BALKANS
Blackout hits four nations
A major hours-long power outage on Friday hit much of the southern European region as it sweltered in an early heat wave that sent temperatures soaring to more than 40°C. Montenegrin authorities said that an outage that lasted for several hours in the country’s power distribution system left almost the entire nation without electricity, while similar problems were reported in the coastal areas of Croatia, and in Bosnia and Albania. Nada Pavicevic, a spokeswoman for Montenegro’s state power distribution company, described the outage as a “disturbance of regional proportion,” and said authorities were still working to determine what happened. The exact cause of the outage was not immediately clear as the regional power grid has been overloaded for days because of overconsumption and the use of air-conditioning in high temperatures. Bosnia’s state power company said the outage there was caused by problems in a regional distribution line, while Albania’s state power company said the “extreme heat” caused the problem. Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Albania share the Adriatic Sea coastline and the power grids in the region remain interconnected, decades after the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
SWITZERLAND
Richest UK family sentenced
A court on Friday sentenced to jail four members of Britain’s richest family, the Hindujas, branding them “selfish” for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion. Lawyers for the members of the Swiss-Indian family — who were not present in court — said they would appeal the verdict. The defendants were acquitted of human trafficking, but convicted on other charges in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at ￡37 billion (US$47 billion) by the Sunday Times. Prakash Hinduja, 78, and his wife, Kamal Hinduja, 75, each got four years and six months, while their son, Ajay Hinduja, 56, and his wife, Namrata Hinduja, 50, received four-year terms, the judge ruled. They were convicted of “usury” for having taken advantage of their vulnerable immigrant staff to pay them a pittance. During the trial the family were accused of bringing servants from their native India and confiscating their passports once they got to Switzerland. Prosecutor Yves Bertossa accused the Hindujas of spending “more on their dog than on their domestic employees.” The family paid the household staff about 325 francs (US$364) a month, up to 90 percent less than the going rate, the judge said.
UNITED STATES
‘Fake elector’ case dropped
A Nevada judge on Friday dismissed an indictment against six Republicans accused of submitting certificates to the US Congress falsely declaring former US president Donald Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election, potentially cutting from four to three the number of states with criminal charges pending against so-called “fake electors.” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said he would take the issue to the state Supreme Court after Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus ruled that Las Vegas was the wrong venue for the case. “The judge got it wrong and we’ll be appealing immediately,” Ford told reporters. The judge called off the trial, which had been scheduled for January next year, for defendants including Nevada Republican Party chairman Michael McDonald, Republican National Party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid and Republican national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
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