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.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS