IRAN
Three Afghanis executed
Authorities have hanged three Afghan nationals in a prison in Tehran after they were found guilty of raping an Afghan man’s pregnant wife, the state-run Iran newspaper reported yesterday. The report neither identified the culprits nor the victims, but said that crime occurred about two years ago, and the men were sent to the gallows on Saturday. The latest hangings bring to 92 the number of executions reported in the country so far this year, according to a count based on media reports. The authorities say 80 percent of those executed have been drug traffickers. Local media reported 179 hangings last year. In 2009, the nation executed 388 people, according to international human rights groups, making it second only to China in the number of people it put to death.
SAUDI ARABIA
Shiite cleric freed
Authorities have released a Shiite cleric whose arrest last month provoked demonstrations and a Facebook call for a “Day of Rage,” Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, president of Human Rights First in Saudi Arabia, said yesterday. “Sheikh Tawfiq al-Aamer was freed on Sunday night,” hetold reporters by telephone. Several hundred people protested in the east of the kingdom on Friday after Aamer was arrested on Feb. 27, reportedly for calling for a constitutional monarchy in the kingdom, which is an absolute monarchy.
MEXICO
Suspected trafficker arrested
Police have arrested a suspected high-ranking figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel. A general in charge of a the nearby military garrison in Hermosillo says police detained Julio Cesar Aguilar Garcia, known as “El Vaquero,” or “The Cowboy,” in Sonora state. The general says Aguilar is a suspected trafficker for the Sinaloa cartel’s Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Aguilar is alleged to have directed air shipments of drugs in the Valley of Mexicali, near the Arizona border. A traffic violation led to Friday’s arrest of Aguilar and five others.
MEXICO
Authorities ask for US info
Mexico City on Sunday asked the US for information on a US law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed illegal smuggling of guns into the nation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has requested “detailed information on this case.” CBS News, which earlier broke the story, said the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the operation allowing weapons to cross the border. CBS reported some guns turned up at violent crime scenes, including two AK-47 assault rifles found at the murder scene of US border patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed in December.
TURKEY
Court jails journalists
A court in Istanbul charged five journalists overnight with plotting against the government, media reports said yesterday. The move came a day after prominent journalists Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik were charged and remanded in custody. The five include Yalsin Kucuk, television channels reported. Sik is co-author of a book about the investigations and trials in the Ergenekon case — named after an organization allegedly at the center of a conspiracy. He had been working on a book about the police. In all, 10 people, most of them journalists, were placed in preventive detention on Thursday on suspicion of an alleged plot against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
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