■ 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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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