ITALY
Fugitive nabbed in Colombia
Italian police yesterday announced the arrest in Medellin of a dangerous fugitive accused of being the intermediary between Colombia’s drug cartels and the Naples mafia. Luigi Belvedere has been sentenced to almost 19 years in jail for international drug trafficking, but has been on the run since December 2020. Belvedere, a broker from Caserta “specialized in the illegal importation of cocaine [and] acted as a intermediary between Colombia cartels and some of the clans of the Casalesi,” police said. The Casalesi are a notorious branch of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra. Investigators located him in Colombia, in part because of his use of a “well-known messaging system,” police said. Belvedere, believed to be about 32 years old, was tracked down with the support of Colombian investigators and Europol.
INDIA
Endangered bustard hatches
A great Indian bustard chick has hatched thanks to artificial insemination, a significant breakthrough that raises hopes of saving the critically endangered bird. The number of the desert-dwelling, meter-tall birds has plummeted dramatically in the past 25 years, with only about 150 believed to remain in the wild. However, for the first time last week a bustard chick hatched as a result of artificial insemination, aided by scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India, the New Indian Express outlet reported on Thursday. The mother bustard, dubbed Tony, laid an egg at a breeding center in Rajasthan on Sept. 24, and a healthy chick emerged on Wednesday last week, the report said. Rajasthan State Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari said the event was a “historic step” in efforts to save the species from the brink of extinction.
BOSNIA
Teen fatally stabs police
A 14-year-old broke into a police station in the town of Bosanska Krupa late on Thursday and stabbed to death one officer and wounded another, Minister of the Interior for the Bosniak-Croat federation said. The wounded officer was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police spokesman Adnan Beganovic told national broadcaster BHRT. The attacker was arrested, he said, adding that prosecutors had launched an investigation. The motives for the attack were not immediately known. “This is very sad. What surprised us is that it concerns a minor aged 14 who dared attack officers in a police station. It’s an alarm bell for our society,” regional police chief Adnan Habibija said. Armin Halitovic, the mayor of the little town of 11,000 residents, said the attack had sent shockwaves, adding: “We are a peaceful and tolerant town.”
UNITED STATES
Over 40 dogs killed in fire
More than 40 dogs were killed on Thursday when a fire swept through a rescue organization’s kennels in northern New York, authorities said. The fire at the No Dogs Left Behind building at the Maple Ridge Kennels in Canton was reported at about 1am by a person who saw the flames while passing by the property, fire officials said. Flames overran the structure and killed the animals before firefighters could save them, the Canton Fire Department said in a Facebook post. No Dogs Left Behind said its members were heartbroken. “Each dog was a member of our family,” the group said in a social media post. “Tragically, they are victims once again. We have no words to express our grief.” The cause of the fire was not immediately clear and was under investigation by St Lawrence County officials. No firefighters or other people were injured, authorities said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
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
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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