CANADA
Drunken pilot arrested
A Sunwing pilot was arrested on Saturday after being found intoxicated in a plane he was about to maneuver out of Calgary International Airport. The 37-year-old man was found drunk shortly after 7am in the cockpit of the plane he was supposed to pilot to Cancun, Mexico. Before the flight was scheduled to take off, the crew and other airline staff noticed the pilot behaving strangely before he fainted in the cockpit. They then alerted the authorities. The pilot was subsequently escorted out of the aircraft and put in jail, police said. The authorities said the pilot had more than three times the authorized amount of alcohol in his body two hours after his arrest. The pilot was charged with being in control of an aircraft while being impaired, and faces other charges.
ITALY
Orchestral scrooge sacked
An orchestral director lost his job at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome after telling an audience filled with children that the man in the red suit who delivers gifts to good girls and boys does not, in fact, exist. ANSA news agency on Saturday said that Giacomo Loprieno lashed out at the young audience for failing to applaud following a performance of Frozen on Thursday. The theater underlined the severity of the offense with a Facebook post of the production’s new orchestral director alongside Santa Claus.
CHINA
Organ traffickers jailed
Sixteen people including two surgeons have been jailed for between two and five years in China for trafficking in human organs, a practice still widespread in the country. The group — which also included an anaesthesiologist, a nurse and an assistant doctor — were involved in a vast illegal trade in kidneys, according to the judgement cited by the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday. The court in the city of Jinan in the eastern province of Shandong said several defendants had searched online for people selling kidneys nationwide and arranged for tests and matches between sellers and buyers. The transplants were secretly performed in the city of Feicheng, according to the court which passed judgement Friday. Patients were each told to pay 400,000 to 600,000 yuan (US$57,957 to US$86,395) while those selling kidneys received a mere 40,000 yuan.
BANGLADESH
Politician shot to death
Attackers shot dead a Bangladeshi ruling party lawmaker on Saturday, police said, more than a year after he was arrested for allegedly shooting and seriously injuring a nine-year-old boy. Up to three attackers were involved in the killing of 48-year-old Manjurul Islam Liton in his village home in his constituency in the northern district of Gaibandha, deputy police chief Robiul Islam told reporters. “They fired at him three times, but two bullets hit him near his chest. He died after being taken to a hospital in Rangpur,” Islam said. The assailants escaped and police have no clue about the motive, he added. Liton, a member of the ruling Awami League party, was arrested in October 2015 on suspicion of firing shots that seriously injured a boy. The boy was reportedly out walking with his uncle when the MP drove past and called the man over. Liton apparently became angry when the uncle did not respond, and pulled out his gun and fired it, missing the man and hitting the child. Police are still investigating the incident, which sparked protests in Gaibandha and in Dhaka.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other