SOUTH AFRICA
Baby kidnapper found guilty
A judge on Thursday found a woman guilty of kidnapping a newborn baby nearly two decades ago from a hospital and raising the girl as her own, just a short distance from where her devastated biological parents were living. Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said. The judge revoked bail and the woman is to be detained until her May 30 sentencing, he said. Hlophe mentioned in court that the woman could face a 10-year prison sentence, Ntabazalila said. State prosecutors said the woman snatched a three-day-old baby from her sleeping mother’s hospital bedside in Cape Town in April 1997. The prosecution also said the woman defrauded authorities when she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003 under a false birth date.
NIGERIA
Building collapse kills 34
The collapse of a building complex under construction has killed 34 mainly foreign workers in Lagos, officials said on Thursday. National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye said 13 people were saved from the rubble in the rescue operation that started after the pre-dawn collapse on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday night. He said most victims were from Benin and Niger. Lagos State said it had ordered work to stop because the five-story structure was beyond the height approved by a building permit. It ordered directors of the Lekki Gardens property development to turn themselves into the police to be prosecuted. Buildings often collapse in Nigeria because corruption has builders cutting corners. In 2014, a building of televangelist T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations caved in and killed 116 people, dozens of them South African. A court last year ordered that the church and two structural engineers be prosecuted for criminal negligence. The church is challenging the order.
KUWAIT
US citizen stabbed
A US citizen has been stabbed and the man who assaulted him is in police custody, the US embassy said on Thursday. The embassy’s security message for US citizens said that the victim’s injuries are not life-threatening and that the embassy is not aware of any specific or credible threats against Americans. The advisory cautioned that extremists might attack in groups or alone and advised US citizens to exercise caution in areas frequented by Westerners. No details were released regarding the identity of the attacker. Though terrorist attacks are rare in the Persian Gulf country, an Islamic State group affiliate detonated a suicide bomb in Kuwait City in June last year, killing at least 27 people.
UNITED STATES
Irish records made public
Just in time for St Patrick’s Day, genealogical research Web site Ancestry.com is making 10 million Catholic parish records from Ireland — some dating to 1655 — available online for free to help people trace their Irish heritage. The goldmine of information, available without cost for a week that began yesterday, includes baptism, confirmation, marriage and burial records from more than 1,000 parishes in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. “This will really help people reconstruct their family story,” said Lisa Elzey, a family historian at Ancestry, which now offers access to 55 million Irish records. “There’s all kinds of mysteries within these records.” More than 33 million Americans claimed Irish ancestry in 2014, according to the latest US Census data, or about 10 percent of the nation’s population.
PUERTO RICO
Two saved on Mona Island
The US Coast Guard on Thursday rescued two US tourists after heavy winds and churning seas ran their boat aground on an uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico. The agency said the boaters from Hayes and Hartfield, Virginia, were rescued from Mona Island. Authorities said their 10m sailing vessel named Sea Angel was exposed to 3m waves and winds of up to 25 knots. The coast guard said the men ran aground late on Tuesday and abandoned the boat to find rangers with Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources stationed on the island. A helicopter later flew the two men to the northwestern coastal town of Aguadilla.
UNITED STATES
Blow to the head killed Lesin
An autopsy has found that blunt force trauma to the head was the cause of death for a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose body was found in a Washington hotel room. District of Columbia police spokesman Officer Hugh Carew confirmed the autopsy results for Mikhail Lesin on Thursday. Carew said the DC Medical Examiner’s Office found the manner of death to be undetermined. Carew said police continue to investigate Lesin’s death, as they have since his body was found at the Doyle Dupont Circle Hotel in November last year. After his death, Russian media reported that he had suffered a heart attack, citing his family members. Lesin was a media adviser to Putin who helped found the English-language news service Russia Today.
MEXICO
US man accused of murder
A judge in Mexico has ordered an American man to stand trial in the death of his American girlfriend in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen. A prosecutor’s office employee on Thursday said the judge ordered John Loveless to stand trial for the murder of Tamra Turpin. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Turpin, 36, of St Louis, Missouri, was found dead last week in a condo the couple had rented. A forensic examination concluded she died of asphyxia by strangulation. Loveless later told the woman’s sister that Turpin overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide attempt after an argument. According to the prosecutors’ office in Quintana Roo state, where both Playa del Carmen and Cancun are located, Loveless faces charges of criminal homicide. Loveless was detained at the Cancun airport before he was to board a flight to Atlanta, Georiga. A woman who answered the telephone on Monday at his law office in St Clair Missouri, said there was no comment.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s