GERMANY
Drunk Trump hater arrested
A 26-year-old was detained in Berlin, twice, after throwing snowballs and other projectiles at the US consulate and scuffling with security personnel while yelling slogans against former US president Donald Trump, police said yesterday. The man, an Afghan citizen who lives in Berlin, and whose name was not given in line with German privacy laws, first appeared outside the consulate in the southwestern district of Dahlem yelling and throwing snowballs at about 3pm. When security officials told him to leave the area, he started throwing snowballs at them, too, police said. Authorities handcuffed the man, and allege that he then slammed his own head against a police vehicle, briefly knocking himself out. He was taken to a hospital before being released. Tests indicated he was mildly intoxicated, police said. At about 10:30pm, the man reappeared outside the consulate and threw two half-full beverage cans at police officers. They were again able to overpower him and, while he was being held, police allege that he again slammed his own head against a police vehicle. This time he was not injured, but damaged the vehicle, police said. Another breath test indicated his blood alcohol was about double what it had been previously.
UNITED STATES
Man accused of being agent
A Massachusetts-based political scientist and author has been accused of secretly working for the government of Iran while lobbying US officials on issues such has nuclear policy, US federal authorities said on Tuesday. Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was arrested by FBI agents at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, on Monday, officials said. He has been charged in federal court in New York with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Iran. Afrasiabi appeared before a Boston federal court judge via videoconference during a brief hearing and a detention hearing was scheduled for tomorrow. Authorities said Afrasiabi, an Iranian citizen and lawful permanent US resident, had been paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN in New York since at least 2007. At the same time, he made TV appearances, wrote articles and lobbied US officials to support the Iranian government’s agenda, officials said.
UNITED STATES
Court slams ‘Shining’ use
The New Jersey Supreme Court has overturned a man’s bank robbery conviction because of a prosecutor’s reference to a classic horror movie. During closing arguments in the case against Damon Williams, the prosecutor showed jurors a photograph from The Shining depicting a character played by Jack Nicholson moments after breaking through a door with an axe. The reference was meant to illustrate that actions can speak louder than words, and to support the prosecutor’s contention that Williams should be convicted of a more serious offense even though no threatening words were spoken to the bank teller in Camden County in 2014. The jury convicted Williams of second-degree robbery, which requires the use of force or the threat of force, rather than the less serious crime of third-degree theft. Williams is serving a 14-year term. A unanimous Supreme Court on Tuesday disagreed. “The use of a sensational and provocative image in service of such a comparison, even when purportedly metaphorical, heightens the risk of an improper prejudicial effect on the jury,” Justice Lee Solomon wrote. “Such a risk was borne out here.”
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
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
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
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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