GERMANY
Police probe Berlin murder
Police yesterday were investigating the assassination-style killing in a Berlin park of a Georgian man who was reportedly a former special forces commando and Chechnya war veteran. Police have arrested a 49-year-old suspect from Russia’s Chechnya republic over Friday’s murder of a man that local media identified only as Zelimkhan K, 41. The killer had approached his victim from behind, as he was on his way to a mosque, shot him twice and fled by bicycle in what one witness described as an “execution-style” killing. Police divers later recovered a Glock handgun, a wig and the bicycle from the nearby Spree River, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported. A large sum of money was found in the home of the suspect, another paper said. Media reports said the murder was believed to be a revenge killing related to the victim’s military past.
UNITED STATES
‘Shot’ deputy lied
Authorities say a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who said he was shot in a station parking lot on Wednesday was lying. Assistant Sheriff Robin Limon said at a news conference late on Saturday that the “reported sniper assault was fabricated” by Angel Reinosa, 21. Sheriff’s Captain Kent Wegener says no bullets were recovered from the scene and detectives saw “no visible injuries.” He says Reinosa eventually admitted making up the story and using a knife to cut the two holes in his shirt. Reinosa has been relieved of his duties and will face a criminal investigation.
UNITED STATES
Florida shooter found guilty
A white Florida man who told detectives he had a “pet peeve” about illegal parking in handicapped spots was convicted late on Friday of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man outside a convenience store. Six jurors deliberated for six hours in Clearwater before convicting Michael Drejka for the death in July 19 last year of Markeis McGlockton. Drejka, 49, was ordered held without bond until his sentencing in October.
UNITED STATES
Gunfire kills girl, 10 others
Police say an eight-year-old girl has been killed and three others injured in a shooting near a high school in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday night. Police said the injured included two 16-year-old boys and 64-year-old woman, and some were related. Several people were detained for questioning. In Prince George’s County, Maryland, just a few kilometers from Washington, seven young adults were injured on Saturday night when shots were fired at a child’s birthday party. Police said three of the seven were critically injured, but expected to survive.
UNITED STATES
Wed, then dead
Harley Morgan,19, was still wearing his suit and Rhiannon Boudreaux, 20, her wedding dress when the Texas “childhood sweethearts” were killed in a crash with a truck minutes after they were married. Morgan and Boudreaux were pronounced dead on Friday at the scene by the same justice of the peace who had just married them. “I’m talking five minutes,” Orange Police Captain Keith Longlois said. “The family was right behind them. They were all going out to go to wherever they were going to have their reception.” The groom was pulling out of driveway of the Justice of the Peace building onto a five-lane highway when a truck pulling a trailer carrying a tractor slammed into their vehicle. Witnesses said the car flipped multiple times before coming to rest in a ditch.
MACAU
Chief executive ‘elected’
An elite pro-Beijing panel yesterday chose a Ho Iat-seng (賀一誠) to be the next chief executive of the territory in a selection process with no other candidates. Ho, a pro-establishment businessman and politician, is to become the territory’s third leader since Beijing took control of Macau in 1999. Ho is to replace Chief Executive Fernando Chui (崔世安) when his term expires in December. Officials said the 62-year-old Ho garnered 392 votes from Macau’s 400-member “election committee.”
THAILAND
Strangling suspect given bail
A Norwegian man charged with manslaughter after allegedly breaking into the room of a British tourist at a Phuket hotel and then strangling him has been granted bail, police said yesterday. Norwegian national Roger Bullman stormed through the balcony into the room of Amitpal Singh Bajaj early on Wednesday at the Centara Grand Resort, where he was staying with his wife and young son, authorities said. “They fought, and because of his military background the Norwegian strangled the victim,” Karon police major Techin Deethongon said. “[Bullman] confessed and said he did not think his act would cause the victim to die.” Techin said that the scuffle erupted after Amitpal had complained about noise from the next room. Bullman, who faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted, was granted bail of 400,000 baht (US$13,237), Techin said.
SOUTH AFRICA
IFP’s Buthelezi steps down
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), on Saturday stepped down as party leader after 44 years. Buthelezi, 90, led the party from its inception. “I will not stand for re-election,” he told a congress of his party meeting in the town of Ulundi to elect new leadership. “My time as president of IFP is finished, I am handing over the baton this afternoon,” he told delegates making reference to the “long” and “difficult” journey he has traveled. “It was not my own decision to remain as party president for many years, but [we are] democrats; when my party unanimously asked me to lead, I accepted,” he said. Buthelezi, who turns 91 on Tuesday, is the oldest serving lawmaker in the country’s parliament.
LEBANON
Israeli drones crash
An Israeli drone fell in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut and a second one exploded near the ground yesterday, a Hezbollah official said, in the first such incident in more than a decade. The second drone caused some damage when it crashed before dawn close to Hezbollah’s media center in the Dahyeh suburbs of Beirut, the Hezbollah official said. It came hours after the Israeli military said its aircraft struck Iranian forces and Shiite militias near Syria’s capital Damascus.
YEMEN
Saudi coalition downs drone
A Saudi Arabian-led military coalition fighting the Houthis said it downed a drone yesterday that the Iran-aligned group has said they launched in the direction of a Saudi airbase. “The coalition forces intercepted and downed a drone launched from the city of Sanaa in the direction of Khamis Muchait’s residential neighborhoods,” coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki told the official Saudi Press Agency. A Houthi military spokesman cited by the group’s Al-Masirah TV earlier said that the group had launched drones targeting the control towers of the Abha airport and the Khamis Mushait airbase, both in the southwest of the kingdom.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
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