UNITED STATES
Terror suspect autistic
A New Yorker caught boarding a plane on his way to Yemen to fight with an al-Qaeda affiliate is a teenager who was diagnosed with autism and did not understand the gravity of what he was doing, his attorney said. Justin Kaliebe, 18, pleaded guilty in a secret federal court proceeding in February to a charge of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. He was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before he is sentenced on Sept. 27. His condition could be considered in determining his sentence. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Kaliebe, who converted to Islam about three years ago, apparently was swept up in the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) ongoing investigation into the activities of Muslims throughout the region. Counterterrorism agents and NYPD officers intercepted him on Jan. 21 as he tried to board a flight to Oman on his way to Yemen.
FRANCE
Elephants move to Monaco
Two elephants saved from euthanasia after a public outcry on Thursday left a zoo in Lyon for their new home at a ranch belonging to Monaco’s royal family. Princess Stephanie looked on as Baby and Nepal, who had been ordered killed over suspected tuberculosis, were loaded into containers and lifted onto a truck for the eight-hour journey to the principality. The princess has agreed to host the two elephants, aged 42 and 43, at the royal family’s Roc Agel ranch in the Alpes-Maritimes region. The elephants were to be put down in December, when municipal officials in Lyon decided they had almost certainly been infected with TB and warned they could be a threat to the health of other animals and visitors to the Tete d’Or zoo in the city. Authorities later lifted the threat of execution after an outcry that saw film-star-turned-animal-rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot threaten to quit the country for Russia if they were killed.
MEXICO
‘Dead’ candidate elected
A man who was allegedly certified as dead almost three years ago has won a race for mayor in the southern state of Oaxaca. Leninguer Raymundo Carballido Morales won the election in the small town of San Agustin Amatengo by just 11 votes on Sunday as the candidate of a coalition of conservative and leftist parties. However, prosecutors are now investigating whether Carballido Morales faked his own death in 2010 to escape arrest in connection with the gang rape of a woman in 2004. Carballido Morales campaigned in the election, appearing in public events and giving interviews to reporters. However, two days before the vote, the Tiempo de Oaxaca daily reported that the candidate’s lawyer had delivered a forged death certificate to authorities in 2010. The document, which was certified by a doctor, declared that Carballido Morales had died of “natural causes” following a diabetic coma, the newspaper said.
MEXICO
Troops kill 13 gunmen
Authorities say soldiers killed 13 gunmen in a clash on Thursday in the town of Sombrerete in the northern state of Zacatecas. The soldiers also seized several automatic rifles and vehicles, state prosecutors’ spokesman Jorge Flores said. Zacatecas Attorney General Arturo Nahle told Milenio Television a gunman survived and told authorities he belongs to the Gulf drug cartel. Zacatecas has seen an increase in drug violence after the brutal Zetas drug cartel split from the Gulf cartel in 2010 and began pushing west from their home base in the northeast.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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