AUSTRALIA
A$6m reward for serial killer
Police yesterday offered a record A$6 million (US$4.7 million) in rewards to catch the serial killer or killers behind the murders of six Melbourne women in the 1980s. The women, ranging in age from 14 to 73, disappeared in separate incidents as they traveled on foot around Melbourne over an 18-month period from 1980 to 1981. Their remains were found in scrubland in several locations on the outskirts of the city. Victoria state police announced six rewards of A$1 million each for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever was behind the murders. The A$6 million was the largest reward amount ever offered by the department, it said.
CHINA
Myanmar ‘guarding peace’
A Communist Party official yesterday said that China supports Myanmar in “safeguarding peace and stability” and will not join other nations in condemning it for what many consider a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims. Party International Department Vice Minister Guo Yezhou (郭業洲) told reporters that Beijing condemned “violent and terror acts,” in an apparent reference to attacks by Rohingya rebels on Myanmar security forces. Beijing has long had close ties to Myanmar’s military leaders who ran the nation for decades, and Guo emphasized “friendly relations” between China’s communists and political parties in Myanmar on China’s southern border. He said those ties are based on the principle of non-interference and that China believes Myanmar’s government and people are “capable of handling” the situation.
LEBANON
Four arrested over Dali
Police have arrested four people who were trying to sell a stolen painting believed to be by Spanish artist Salvador Dali, a police official said. Colonel Joseph Mussallam on Friday said that the four detained are a Lebanese and three Syrians who were trying to sell the 1954 painting known as Portrait of Mrs Reeves to a Lebanese woman living in France for US$5 million. Mussallam said a detained Syrian told authorities he bought the painting from an Iraqi and kept it for 12 years before trying to sell through a Lebanese agent.
BRAZIL
Student shoots 2 in school
A 14-year-old student on Friday opened fire inside a classroom in the central city of Goiania, killing two classmates and wounding four, police said. Lieutenant Colonel Marcelo Granja of the Goiania police department said the shooting occurred at Colegio Goyases, an upscale private school. The teen was taken into custody. Granja said that the shooter is the son of a police officer who used his father’s .40 caliber pistol. A student who escaped the shooting unhurt told the G1 news portal that the suspect was bullied and called “stinky” because he never used deodorant. The student said that during a break between lessons, the shooter pulled out the gun from inside his backpack and started shooting at random.
PERU
Medical marijuana legalized
Peru has become the latest Latin American nation to allow the medicinal use of marijuana. The conservative congress late on Thursday approved legislation by a 67 to five vote allowing the plant to be produced, imported and sold. Lawmakers praised the move as a way to improve the lives of thousands of patients looking to better their quality of life.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS