UNITED STATES
Miami killer found guilty
A Miami man who killed his wife and then posted a photograph of her bloodied body on Facebook was found guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday. Derek Medina, 33, who remained impassive after the jury delivered its verdict, could be jailed for life after he shot Jennifer Alfonso eight times in August 2013 in the kitchen of their home. Medina said he acted in self-defense after she threatened him with a knife and following years of abuse at the hands of his wife, 27. However, after six hours’ deliberation, jurors rejected that claim.
UNITED STATES
Toddler dies in oven
A toddler left alone with her pre-school siblings in their Texas home suffered fatal burns after they put her in the oven and switched it on, local media reported. J’Zyra Thompson, 19 months, was left unsupervised along with her three-year-old twin siblings in a Houston apartment. A five-year-old was also present. Court records obtained by ABC-13 News in Houston said the twins told child protective services that one of them put their little sister in the oven and the other one made it “hot.” Their mother, Raqual Thompson, 25, is to appear in court on Monday on four counts of child endangerment, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s office. Thompson reportedly told police that she had gone out with her boyfriend to collect a pizza and a prescription at the drug store when her child burned to death on Monday last week. When they returned home they found the three other children crying and pointing to the kitchen. The oven had toppled over with the door face down on the floor. Child protective services, quoted by local media, said the couple had failed to alert a grandmother who lived in the same apartment complex that they were leaving the children unsupervised.
SOUTH KOREA
Feces force-feeder jailed
A court yesterday jailed a university professor for 12 years for forcing a student to eat human feces and drink urine during a two-year period of physical and psychological assault. The sentence was two years more than had been demanded by prosecutors, reflecting, the court said, “unimaginable atrocities” committed by the 52-year-old professor that had amounted “to a sort of psychological murder.” The professor, identified only by his surname, Jang, was arrested in July after a design student, now aged 29, attempted to commit suicide to escape his ordeal. The abuse began after Jang hired the student to work for a non-profit organization. The court heard how the professor — aided by other former students who were accused as codefendants — had assaulted the design student with a baseball bat and other weapons. He also had a plastic bag forced over his face and filled with pepper spray, after which he was fed human excrement.
VENEZUELA
Opposition candidate killed
An opposition candidate in the Dec. 6 legislative elections was shot dead during an event on Wednesday, alongside the wife of a jailed opposition leader, an official said. “Luis Manuel Diaz, local leader of the Democratic Action party in Altagracia de Orituco [Guarico state] has just been shot dead,” the party’s chairman, Henry Ramos Allup, said on Twitter. Ramos Allup said Diaz was standing next to Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who is in prison for incitement to violence.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
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
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
MIGRATION: The Supreme Court justices said they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented migrants US President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the US Supreme Court after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying the justices are “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” Trump’s berating of the high court, in a post on Truth Social, came after it dealt another setback to his attempt to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting
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