UNITED STATES
Woman gives up 300 rats
A woman living in a van in San Diego, California, with her pet rats has agreed to give them up — all 300 of them. The San Diego Humane Society on Oct. 8 went to the woman’s van near Del Mar, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Authorities found rats had clawed into upholstery, burrowed into the seats and gnawed the engine wiring. The woman was not hoarding the animals — she had started with just two pet rats, Captain Danee Cook of the animal shelter said. However, rats can give birth every four weeks and produce a dozen in a litter. Cook said the woman acknowledged things had gotten out of control. Authorities collected about 320 rats, and more than 100 are ready for adoption. The woman has found a new place to stay.
UNITED STATES
Woman tried to sell fetuses
A Colorado woman suspected of trying to sell three human fetuses from the 1920s and a fetal skeleton online has been indicted in California on charges of violating a federal law prohibiting the transfer of human fetal tissue. Emily Suzanne Cain, 38, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to the charges, KUSA-TV reported. The case has been delayed until Nov. 20 in the District Court in San Francisco, court records showed. The fetuses are believed to be from stillborn infants from the 1920s, the records said. Cain in October last year attempted to mail a package from Canon City, Colorado, to an address in the UK, a criminal complaint said. The package, labeled “school teaching aids and T-shirts,” caught the attention of US Postal Service workers, who noticed there was no signature on a customs form certifying the package did not contain dangerous contents, authorities said in the complaint. An X-ray of the package revealed a human-like shape, San Francisco International Airport customs agents said in the complaint. Cain posted on Facebook that she acquired the fetuses from a university lab collection and was selling them for US$20,000, the complaint said. The specimens were traced to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, it said.
UNITED STATES
Livestreamer crashes again
A California woman on parole after serving a sentence for driving drunk while livestreaming a crash that killed her younger sister was on Thursday arrested after crashing a car during a police pursuit, officials said. Obdulia Sanchez, 20, was arrested on weapons and traffic charges and a parole violation, Stockton Police Department spokesman Joe Silva said. Officers tried to stop Sanchez for a vehicle code violation, but she did not pull over. She crashed near a highway on-ramp and was arrested. A man traveling with her escaped, Silva said. “The arresting officers saw she was on parole and was driving on a revoked driver’s license,” he added. Last year, Sanchez was sentenced to six years and four months in prison for driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter after her 14-year-old sister died in the 2017 crash. Prosecutors said Sanchez was livestreaming on Instagram while driving when she crashed. The video showed her taking her hands off the steering wheel. She was released from prison last month after serving two years and two months. State corrections department spokeswoman Terri Hardy said Sanchez received credit for the time she spent in jail before she was sentenced. Her sentence was also reduced under California law for good behavior, with credits for various rehabilitation programs.
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