UNITED KINGDOM
Hundreds charged in raid
More than 450 people were charged and hundreds of thousands of cannabis plants worth millions of US dollars seized in a massive operation throughout last month, police said yesterday. Cannabis production is a cash cow for organized crime, fueling gang violence as groups compete for territory, police said. Operation Mille saw searches and arrests carried out across England and Wales “at a scale and pace not seen before,” said Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for serious organized crime. “Nearly 200,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of between ￡115 [million] to ￡130 million [US$147 million to US$166 million] were seized,” police added in a statement. About 1,000 people were arrested and of those, “more than 450 were later charged,” it said.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos pardons farmer debt
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday wrote off US$1.04 billion in land-related debt owed by more than half a million farmers, a move aimed at boosting food production. The “New Agrarian Emancipation Act” he signed into law waived all property-related debt owed by farmers who had been given land on 30-year payment terms under a 1988 land reform program, but had been unable to pay. “We know these farmers do not have the means to pay this huge debt, so putting it under the government’s tab is the right thing to do,” Marcos said at a signing ceremony at the presidential palace. The writing off of the loans, which were issued by government banks, meant “we are doing everything in order to feed our people,” he added.
ITALY
Fire kills six, injures 80
A fire that broke out in a Milan nursing home early yesterday killed six of the residents and injured about 80 others, firefighters said. The blaze began at about 1:30am, apparently in the room of two female residents, who were among the dead, they said, adding that three other women and a man died in the fire. Among the injured, two were in critical condition, while most of the others were being treated for smoke inhalation, they told Italian state radio. Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the national firefighters corps, said firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze, which was contained by early morning. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who came to the scene, told reporters that the 100 or so residents of the nursing home who were not injured were being transferred to other facilities in the city.
UNITED STATES
Teen gets life for murder
The first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high-school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was on Thursday sentenced to life with a possibility of parole after 35 years in prison. District Court Judge Shawn Showers sentenced Willard Miller after a sentencing hearing that lasted more than seven hours. Miller and another teen, Jeremy Goodale, had pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber. Showers acknowledged Miller’s young age, but added that he had “cut Nohema Graber’s precious life short,” devastating her family and the community. “I find that your intent and actions were sinister and evil. Those acts resulted in the intentional loss of human life in a brutal fashion,” Showers said. “There is no excuse.” Before being sentenced, Miller said in court that he accepted responsibility for the killing and apologized to the Graber family. Goodale is to be sentenced later.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
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
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