BRAZIL
Automatic rifles found
Police on Thursday confiscated 60 automatic rifles found in a cargo shipment at Rio de Janeiro’s Galeao International Airport, authorities said. The weapons were discovered in a container along with pool heaters in the cargo section of the airport. Four people were arrested and a Brazilian citizen is being investigated in Miami, where the shipment originated, officials said. Rio de Janeiro Secretary of Security Roberto Sa said 250 automatic rifles have been confiscated in the past five months in the state and called the latest seizure “the biggest in 10 years.” Police representatives said they planned to use the seized weapons, adding that Rio state is struggling under budgetary constraints.
MEXICO
Storm hits Pacific coast
Tropical Storm Beatriz on Thursday approached Mexico’s Pacific coast, the US National Hurricane Center said, dumping heavy rains that resulted in at least three deaths, caused landslides, and forced road closures and flight cancellations. The emergency services in the southwestern state of Oaxaca said a landslide in the village of San Marcial Ozolotepec buried some houses and rescuers found the bodies of two girls. Another woman was killed by a landslide in the village of San Carlos Yautepec, the emergency services added. The center said the storm was about 24km south of the town of Puerto Angel, on the nation’s southwestern Pacific coast, blowing maximum sustained winds of 72kph, moving northeast at 8kph. Beatriz was expected to weaken once it hit land in the southwest on Thursday evening and peter out over the mountainous region yesterday, it said. However, the center also expected it to produce “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.”
UNITED STATES
ICE denounces fake fliers
Washington officials and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency are denouncing fake fliers distributed in the capital warning against helping people who are in the US illegally. The fliers were found on Thursday on cars and lampposts around Washington. They bear the logos of ICE and Homeland Security, and say residents should report people in the US illegally. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Twitter and Facebook said the flier is meant to scare and divide residents. “DC remains a sanctuary city,” she said. ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell said in a statement that the fliers are dangerous and irresponsible, while the Washington Post reported that Washington police have been instructed not to cooperate with federal authorities working to deport immigrants.
UNITED STATES
Court considers emoji advice
A judge is to sentence an Illinois man who used emojis to offer advice on how to kill a wealthy Chicago woman vacationing in Indonesia. Government filings before the sentencing yesterday described Robert Bibbs texting “high-five” symbols from Chicago, approving plans by his cousin and the cousin’s girlfriend to kill Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a Bali resort in 2014. Prosecutors want a sentence of nine to 11 years. They say Bibbs offered advice on killing the mother of his cousin’s girlfriend for an inheritance cut. The cousin, Tommy Schaefer, is serving 18 years in jail in Indonesia, while Heather Mack is serving 10 for bludgeoning von Wiese-Mack to death with a fruit-stand handle and stuffing her body in a suitcase. Defense attorneys said Bibbs had a lesser role and should not receive a similar sentence.
CHINA
Jiang Tianyong detained
The wife and father of prominent human rights campaigner Jiang Tianyong (江天勇) say police have told the family that he has been formally arrested and has dismissed his lawyers. Jiang disappeared in November last year, after publicizing the plights of the families of lawyers who had been detained in a crackdown on rights campaigners. State media later said he was accused of inciting subversion of state power, a common charge against those viewed as challenging the Chinese Communist Party’s monopoly on power. Jiang’s wife, Jin Bianling (金變玲), yesterday said that police officials in Changsha handed over a statement from Jiang dismissing his family-appointed lawyers. Jin said she believes the statement was written by Jiang under duress.
CHINA
Angry driver kills 13
Police say a disgruntled driver started a fire aboard his school bus last month that killed 13 people, including 11 children from China and South Korea. A statement from the city government of Weihai (威海) says the driver, who caused an incident on May 9, had apparently been angered by the halting of his overtime bonus and night work pay.
NEW ZEALAND
Premier’s guard keeps job
A police officer assigned to protect the prime minister has managed to keep his job despite leaving his gun in a public bathroom at the nation’s parliament, and then enlisting a colleague to drive back and retrieve it. Police yesterday released the results of their yearlong investigation into the incident in June last year. In their report, they said the officer made a genuine mistake by leaving his Glock service pistol in the bathroom, but should have dealt with it differently.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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