UNITED STATES
Hearst heir dies at 77
John Randolph Hearst Jr, a grandson of media titan William Randolph Hearst and heir to the family fortune, has died, the Hearst Corp said on Saturday. He was 77. Hearst died on Friday in New York City, the Hearst Corp said in a statement on its Web site. The cause of death was not disclosed. John “Bunky” Hearst spent most of his career at the company his grandfather founded. Besides serving on the board, he was a trustee of The Hearst Family Trust and a director of the Hearst Foundations. He also worked for Hearst publications, including as a news photographer for the New York Daily Mirror in the 1950s and as an editor for Motor Boating & Sailing magazine. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1989, but several months later, he married 50-year-old Barbara Hearst. The marriage lasted until 2004, when Barbara Hearst filed for divorce, accusing him of constructive abandonment and cruel and inhumane treatment.
CANADA
Protester found dead
A woman at the Occupy Vancouver camp died on Saturday after being discovered in an “unresponsive” condition, police say. The cause of death has not been determined, but there is no evidence to indicate foul play, police said. The woman in her 20s was found in a tent by another protester. Paramedics took her to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, Vancouver police said in a statement. Lauren Gill, an organizer at the camp, said the woman apparently died of a drug overdose. She said the death highlights the need for more addiction services because drugs were such a big issue in the city.
COLOMBIA
Landslide leaves many dead
A landslide caused by heavy rains left 14 people dead and dozens more missing in the northwest on Saturday, a Red Cross official said. Cesar Uruena, a Red Cross rescue director, said the landslide buried more than 14 homes in the city of Manizales in Caldas state, 165km northwest of Bogota. Rescuers have reports of 14 people dead and 13 injured, Uruena said. “We are talking about an average of 60 people missing. This could be a bit speculative, but the number is high,” Uruena said by telephone. Caldas emergency services director Sandra Lopez said heavy rains pounded the area the night before and caused a part of a mountain to collapse onto the houses.
MEXICO
Eight killed at game
Gunmen who killed eight people and wounded seven at a pickup volleyball game in Sinaloa state were targeting the men at the game, authorities said on Saturday. Sinaloa prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera said while it had not been ruled out that the volleyball players and spectators were caught in a crossfire, witnesses have told authorities the assailants arrived with two people with covered faces who pointed out to the gunmen who to shoot. “The attackers knew perfectly well who they were going to kill,” Higuera said, adding that the shooting appears to be part of a conflict between rival groups. No motive has been given for Friday’s attack in Culiacan, but Sinaloa is the home of the powerful Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Elsewhere, federal police arrested a suspected local chief of the La Familia cartel in Chalco, Mexico state. A statement from the Public Security Secretariat said the suspect, Hector Russel Rodriguez Baez, alias “El Toro,” headed one of La Familia’s most violent cells. Rodriguez was allegedly in charge of drug sales and extortion in the area, and was involved in at least 20 murders, the statement said.
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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