CHINA
Dead pig numbers double
The number of dead pigs found in Shanghai’s main river doubled in two days to nearly 6,000, the government said, as officials from a nearby province blamed for the porcine deluge sought to deny it was the source. Shanghai had pulled 5,916 dead pigs out of the Huangpu River, which cuts through China’s commercial hub, the local government said in a statement late on Tuesday. Shanghai has pointed the finger at Jiaxing in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang, a major center for hog-raising, Shanghai media reported. Jiaxing officials said investigations were continuing, the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday. “We don’t exclude the possibility that the dead pigs found in Shanghai were from Jiaxing, but we are not absolutely sure,” a Jiaxing spokesman told a press conference.
INDIA
Five police killed in ambush
Five paramilitary police were killed yesterday in an ambush on security forces in the main city of Indian Kashmir carried out by two militants who were then shot dead, a senior officer said. “Five of our CRPF jawans [officers of the Central Reserve Police Force] were martyred,” a senior officer told reporters at the scene in the Bemina area of Srinagar, which is home to a camp for security forces and a police-run school. “We have neutralized two militants,” he added. Another six to seven police were injured in the attack.
TUNISIA
Two detained for rap video
Two people have been detained for insulting police by making a rap video describing them as dogs, in a case likely to fire debate over free speech under the new Islamist-led government. “The rap video posted on YouTube called the police dogs, and contains expressions and gestures that affect morals, and threaten the security of officers and magistrates,” the Ministry of Interior said on Tuesday in a statement. Mohamed Hedi Belgueyed and actress Sabrine Klibi were arrested on Sunday and appeared at the Court of First Instance in Ben Arous on Tuesday. The court decided to keep them in jail until their trial, the ministry added. A third rapper known as “weld el 15” is still being sought.
AUSTRIA
My son is no pope: mom
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn is one of the favorites for the papacy, but at least one Catholic from his country does not think he is qualified. His mom. Eleonore Schoenborn, 92, says her son is much too good-natured to deal with “the nastiness at the Vatican. He has enough to do dealing with the intrigues in Vienna.” Schoenborn also named other reasons for her opposition in an interview published in Tuesday’s Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “It’s much too difficult for him. He has control of his diocese, but heading a world church is something else,” she said.
NETHERLANDS
‘Forced tongue kiss’ not rape
The Dutch Supreme Court narrowed its definition of rape on Tuesday, saying that a “forced tongue kiss” should no longer be considered among the worst forms of sexual assault. In one of the court’s more unusual cases, a panel overturned a lower court’s rape conviction of a man for forcing his tongue into the mouth of a woman in a hospital restroom. The court said that a forced kiss, while still illegal, is not as serious as forced sexual intercourse. Instead, the judges said that a forced kiss should be considered an indecent assault, which carries a maximum sentence of eight years, as opposed to rape, which has a maximum 12-year sentence.
UNITED STATES
Baby shot and killed
A six-month-old baby who was shot in Chicago while her father was changing her diaper on the seat of a parked minivan has died, police said on Tuesday. The shooting in broad daylight on Monday comes as Chicago struggles to stem an epidemic of gang violence that helped push the city’s murder rate up 16 percent to 506 people last year. The city has already logged more than 60 murders and 250 shootings so far this year. The family was no stranger to gun violence before this tragedy. Jonylah Watkins’ mother was shot in the leg while she was pregnant, the Chicago Tribune reported. The girl’s father was in “serious, but stable” condition in hospital, police said.
UNITED STATES
Gangsta rap police probed
The head of a police union and three other officers are being investigated for making gangsta rap videos, according to a report. The Newark Star-Ledger reported that the union president, Officer Maurice Gattison, raps under the name “Gat the Great.” He has appeared in numerous videos. One features Gattison rapping about drinking, using an anti-gay epithet and calling himself a “felon for life.” In one scene, Gattison, clad in a fur coat, sits in a car and tells others they might have to meet a Smith & Wesson gun. He then briefly points his finger at the camera as though he is firing a gun. The case has sparked a debate over free speech and whether officers are bound by the same rules of behavior on and off-duty.
MEXICO
Bullying death probed
Officials said on Tuesday they are investigating a father’s complaint that his seven-year-old son died after a violent school bullying incident. The governmental Human Rights Commission in Jalisco State said it is investigating hospital and school officials for possible negligence in the death of the boy, whose name has not been released. Luis Arturo Jimenez, the director of complaints for the rights commission, said the boy died over the weekend of an acute respiratory infection. The boy’s father told the commission that an older classmate had forcibly submerged the boy’s head in a toilet at their government-run school last month. The father said he took the boy to a hospital, but doctors there failed to detect the infection and told him it was a stomach ailment. The boy’s condition worsened, apparently because fecal matter from the toilet had entered his lungs, and he died on Saturday.
BRAZIL
Doctors in fake finger fraud
This gives new meaning to punching in at work: Doctors at a Brazilian hospital covered for absentee colleagues by using fake silicone fingers with their prints to fool biometric machines. Globo television showed footage of a doctor touching her finger to the device, then using two fake digits to do the same for colleagues, and taking delivery of slips of paper indicating they had in fact clocked in to work. It had happened at Ferraz de Vasconcelos, in Greater Sao Paulo. The woman told police six other doctors were in on the scam. “She says she was innocent because it is a condition they imposed on her to keep her job,” said her lawyer, Celestino Gomes Antunes. Another television network said it was the head of the emergency room that ran the scam and that his daughter had not worked a day in three years, but got paid all that time. So far, five doctors have been suspended as part of the investigation. The mayor of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, Acir Fillo, said there might be as many as 300 hospital employees who do not work, but who get paid anyway.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
Two people died and 19 others were injured after a Mexican Navy training ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday. The ship snapped all three of its masts as it collided with the New York City landmark late on Saturday, while onlookers enjoying the balmy spring evening watched in horror. “At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries,” Adams posted on X. Footage shared online showed the Mexican Navy ship Cuauhtemoc, its sails furled
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