JAPAN
Superhero foils gangsters
A mystery crime-fighting superhero is striking fear into the hearts of the nation’s criminals after bravely foiling an armed holdup by a pair of yakuza, local media reported. When the mobsters waved a replica gun in the face of a 38-year-old courier in an attempt to steal a luxury watch, they got more than they bargained for. The intrepid deliveryman — whose true identity, in the best superhero tradition, remains unknown — snatched the fake weapon and forcibly took back the package, Tokyo police said. Suspects Yusuke Kodama, 32, and Hidekazu Oba, 35, both gang members from the Matsuba-kai crime syndicate, were arrested on suspicion of attempted extortion, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
UNITED STATES
Week-long manhunt ends
A massive, week-long manhunt for a suspect in a string of violent crimes — including the killing of two relatives, the shooting of two police officers and multiple carjackings — ended on Sunday evening in a police chase and shoot-out that left the man dead in western Oklahoma. Federal and local police said Michael Dale Vance Jr, 38, was shot and killed by an Oklahoma state trooper near Leedey, Oklahoma. Earlier in the day, Vance had shot and wounded a Dewey County officer, then fled in a car, Washington Marshals Service spokesman Dave Turk said.
EL SALVADOR
Former president arrested
Former president Antonio Saca was arrested on Saturday on corruption charges that alleged misuse of public funds, the attorney general’s office said on Sunday. Saca, a businessman who ruled the nation from 2004 to 2009, was detained on Saturday night during the wedding reception of one of his sons at a reception hall in the capital. He was arrested along with high-ranking former officials of his government, including former communications minister Julio Rank and former youth minister Cesar Funes. Several hours after the arrests, Saca’s former private secretary Elmer Charlaix voluntarily surrendered to police. He faces charges of embezzling at least US$18 million.
UNITED STATES
Stranded shark dies
Officials say a great white shark has died after it was spotted struggling in shallow water in Cape Cod. Atlantic White Shark Conservancy executive director Cynthia Wigren told the Cape Cod Times that a man had spotted the shark on Sunday while walking on Nauset Beach in Orleans. Wigren said the shark had died by the time officials responded. She said the male shark had not been tagged. Researchers estimate it was more than 20 years old. State shark scientist Gregory Skomal was due to conduct a necropsy yesterday. Wigren said the incident marked the year’s first shark stranding on Cape Cod. Three sharks were stranded last year.
UNITED STATES
Two teens killed in shooting
Two teenagers were killed in a shooting that injured four others in suburban Washington on Sunday. Prince George County police said in a news release that they did not believe the shooting was a random act of violence. It occurred at about 2:45am in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Capitol Heights. Police identified the victims as 14-year-old Todd Webb of Capitol Heights and 18-year-old Brian Davis of northwest Washington. Police said another man also suffered life-threatening injuries in the shooting and remained hospitalized. The other three victims had non-life-threatening injuries.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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