INDIA
Villagers behead ‘witch’
A 63-year-old woman was dismembered and beheaded by machete-wielding villagers who accused her of practicing witchcraft, police said yesterday. Seven people have been arrested over the death of Moni Orang, a mother of five who was seized from her home in Assam state on Monday after local priests said she was casting spells. “The attackers, armed with machetes and other crude implements, descended on the village and took away Moni Orang from her house and then brutally killed her,” senior police official Manabendra Dev Roy said. “She was decapitated and her limbs were chopped off.” Yesterday, villagers stormed the local police station to protest against the arrests. “Moni was a witch and had cast evil spells on her enemies,” villager Kiran Teronpi said on local TV. “There is no place for such sorcerers and so her killing is justified.”
MEXICO
Probe implicates soldiers
Military investigators have found evidence showing that soldiers were likely involved in the disappearance of seven young people in Zacatecas state, the Secretariat of National Defense said on Monday. Relatives of the two women and five men have told local media that they were detained by soldiers in a house in the town of Calera on July 7. Their bodies were found in a neighboring town with signs of torture and execution-style bullet wounds to the head over the weekend, or 11 days later, according to their families. The secretariat said in a statement that military prosecutors “found evidence of a probable participation of military personnel” in connection with “the disappearance” of the group.
UNITED STATES
Sleep linked to Alzheimer’s
New research suggests poor sleep might increase risk of Alzheimer’s disease by spurring a brain-clogging gunk that in turn further interrupts shut-eye. Disrupted sleep might be one of the missing pieces in explaining how a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, a sticky protein called beta-amyloid, starts its damage long before people have trouble with memory, researchers said on Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. “It’s very clear that sleep disruption is an underappreciated factor,” said Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, who presented data linking amyloid levels with people’s sleep and memory performance. “It’s a new player on the scene that increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” The new research suggests that sleep problems actually interact with some of the disease processes involved in Alzheimer’s, and that those toxic proteins in turn affect the deep sleep that is so important for memory formation.
RUSSIA
Selfie destroys Lenin statue
A statue of Vladimir Lenin, headless after an attack by a drunk man, has now lost its torso after a selfie-happy Siberian tried to pose alongside the image of the iconic Soviet leader, a local official said on Monday. “A young man wanted to have his picture with Lenin, so he climbed up onto the monument’s pedestal,” the official from Siberia’s Moryakovsky village said on condition of anonymity. “He then lost his balance and hung on by grabbing Lenin’s torso.” Both the torso and the selfie-taker then fell down, with the latter ending up in the hospital with a fractured leg and wrist, the official added. Dozens of people in the country have been killed in selfie-related accidents since the beginning of the year, the police have said.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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