■ POLAND
Man fires catapult at cars
A 79-year-old man has been arrested for using a catapult to damage more than a dozen cars parked in front of his apartment block, judicial authorities said on Friday. The man, who lives in Kalisz, shot at the vehicles for more than a year until investigators were called in, the local prosecutor's office said. Walczak did not identify the man by name. The shooter reportedly told investigators that he was sick of the noise and pollution caused by the cars. His one-man campaign was brought to a halt after he was caught on a security camera. Police found two catapults and a bag of stones in his home.
■ RUSSIA
Woman killed in hate crime
A woman from Tajikistan was stabbed to death on Friday in Moscow in what appeared to be a hate crime, the Interfax news agency reported. A group of young men attacked the woman in northern Moscow and stabbed her with knives before cutting her throat, Interfax said. City police confirmed that a woman was stabbed to death in the area on Friday, but would not give her nationality or other details pending an investigation. The country has seen a steady rise in hate crimes committed by young members of nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, who mostly target guest workers from impoverished ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
■ SPAIN
Bomb rocks barracks
A car bomb exploded on Friday at a police barracks in the northern Rioja region following a warning from the Basque separatist organization ETA, injuring one person, authorities said. The blast in the town of Calahorra came as hundreds of people were in the streets for a traditional Easter Holy Week religious procession, which had just concluded. The bomb caused major damage but only one minor injury as the Civil Guard barracks and surrounding area had been evacuated, said Jose Antonio Ulecia, Madrid's representative in the region. The road services organization in the Basque Country said it had received a call giving half an hour's notice of an explosion.
■ UNITED STATES
Police chase doughnut van
A bevy of officers chased a doughnut delivery van at speeds up to 161kph before arresting the driver at gunpoint, authorities said. But the cops were not just hankering for doughnuts. The van, owned by Donut Delite of Moline, Illinois, was stolen early on Thursday while the driver was making deliveries at a hospital. The driver had left the van running and a man jumped in and drove off. A Benton County, Iowa, sheriff's deputy spotted the van later. Frank Alvarado, 46, of Moline, Illinois, was charged with theft and other counts. The doughnut shop gave the police the purloined goodies.
■ UNITED STATES
Toddler crushed to death
A two-year-old boy who died with a fractured skull may have been accidentally crushed by a morbidly obese relative, authorities in La Joya, Texas said. Investigators believe the woman fell on the child, who was pronounced dead on Tuesday, said Bobby Contreras, Hidalgo County justice of the peace. "It didn't look like there was any foul play from what I saw," he said. An autopsy was scheduled, with the cause of death to be released tomorrow. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino, who called the death "suspicious," said he would wait for an announcement on the cause before deciding whether to file charges.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
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