UNITED STATES
Victims sue lottery winner
Two alleged victims of a registered sex offender have filed a lawsuit seeking damages for pain and suffering after the man won US$3 million in a Florida Lottery jackpot. Timothy Poole purchased the winning ticket earlier this month in Mount Dora, near Orlando. He took a lump sum payment of about US$2.2 million. Poole was accused of sexually battering a nine-year-old boy in 1999. Poole denied the allegations, but pleaded guilty to attempted sexual battery and was sentenced to time served. His probation was revoked in 2003 after he failed to show up for counseling. The lawsuit was filed by two brothers, who were aged 9 and 5 when Poole was arrested. In 2010, the Florida Legislature eliminated a statute of limitations for victims of sexual battery younger than 16.
VENEZUELA
Merida’s Coromoto closes
An ice cream store listed by Guinness World Records for its 863 different flavors has become the latest victim of Venezuela’s economic crisis. “We are closed during the season due to shortage of milk,” the famous Coromoto ice cream store in Merida posted on its Facebook page. Locals confirmed that the shop, hugely popular among tourists for its exotic and strange flavors, ranging from beer to beans, had been closed since Christmas Eve. A sign on the door asked customers’ forgiveness “for not attending you due to the lack of milk.” The country has been suffering acute shortages of basic goods, from toilet paper to spare tires, all year due to an economic slowdown, the highest inflation in the Americas and the impact of strict currency controls.
UNITED STATES
San Antonio fire kills five
Five people died on Sunday after a fire broke out at a senior-living apartment building in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, authorities said. Ten other residents of the Wedgwood Apartments were hospitalized, and at least one is in critical condition, according to Bexar County Fire Marshall spokeswoman Laura Jesse. About 150 additional residents of the 11-story high-rise were taken by city buses to a local high school, and about 100 people remained there on Sunday afternoon. A total of 150 firefighters from San Antonio and six other fire departments responded to the blaze, which was reported shortly after 6am, San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove said. The cause of the three-alarm fire is under investigation, but appears to have originated on the third floor, Jesse said. Not all of the 216 residents listed on the building’s rent rolls have been accounted for yet, Jesse added.
MEXICO
Vigilante leader arrested
The leader of one of Mexico’s first anti-crime vigilante groups was arrested along with 26 supporters over a shootout that killed his son and 10 others, authorities said. Hipolito Mora was taken in on an arrest warrant on Saturday for “probable murder” in the bloody Dec. 16 episode with a rival group, Michoacan State Special Commissioner Alfredo Castillo said. Another 26 vigilantes were also apprehended for their involvement, he said. Mora put up no resistance, according to prosecutors, as he was arrested for his involvement in the shootout between two vigilante groups that turned on each other in La Ruana. Six of Mora’s followers, including his oldest son, died, as well as five members of a rival vigilante group led by Luis Antonio Torres, known as El Americano, who is also wanted for arrest and whose whereabouts are unknown.
PHILIPPINES
Liberal pope shirts pulled
ABS-CBN, the nation’s largest broadcaster, pulled souvenir T-shirts for an upcoming papal visit from its stores yesterday, after drawing fire from Catholic bishops irked by the words “No religion” emblazoned on the garments. Pope Francis, who has been praised for being reform-minded, is to visit the country next month. The T-shirts printed by the network bore the statement: “No race. No religion. I embrace diversity” and were marketed with the hashtag #PopeTYSM, which stands for “Thank you for the compassion” in Tagalog. While acknowledging that the statement was intended to convey Francis’ “openness,” the message was “misleading and quite frankly erroneous,” said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines. “[Francis] has never said and taught that religion and race do not matter, because they most certainly do. It is what selfish, uncharitable and judgemental people do with religion and race that is a problem,” Villegas said.
JAPAN
New bird flu case sparks cull
Tokyo yesterday ordered the slaughter of about 42,000 chickens after officials confirmed the country’s second bird flu outbreak in less than a month. DNA tests confirmed the presence of the virus’ H5 strain at a farm in Miyazaki Prefecture after its owner on Sunday reported that several chickens had died suddenly, the local government said. Officials began the slaughter yesterday and asked farms within a 10km radius not to move their poultry outside of that perimeter. It is uncertain whether there is a link between the first outbreak and the second, a Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry official said, adding that further testing would be conducted.
CHINA
Collapse at school kills 10
A scaffolding collapse at one of Beijing’s most prestigious high schools killed 10 construction workers and injured four others yesterday, officials said. The accident occurred at the start of the school day at Tsinghua High School, but did not affect any classrooms or other buildings used for instruction, Beijing’s Municipal Propaganda Bureau said. It added that the injured were in stable condition. A school official surnamed Jiang (江) said all the victims were building a gym at the school and that no teachers or students were hurt. Xinhua news agency said an initial investigation found that steel bars used to reinforce concrete had collapsed and caused the accident. It said police had detained several people, but gave no details about their identity.
BANGLADESH
Striking activists fight police
Opposition activists clashed with police during a nationwide strike yesterday, leaving one woman dead and several injured, as tensions grew ahead of the first anniversary of controversial elections. Police said a female teacher died after she was hit on the head by a rock thrown by an opposition protester in Noakhali District. The streets in Dhaka were largely deserted during the strike, with offices and schools closed and highways empty. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and 19 allies, including Islamist outfits, called the strike to protest a crackdown against their leaders and supporters by the security forces. BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed said that at least 400 party officials and activists have been arrested since Wednesday to thwart protests to mark the first anniversary of the Jan. 5 elections that the party boycotted. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League has ruled out polls before the end of her new term in 2019.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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