UNITED STATES
NRA sues to block bill
Soon after Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a school-safety bill that puts new restrictions on guns, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a federal lawsuit to block it. Three weeks of pressure from relatives and students slain in the in the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, school massacre provided momentum for the legislation. The governor said the bill balances individual rights with need for public safety. The new law raises the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, extends a three-day waiting period to include long guns and bans bump stocks. The NRA said the age limit is unfair to law abiding 18-to-20-year-olds.
UNITED STATES
Breadfruit whiskey distilled
A Virginia distillery is seeking approval to become the first commercial distiller of whiskey made from breadfruit. The company hopes using the tropical food will help the economy of hurricane-devastated St Croix. The Virginian-Pilot said Chesapeake Bay Distillery owner Chris Richeson last month completed the distillation process using breadfruit and is awaiting government approval for labeling to sell it. He said a former Virginia chef who is now a restaurateur in the Virgin Islands, Todd Manley, contacted him about crafting the spirit. Breadfruit is a food staple in the Caribbean that has been touted as a “superfood.” Richeson said the whiskey raises the profile of breadfruit and provides “value-added agricultural products for St Croix.”
MEXICO
Hippo ‘Tyson’ roams loose
Authorities said they are worried about a hippopotamus that is roaming loose in a swampy area of southern Mexico. Nobody knows where the animal came from, but hippos are not native to the country. The hippo appears to have been living in a pair of ponds near Las Chopas, Veracruz. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said that experts are looking for the best way to trap and move the three-year-old, 600kg mammal. The hippo was first spotted by local media near a garbage dump in January. Residents of the town have come to love the animal so much they have nicknamed it “Tyson.”
UNITED STATES
Horse spooked on dance floor
Florida partiers who packed a Miami Beach nightclub on Thursday night were keen to see an actual party animal — a snow-white horse complete with a half-naked model as its rider. However, in events apparently unforeseen, the horse became spooked on the dance floor, throwing off its rider and making a break for it as partygoers screamed in fear. Mokai Lounge in South Beach is now saddled with a police investigation — and the wrath of social media users. The bar’s page on reviewing site Yelp has been shut down following a flood of posts outraged over the horsing around.
UNITED STATES
Doctor jailed over kickbacks
Jerrold Rosenberg, a doctor who admitted he accepted financial kickbacks for prescribing a highly addictive opioid spray was on Friday sentenced to 51 months in prison. Prosecutors said the Rosenberg bullied patients who complained about the effects of the fentanyl spray Subsys, telling one to “stop crying, you’re acting like a child.” He received US$188,000 in kickbacks. Two patients survived after overdosing. Rosenberg’s lawyer disputes the number of people hurt and said there is no evidence the overdoses were caused by Rosenberg’s prescriptions.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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