FRANCE
No-show stops rape trial
The trial of a man accused of recruiting strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife was yesterday suspended after he failed to show up in court due to ill health. The presiding judge had adjourned the trial of Dominique Pelicot until yesterday after the accused was excused from attending proceedings for most of last week because of his deteriorating health. However, his lawyer said that Pelicot, 71, was still not well enough to attend. “He will not be there today,” Beatrice Zavarro said, unless “he is taken by force” from his cell. She said Pelicot was suffering from “a clot in the bladder” and the beginning of a kidney infection. “I have been advised that Mr Pelicot has refused his extraction” from his cell, presiding judge Roger Arata said.
BOTSWANA
1,094-carat diamond found
Lucara Diamond Corp has recovered another mammoth diamond from a local mine, its second major find in a month. The latest gem weighed 1,094 carats and was found at the Karowe mine, Lucara said in a statement. While it is smaller than the 2,942-carat stone discovered at the same site last month, it is still about a third the size of the biggest-ever found, the Cullinan Diamond of South Africa. Lucara’s Karowe project is famous for giant stones, and the company’s shares jumped more than a third last month when the initial mammoth finding was announced. CEO William Lamb said the latest discovery further validated an expansion of the site’s underground capacity, which would extend the life of the project to at least 2040.
UNITED STATES
Subway shooting injures 4
Four people were wounded at a Brooklyn subway station on Sunday when police officers shot at a man threatening them with a knife, the authorities said. The people hit by police gunfire included the man with the blade, one of the officers and two innocent bystanders. The bloody confrontation began when two officers confronted a man who had entered the station without paying his fare, officials said. One of the bystanders, a 49-year-old man, was hospitalized in critical condition. The man suspected of evading his fare, 37, was shot several times, but was in stable condition. A 26-year-old woman suffered a graze wound. The wounded police officer had a bullet enter his torso under his armpit and lodge in his back, but was also expected to recover. New York City Police Department Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlan promised a thorough investigation into the shooting. “But right now, we are grateful that our officer will be OK,” he told reporters.
HUNGARY
Short-term rentals banned
Residents of Budapest’s sixth district have narrowly voted to ban short-term rentals from 2026 in a decision that could have wider ramifications for the housing market in one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations. Eurostat figures show almost 719 million guest nights spent in the EU were booked via online platforms Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor last year, with Paris leading EU capitals with more than 19 million guest nights. Within central Europe, Budapest was the most popular for short-term stays, with 6.7 million guest nights. Results published on the Budapest district’s Web site early yesterday showed 54 percent of voters backing the ban with 20.52 percent turnout, which the district said was well above levels seen at other local initiatives. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government is mulling regulation on short-term rentals, which it blames for a housing shortage and high prices.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
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