SPAIN
Chinese sex gang busted
Police have arrested 25 Chinese nationals suspected of forming a criminal gang whose primary business was trafficking and sexually exploiting women in Barcelona brothels. Eleven of the 25 arrested on Monday last week have been detained pending further investigation, police said in a statement on Wednesday. The rest were released without charges, but their passports were confiscated. Twenty-two Chinese women who had been forced to work as prostitutes were freed during the operation, which followed nearly eight months of investigation. The gang is also suspected of attempted murder, growing and dealing cannabis, among other drugs, and of having criminal connections in the Netherlands, Britain and Canada.
PUERTO RICO
Wanted: partner for flamingo
A legislator has filed a measure to find a partner for a lone pink flamingo that has drawn tourists to his district for the past eight years. Joel Franqui Atiles said that new businesses have opened in the northern coastal town of Camuy thanks to the jump in tourism, El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported on Wednesday. Atiles said he wanted to find a partner for the flamingo to keep attracting visitors and ensure that the bird remains healthy and protected. Flamingos are a rare sight in the nation, so the lone bird drew hordes of curious onlookers when it first appeared in Camuy in January 2009. It has since remained in the area.
UNITED STATES
Man’s DAPA status valid
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday reversed its position on the status of a man who has sued over his deportation to Mexico, acknowledging he was enrolled in a program to shield people who came to the country as young children. Juan Manuel Montes, 23, was entitled to stay until Jan. 25 next year under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DAPA) program, said the department, which broke from its position a day earlier that his status expired in August 2015 and was not renewed. However, it said Montes acknowledged under oath that he entered the country illegally on Feb. 19, forcing him to lose status because it was an admission that he left without required permission. Montes’ attorneys say their client is believed to be the first known DACA recipient to be deported by President Donald Trump.
UNITED STATES
Dying man gets ‘last wish’
A 75-year-old man died “peacefully” at his home in Oregon after his ex-wife led him to believe that President Donald Trump had been impeached. Michael Garland Elliott died earlier this month after Teresa Elliott, his ex-wife and best friend, broke the false news to him, according to his obituary published in the Oregonian. “Upon hearing that he took his final, gentle breath, his earthly work concluded,” the obituary said. Teresa Elliott told several media outlets that her ex-husband was appalled by Trump’s election and she wrongly told him he had been impeached so he could die happy. Michael Elliott, who was born in Virginia and later moved to California, was a Porsche enthusiast and was passionate about golf, the humourous obituary said. Although his marriage to Teresa Elliott ended, the pair had remained friends after their divorce “and hers was the last voice Mike heard,” it said. Dozens of tributes have been posted on the Oregonian’s “guest book” to honor the man. “This was the best dang obituary I’ve ever read,” one person wrote. “May its words be prophecy.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in