JAPAN
‘Voyeur’ stabs court officers
A man accused of taking pictures up a woman’s skirt stabbed two court officers yesterday as the verdict in his case was being delivered, a court spokesman and media said. Seiji Yodogawa, 30, reportedly yelled “what a rotten justice system,” as he lunged at the two officers standing in the court gallery and slashed them on their faces and backs with a hidden knife. Yodogawa was immediately taken into custody on attempted murder charges, the spokesman said. The two policemen were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, public broadcaster NHK reported. Yodogawa had been out on bail and did not go through a body search when he turned up for the verdict in his case yesterday. The original charge against him has been temporarily suspended since the verdict was not fully read, the court spokesman said.
PAKISTAN
Lion’s owner arrested
Police have arrested a man who took his pet lion for a nighttime drive through the streets of Karachi after video of the incident went viral on social media, police said on Thursday. Keeping wild cats as pets is not uncommon in the nation, where wealthy businesspeople have been known to operate private zoos and sometimes parade the animals for the public. The brief clip shows a docile lion lounging in the back of a pickup truck, restrained by a leash and collar, as curious onlookers walk past. Businessman Saqlain Javed was arrested on Wednesday, but later freed on bail. “The man was driving around with his lion near a local market and it was a matter of endangering public life and property,” senior police superintendent Muqadas Haider told reporters. Javed has a license to run a personal zoo and raise lion cubs, but he is not allowed to transport such animals on city streets., Haider said.
UNITED STATES
No peeing in elevator
Officials in an Arkansas county have a plea for courthouse visitors: Please stop urinating in the elevator. Craighead County officials hope new security cameras will deter the steady stream of culprits who have been relieving themselves in the courthouse elevator in Jonesboro, a college town about 185km northeast of Little Rock. Maintenance workers said the problem has persisted for years — even though the restrooms are only about 8m from the elevator. Officials told the Jonesboro Sun that the cameras, installed last fall, have caught three men in the act, one of whom has been cited for disorderly conduct and fined US$105. A third instance was recorded on Monday. County officials said they plan to issue a citation.
MEXICO
Trump parody beer a hit
Domestic and US brewers have reinvented US President Donald Trump as a gun-slinging mariachi folk musician to promote a new beer celebrating cross-border cooperation. The label of the new Amigous Cerveza craft beer — depicting a frowning Trump in a sombrero, his trousers held up with a swastika belt buckle — mocks his divisive campaign rhetoric against Mexico and his pledge to build a border wall. The rear label says the 71-year-old New Yorker belongs “in a mad house, not the White House.” “We knew that a Trump label was going to be controversial, but it’s been selling extremely fast,” Casa Cervecera Cru Cru CEO Luis Enrique de la Reguera said. Launched in May, the beer that misspells amigo to poke fun at Americans’ pronunciation of the Spanish word for friend, surprised its creators. The original batch of 1,200 bottles and 400 liters on tap sold out in the first week.
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