SOUTH AFRICA
Police robbed, locked in van
Police yesterday admitted that two officers were robbed of their guns and locked in their own van in the middle of the day in an embarrassment that was all caught on camera. The theft occurred on Tuesday afternoon when the officers stopped for lunch at a roadside food stall in a Johannesburg township, a police spokesman said. The robbery was caught on the CCTV camera of a nearby business. The footage shows four men casually walking past the police van and disappearing from view beneath a tarpaulin where the officers were lunching. They re-emerge seconds later with the officers in tow, force them into the back of the vehicle, lock the van and then hurry off — The entire robbery took less than a minute. Police spokesman brigadier Neville Malila said members of the public helped the officers out of the car, after which police called for backup and a chase ensued. “The suspects lost control of their vehicle and fired several shots at the police who returned fire,” Malila said. Three suspects were arrested.
THAILAND
Student jailed for royal snub
A court sentenced a university student to 2.5 years in prison on Tuesday for posting a message on Facebook it said insulted King Bhumibol Adulyadej. A Criminal Court judge found 24-year-old Akkaradet Eiamsuwan guilty of violating the lese majeste law, which punishes people who defame, insult or threaten the monarchy. The ruling said Akkaradet used an alias to post the message on Facebook in March. He was arrested in Bangkok in June and has been in jail since then. The court said it reduced the original sentence of five years’ imprisonment because the defendant had confessed to the offense. The nation’s lese majeste law is the world’s harshest, carrying jail terms of three to 15 years.
ZAMBIA
Scott U-turns after riots
Interim president Guy Scott reversed his dismissal of defense minister and presidential front-runner Edgar Lungu as the ruling party’s secretary-general on Tuesday after the sacking triggered riots. Scott told state-owned ZNBC Radio he had rescinded his order, but did not say why. Scott became Africa’s first white leader in 20 years after the death last week of former president Michael Sata, but is constitutionally barred from running for president because his parents were born abroad, in Scotland. He also gave no reasons for removing Lungu as head of Sata’s Patriotic Front Party. The dismissal led to hundreds of Lungu supporters rampaging overnight in Lusaka, stoning motorists, burning tires and singing anti-Scott songs before being dispersed by police. “Can you believe it that, 50 years after independence, we have a white man as president?” party supporter Willy Phiri said on Monday. “He comes and starts to fire genuine members. Edgar is our member and Guy wants to take us back to colonialism. We won’t accept it, Guy has to go.”
MONGOLIA
Parliament ousts PM
The parliament yesterday voted to remove Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag amid concerns about a serious economic downturn as gold, copper and coal prices and foreign direct investment slump. Out of 66 members of parliament who voted, 34 were in favor of ousting Altankhuyag, television showed. Ten members of parliament, including eight members of his coalition government, did not show up. It will now be up to the coalition government to select a new candidate, who will have to be approved by the president and confirmed by parliament.
FRANCE
Farmers dump manure
A group of more than 300 farmers dumped about 100 tonnes of manure and rotten vegetables in the center of Chartres on Tuesday in protest at falling food prices. Assisted by about 30 tractors, the farmers dumped the slurry and rotting food in front of the offices of the agriculture department and town hall. The protesters, from the FDSEA union, were “fed up” with the “increasingly crazy constraints and charges” faced by farmers, union leader Jean-Michel Gouache said. He denounced the “collapsing prices of cereals, milk and vegetables, caused in part by the sanctions on Russia,” as well as rising fertilizer prices. Russia imposed a ban on agricultural products from the EU earlier this year in response to European sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. The protest in Chartres, southwest of Paris, comes ahead of widespread farmer strikes due across the country yesterday.
UNITED STATES
Mom allegedly hired hit man
A New York woman is facing charges of trying to hire a hit man to kill her daughter’s ex-boyfriend and feed his body to alligators, according to police and jail officials. Police arrested Melisa Schonfield, 57, who lives in the upstate town of Brownville, on Friday on charges of second-degree conspiracy and second-degree criminal solicitation, said Dave Pustizzi, a detective in the Jefferson County sheriff’s office. Schonfield is suspected of meeting with an undercover detective posing as a hit man and conspiring to kill a Florida man, identified later as the 36-year-old ex-boyfriend of her daughter, Pustizzi said. Schonfield is accused of giving the detective US$5,500 in cash, half of the total amount for the killing, in a Walmart parking lot. When the detective asked how to dispose of the body, Schonfield allegedly suggested throwing it to alligators.
CANADA
Teen forced teens to sell sex
A teenage girl was jailed for six-and-a-half years on Tuesday for drugging and beating girls as young as 13 into prostitution in the capital, Ottawa, after luring them through social media. The 18-year-old ring leader was only 15 when she was arrested along with two other girls in 2012. Acting on their own without adult guidance, the girls used social media to lure victims to a suburban Ottawa home where they would be encouraged or forced to take drugs, and then delivered up to adult clients. The court heard that one of the accused would send photographs of a new recruit to prospective clients from her cellphone and if they agreed, she would send the girl by taxi to the man’s home to sell sex. Police broke up the prostitution ring in June 2012 after one of the victims complained to her mother, who informed authorities.
UNITED KINGDOM
Sex assaults halt training
The defense ministry said on Tuesday it was cutting short a training program for Libyan troops after reported sexual assaults allegedly involving five of the servicemen. About 300 members of the troubled north African country’s armed forces have been based at the Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire, eastern England, since July. Three of the Libyan soldiers — Ibrahim El Maarfi, Mohammed Abdalsalam and Khaled El Azibi — were due in court in Cambridge on Tuesday. Maarfi and Abdalsalam have each admitted two counts of sexual assault. Azibi has been charged with three counts of sexual assault, but has yet to enter a plea, media reported. Two other servicemen, Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud and Ibrahim Abogutila, have been charged with raping a man, the Cambridge News’ Web site reported.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
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