MEXICO
Gang mutilates six people
Five men and a woman on Monday were found alive on a road with their hands amputated and their foreheads marked with the words: “I’m a thief.” The victims were mutilated by a criminal group linked to drug trafficking, which also left a dead man on the road and two bags with the severed hands in Tlaquepaque, near Guadalajara, the nation’s second-biggest city, police said. “They’re in a delicate state of health,” local police commander Roberto Larios told reporters. “Their stumps were wrapped in plastic.” Drug cartels often leave the dismembered bodies of victims on roadsides, making the discovery of six mutilated people alive all the more unusual. The dead man, 39, was apparently beaten to death and his hands were not cut off. He was married to the woman, who is 44. The other men are aged between 25 and 43. Authorities suspect that the gruesome crime is linked to drug dealing. Two of the victims have rap sheets. Witnesses said the victims were driven to the site in two vehicles and abandoned there with a note that said: “This happened to us for being thieves.” The message, signed “anti-thief elite group,” also threatens thieves and those who abuse women or children.
PANAMA
Noriega given hospital leave
A court has ordered that imprisoned former president Manuel Noriega be allowed to prepare for and recuperate from a surgery at a public hospital rather than prison. In a statement on Monday, the judiciary said the decision was based on a report from the country’s medical institute. The 82-year-old former strongman needs to have a benign brain tumor removed. He was scheduled to have the procedure in July, but apparently backed out, because he feared contracting an infection. Noriega’s lawyer, Ezra Angel, said that the court’s order, which he had not yet received formally, was in response to his petition that Noriega be allowed to recuperate at home.
UNITED STATES
Former judge accused
Federal prosecutors said a former Arkansas judge accused of giving lighter sentences to defendants in exchange for nude photographs and sexual acts tried to bribe witnesses and had an accomplice threaten to make one of them “disappear.” Joseph Boeckmann on Monday appeared disheveled as the accusations were levied during his arraignment hearing in District Court in Little Rock. The 70-year-old Boeckmann pleaded not guilty to bribery, fraud and other federal charges just hours after prosecutors unsealed a 21-count indictment.
VENEZUELA
Opposition faces new hurdle
The government-stacked courts have dealt another blow to the opposition’s attempts to unseat President Nicolas Maduro. In a decision on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that opponents must collect signatures from 20 percent of registered voters in each of the country’s 24 states to force a recall referendum. The opposition had argued it needed to garner only 20 percent nationally to trigger the vote. The ruling will make it harder for opponents to mobilize support, especially in rural states dominated by the government, when it attempts next week to collect and electronically verify 4 million signatures over three days allotted for the petition drive. Polls show the public overwhelmingly wants to cut short Maduro’s term. However, the embattled socialist still has control over key institutions, including courts and the electoral council.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
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