ARGENTINA
Trumpeter dies after beating
A trumpeter has died after being badly beaten during a concert he was giving in a cathedral near Buenos Aires, attacked by parents from a preschool where he had allegedly molested children, a priest said on Monday. Marcelo Fabian Pecollo, a music teacher and trumpeter with the Moron city orchestra, was sentenced in 2010 to 30 years in prison for molesting five preschool children. He was freed in 2014 after a sentence reduction. The attack took place on Oct. 30 at the cathedral in Moron, a Buenos Aires suburb. The group of parents barged into the cathedral yelling: “There is a pedophile and a rapist in the church and he is playing in this orchestra.” Pecollo, 42, tried to get away, but the group caught up with him and beat him, including one parent who hit the man with his own trumpet, according to witnesses. “When I arrived, those people were leaving,” priest Jorge Oesterheld told local media. “He was in a coma and died on Friday.”
CHILE
Extradition request cleared
The Supreme Court has ruled the government can file an extradition request to the US for two former secret police agents wanted for a 1976 car bombing in Washington that killed a former Chilean ambassador and a US citizen. In a unanimous decision, the court on Monday said that the Foreign Ministry should begin the procedures needed to seek the extradition of US citizen Michael Townley and Chilean Armando Fernandez Larios. They served under former president Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 term. The decision comes after a request by Judge Mario Carroza who specializes in human rights crimes. The attack killed former envoy Orlando Letelier and US citizen Ronni Moffitt. Moffitt’s husband was an aide to Letelier and was also in the car, but survived the bombing on Sept. 21, 1976.
COLOMBIA
Child rape protested
Hundreds of angry Colombians are taking to the streets to protest the kidnapping and rape of a seven-year-old girl found strangled in an upper-class Bogota apartment. Police on Monday said that security cameras captured the moment the girl was snatched while playing outside her home in a poor neighborhood by a man driving a truck. As many as 40 children are raped every day in Colombia. However, the killing has resonated because of the huge class divide separating the girl and the alleged perpetrator, an architect from one of Bogota’s wealthiest neighborhoods. A group of 50 protesters shouting “rapist” and “murderer” spent the day outside the clinic where the suspect allegedly checked himself in for a cocaine overdose. A much-larger candlelight vigil was held in a plaza.
EL SALVADOR
Former minister accused
The congress has voted to strip a former defense minister of immunity from prosecution, so he can be faced with accusations he used his position for arms trafficking. Jose Atilio Benitez Parada is currently the country’s ambassador to Germany. He said he has returned to El Salvador to face the charges and contends he is being treated like a criminal on the word of a protected witness. Prosecutors allege Benitez trafficked weapons from the military’s armories and instructed subordinates to register arms that were later sold. Prosecutors said Benitez committed the crimes first as a vice defense minister and later as minister of defense during the 2009-2014 administration of President Mauricio Funes.
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number