ITALY
Fugitive nabbed in Colombia
Italian police yesterday announced the arrest in Medellin of a dangerous fugitive accused of being the intermediary between Colombia’s drug cartels and the Naples mafia. Luigi Belvedere has been sentenced to almost 19 years in jail for international drug trafficking, but has been on the run since December 2020. Belvedere, a broker from Caserta “specialized in the illegal importation of cocaine [and] acted as a intermediary between Colombia cartels and some of the clans of the Casalesi,” police said. The Casalesi are a notorious branch of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra. Investigators located him in Colombia, in part because of his use of a “well-known messaging system,” police said. Belvedere, believed to be about 32 years old, was tracked down with the support of Colombian investigators and Europol.
INDIA
Endangered bustard hatches
A great Indian bustard chick has hatched thanks to artificial insemination, a significant breakthrough that raises hopes of saving the critically endangered bird. The number of the desert-dwelling, meter-tall birds has plummeted dramatically in the past 25 years, with only about 150 believed to remain in the wild. However, for the first time last week a bustard chick hatched as a result of artificial insemination, aided by scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India, the New Indian Express outlet reported on Thursday. The mother bustard, dubbed Tony, laid an egg at a breeding center in Rajasthan on Sept. 24, and a healthy chick emerged on Wednesday last week, the report said. Rajasthan State Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari said the event was a “historic step” in efforts to save the species from the brink of extinction.
BOSNIA
Teen fatally stabs police
A 14-year-old broke into a police station in the town of Bosanska Krupa late on Thursday and stabbed to death one officer and wounded another, Minister of the Interior for the Bosniak-Croat federation said. The wounded officer was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police spokesman Adnan Beganovic told national broadcaster BHRT. The attacker was arrested, he said, adding that prosecutors had launched an investigation. The motives for the attack were not immediately known. “This is very sad. What surprised us is that it concerns a minor aged 14 who dared attack officers in a police station. It’s an alarm bell for our society,” regional police chief Adnan Habibija said. Armin Halitovic, the mayor of the little town of 11,000 residents, said the attack had sent shockwaves, adding: “We are a peaceful and tolerant town.”
UNITED STATES
Over 40 dogs killed in fire
More than 40 dogs were killed on Thursday when a fire swept through a rescue organization’s kennels in northern New York, authorities said. The fire at the No Dogs Left Behind building at the Maple Ridge Kennels in Canton was reported at about 1am by a person who saw the flames while passing by the property, fire officials said. Flames overran the structure and killed the animals before firefighters could save them, the Canton Fire Department said in a Facebook post. No Dogs Left Behind said its members were heartbroken. “Each dog was a member of our family,” the group said in a social media post. “Tragically, they are victims once again. We have no words to express our grief.” The cause of the fire was not immediately clear and was under investigation by St Lawrence County officials. No firefighters or other people were injured, authorities said.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
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