UNITED STATES
Roof friend to plead guilty
A friend of the man accused of gunning down nine black parishioners during a Bible study in a South Carolina church is appearing before a judge to plead guilty to federal charges. Under a plea agreement signed by 21-year-old Joey Meek and federal prosecutors, Meek is to plead guilty to lying to authorities and failing to report a crime. He appears before US District Judge Richard Gergel on Friday in Charleston. Authorities allege Meek failed to tell investigators all he knew about Dylann Roof’s plans to shoot parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in June last year. The 22-year-old Roof is charged with hate crimes and other charges in federal court.
UNITED STATES
Rock formation defaced
Rangers at Utah’s Arches National Park were investigating large graffiti on Thursday that was carved so deeply into a famous red rock arch that it might be impossible to erase, officials said. The carvings discovered earlier this month measure about 1.2m across and 90cm high, park superintendent Kate Cannon said. The Arches rock formation, commonly known as Frame Arch, is off a popular hiking trail where visitors can look through it and view the park’s iconic, stand-alone Delicate Arch. Cannon said the graffiti was etched so deeply that it might have taken at least one hour for someone to carve. She said park workers can try to reduce the carving’s visibility by grinding down the rock around it, but that causes further damage to the surface. She said they could also try to fill in the etchings with some kind of material that blends in, but it is unclear if that would be a permanent or unnoticeable treatment.
UNITED STATES
Wandering sea lion dies
Washington state biologists are trying to determine what killed a sea lion that was captured and released after it was strangely found in the driveway of a cattle ranch about 80km from the ocean. The male California sea lion was released into Puget Sound on April 15 after it apparently swam and waddled its way to the ranch, the News Tribune reported. On Friday last week, the sea lion was found dead under a bridge in Olympia, ending its unusual journey from the ocean to a small creek and then to Puget Sound. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Dyanna Lambourn examined the sea lion on Sunday and found no immediate cause of death. Samples from the necropsy were sent out on Tuesday to test for possible causes. Rancher Ken Shively found his gate open and the 159kg animal in his driveway. He initially thought it was a deer or elk.
CANADA
Beehive heist probed
Thieves in Quebec have staged an unusual heist of something that is becoming increasingly rare in North America these days: bees. Beekeeper Jean-Marc Labonte lost more than 180 beehives worth US$160,000 earlier this week in what he says is a first for his family business. “It’s very, very uncommon in Quebec,” he said. Labonte said he suspects the theft to be the work of another beekeeper who “lost many bees” last winter and is trying to get more free. The heist, which is being investigated by police, allegedly took place on Monday in a locked apiary in the city of Victoriaville, 160km northeast of Montreal. “It sickens me because bees are very rare and increasingly expensive as their numbers decline across North America,” he said.
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
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS