MEXICO
Gangster dies after siege
A Guatemalan gang leader who was freed from custody in a bloody hospital attack last year died on Thursday of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound after being located and surrounded by police in Mexico City. Police spokesman Pablo Castillo confirmed the death of Anderson Daniel Cabrera, alias “Little Boy,” after agents acting on intelligence laid siege to a home where he was around midnight. Castillo said Cabrera became aware of the police presence hours later, fired at officers and asked for his partner and eight-year-old son to be allowed to exit. “When they left ... a shot was heard [and] on entering we saw his body,” Castillo said. Cabrera was a leader of the feared Mara Salvatrucha gang, or MS-13. He had been sentenced to 162 years in prison for murder, murder conspiracy and extortion, and was facing further prosecution on other charges.
UNITED STATES
Free Snapcrap app released
A 24-year-old has created a free app to make it easier for people to report poop and used needles on the famously dirty streets of San Francisco. Sean Miller moved to San Francisco from Vermont after college last year and said he was astonished by the amount of public grime. His “Snapcrap” app was released over the weekend for iOS users. He said downloads are in the “few hundreds.” Miller, who lives and works downtown, passes on the photos to the city’s Public Works Department. San Francisco already has a 311 app to report feces and trash, as well as potholes and graffiti. There were more than 24,300 requests last year for human waste cleanup. Miller said he plans to work with the city to improve a very San Francisco problem.
UNITED STATES
‘Suge’ Knight gets 28 years
Marion “Suge” Knight was sentenced on Thursday to 28 years in prison for mowing down and killing a Compton businessman in a case that completed the former rap music mogul’s downfall from his heyday as one of the biggest — and most feared — names in the music industry. Knight, 53, will likely live out most, if not the rest, of his life in a California prison. He showed no emotion in court as relatives of Terry Carter, the man he killed, described their loved one as a devoted family man and peacemaker. Carter was killed after Knight and one of his longtime rivals, Cle “Bone” Sloan, started fighting outside a Compton burger stand in January 2015. Knight was upset about his portrayal in an N.W.A. biopic, Straight Outta Compton, on which Sloan was serving as a consultant. Knight clipped Sloan with his pickup truck, seriously injuring him, before speeding through the parking lot and running over Carter and fleeing.
UNITED STATES
Evans hangs up Cap’s shield
Chris Evans has wrapped his final performance as Captain America. Evans on Thursday tweeted that his last shooting day on Avengers 4 was an “emotional day.” The 37-year-old actor thanked his colleagues and fans for his eight years as Captain America, saying it “has been an honor.” Evans first joined the Marvel cast in 2010. He has starred in three Captain America films, including 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, as well as numerous team-up films. The actor previously suggested he would soon depart the role. Earlier this year, Evans told the New York Times he wanted to “get off the train before they push you off.”
SOUTH KOREA
Ex-president Lee jailed
Former president Lee Myung-bak was yesterday jailed for 15 years for corruption, becoming the latest ex-leader to be sent to prison. The 76-year-old CEO-turned-president, who served from 2008 to 2013, was found guilty on charges including bribery and embezzlement and ordered to pay a fine of 13 billion won (US$11.51 million) by the Seoul Central District Court. “Bringing everything into consideration, heavy punishment for the accused is inevitable,” a judge said during the trial. The court found that Lee was the de facto owner of DAS Corp — a controversial auto parts company which he claimed was his brother’s — which he used to create slush funds of about 24 billion won. He was also found guilty of accepting nearly 6 billion won from Samsung Electronics in return for a presidential pardon for its chairman, Lee Kun-hee.
AUSTRALIA
Scouts apologize to victims
Scouts Australia yesterday apologized to victims of child sex abuse within the organization that recently joined a national compensation program. Scouts Australia Chief Commissioner Phil Harrison said the apology was part of the group’s commitment to acknowledge and address the harm that some of its members have suffered. “Scouting sincerely hopes that the apology will help those who suffered through their time in Scouting, as well as their families who have also been affected,” Harrison said in a statement. “The apology is a genuine and heartfelt admission that, for some young people, their time in Scouting was a negative experience. For this, we are truly sorry.” Harrison said that Scouts Australia had listened to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, survivors’ groups and survivors who have said that an apology might help with healing.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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