■ 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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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