PANAMA
Police catch escaped convict
Police on Thursday recaptured a Dominican man convicted of kidnapping and murdering five young people of Chinese descent, two weeks after he escaped prison for a second time. National Police Director Jorge Miranda told local media that Gilberto Ventura Ceballos was found in Chiriqui Province bordering Costa Rica. Authorities had on Tuesday last week announced that Ventura Ceballos had escaped. The latest escape prompted the resignation of the security minister and the firing of the interior minister. Ventura Ceballos was in July 2018 sentenced along with a fellow Dominican accomplice to 50 years for the abduction and killing of the five university students about a decade ago. He acknowledged murdering them and burying them beneath the floor of a home in La Chorrera, authorities said. At least two were buried alive, investigators said.
THAILAND
Man fires gunshots into air
Police yesterday took a man into custody after he fired multiple gunshots into the air in central Bangkok, injuring no one less than a week after a soldier killed 29 people in a shooting rampage. The incident in the capital was related to a personal conflict, Metropolitan Police Bureau Chief Lieutenant General Pakkapong Pongpetra told reporters. The suspect surrendered and agreed to accompany police to their station, he said. The man reportedly fired 20 to 40 shots during the more than six-hour incident in a residential neighborhood with small shops, many selling sporting goods, next to Chulalongkorn University. Police had cleared the area around the building and media reported that a family member was brought in to try to convince him to surrender.
UNITED STATES
Bar caters to broken hearts
Bitter or heartbroken on Valentine’s Day? Then head to the BreakUp Bar in Hollywood, where classic movies about splits play on a huge projection screen, and you can pin your thoughts and mementos on the “Wall of Broken Relationships” while drowning your sorrows in crafted cocktails like “Ghosted” or “I Dealt With Your Parents for Years.” Bar owner Evan Charest said that he wanted to create a haven decorated with black roses for the single and heartbroken. “Pretty much it’s the antithesis of all pro-Valentine’s Day things,” he said. “We thought we would be a place for single people and, you know, people in relationships who just want to get over all the pressure and stress of the Valentine’s Day holidays.” Notes posted on the wall read: “Love sucks,” “Your mother is crazy” and “She took the dog.” Patron Ingrid Jackel, a cosmetics executive from France, said: “I’m kind of over the Valentine season and, yeah, I was interested in doing something a little different.”
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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