleaded not guilty.
The tragic deaths rocked the small town of Campbellton, population 7,000, in northern New Brunswick, and sparked a national debate over whether more should be done to regulate the sale of exotic pets.
In the days following the boys’ deaths, provincial authorities seized 23 banned reptiles from Savoie’s pet store, located beneath his apartment. The animals were sent to zoos in New Brunswick and Ontario.
Four American alligators had to be euthanized after no accredited zoo could be found to house them.
African rock pythons have been banned in New Brunswick since 1992, save for accredited zoos which require a permit to keep the animals.
Environment Canada told the Canadian Press that federal officials believed Savoie’s pet store was operating as a zoo and had brought him the snake after it was abandoned at a nearby Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter.
The province has said it was not aware that the snake was being kept in the apartment.
The trial, which began on Monday with jury selection, is expected to last two weeks.
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
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the