IRAN
Headscarf bill advances
The parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear Islamic headscarves in public and those who support them. The bill also extends punishments to business owners who serve women not wearing the mandatory headscarf, known as hijab, and people who organize against it. Those convicted face up to 10 years in prison if the offense occurs in an organized way. The bill requires ratification by the Guardian Council, a clerical body.
UNITED STATES
Officer probed over comment
A Columbus police officer summoned to a home on Friday last week by a father concerned that his 11-year-old daughter was being solicited by a man said that the girl could face charges for sending explicit images of herself. Body camera footage showed the father closing the door on two officers after one of the officers told him his daughter could face charges for producing or recording child sexual abuse images. The parent posted to TikTok a security video of the conversation. The officers’ conduct is being investigated, as well as any crime that may have been committed against the girl, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said in a statement on Tuesday.
UNITED STATES
Moose attacks woman
A woman walking her dog on a wooded trail in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Wednesday spooked a cow moose and it charged, headbutting the hiker and stomping on her before she escaped back down the trail, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. Authorities said the woman was taken to a hospital, but they declined to provide information on her condition. They said the moose had stomped on her “several times” and that the dog had minor injuries. The attack was the third in Boulder County this year, said Kara van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The animals are often aggressive with dogs, which they perceive as a threat, she said.
UNITED STATES
Woman rescued from toilet
A woman was rescued on Tuesday from an outhouse toilet in northern Michigan after she climbed in to retrieve her Apple Watch and became trapped. The woman, whose name was not released, lowered herself inside the toilet after dropping the watch at the Department of Natural Resources boat launch at Dixon Lake in Otsego County’s Bagley Township, state police said on Wednesday. First responders were called when the woman was heard yelling for help. The toilet was removed and a strap was used to haul the woman out. “If you lose an item in an outhouse toilet, do not attempt to venture inside the containment area. Serious injury may occur,” state police said in the release.
ISRAEL
Tank theft probed
Authorities are investigating how an unarmed tank was stolen from a military training zone after finding it discarded in a junkyard. The Merkava 2 tank disappeared from a training zone near Haifa, the Israeli army said on Wednesday. The training zone is closed to the public when in use, but is otherwise accessible. Police said that the 65-tonne tank was found abandoned in a scrapyard near a military base. In a video from the scene, the tank towers alongside industrial castoffs. The army said that the tank was decommissioned years ago and was unarmed. It said it had been used most recently as a “stationary vehicle for soldiers’ exercises.” Police said they had arrested two suspects in connection with the theft.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
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