A 19-year-old California girl dating a 33-year-old registered sex offender called police after her father allegedly put posters around her college campus offering $3,000 for the boyfriend’s body – “dead or alive”.
The posters included the boyfriend’s name and picture and identified him as a convicted sex criminal.
The irate dad was arrested and held without bail. (PA)
Fowl attack
A man who says he was attacked by a rooster at a US animal centre has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $50,000 for his injuries.
Mark Lovett says his injuries were caused when the territorial chicken repeatedly pecked at his right leg as he was putting up a fence at the ranch in Illinois.
He said the attack caused him “great pain and anguish, both in mind and body”, according to the lawsuit filed in court. (PA)
Gang victims
Spanish police have freed a two-year-old boy who was held by a Nigerian gang who forced his mother to work as a prostitute, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
“The child was the son of one of the victims of the gang, which ran a prostitution network in Italy,” it said in a statement. “He was held to force his mother to continue her activity.”
The gang, based in the southern Spanish city of Seville,” recruited women from Nigeria and made them come to Spain and elsewhere in Europe to force them to work as prostitutes to pay off a debt of €50,000,” the statement said.
It said police freed “three women from sexual exploitation” and the investigation is continuing to try and save the other victims of the gang. (AFP)
Police food tasters
Two policemen are working as official food tasters to protect the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams ahead of the World Cup semi-final clash, the Times of India reported yesterday.
Assistant sub-inspector Rakesh Rasella and sub-inspector Ramphal, who only uses one name, have been eating three lavish meals a day at the luxury Taj hotel in Chandigarh to check for poisoning or other hygiene problems.
“I have tasted more than 18 different dishes before they were consumed by cricketers and I hadn’t eaten many of them ever (before),” Mr Rasella told the Times ahead of today’s match.
The Taj hotel offers three restaurants, including the Black Lotus that serves “the choicest Schezwan” fare, the Indian-theme Dera, and international cuisine at the “smart-casual” Cafe 17.
Security is on high alert ahead of the game in Mohali, outside Chandigarh city in the Indian state of Punjab. The two countries have a fractious relationship, and India is still highly sensitive after ten Pakistan-based Islamist gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in 2008.
At least 2,000 police and paramilitaries – reportedly armed with anti-aircraft guns and missiles – are guarding around the venue. (AFP)
Soldier’s blockade
Burkina Faso soldiers yesterday fired a rocket at the main courthouse in Fada N’Gourma, a day after freeing a comrade from jail and blocking entry to the eastern city, witnesses said.
“Soldiers fired a rocket on the courthouse this morning (Tuesday). It made a big hole in the building,” said an eyewitness .
A local official said the soldiers of the 32nd Infantry Commando Regiment continued to block the entrance to Fada N’Gourma, 220 kilometres east of the capital Ouagadougou, with tanks.
They started the blockade on Monday after freeing a comrade jailed for the rape of a teenage girl. Soldiers have been sowing terror in the west African country, shooting into the air and going on the rampage. (AFP)
Crisis record
Belgium’s political crisis reached another dubious milestone yesterday, equalling Iraq’s world record of the longest period without a government 289 days after legislative elections.
Politicians from Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia have been deadlocked since June 13 elections over Flemish demands for greater autonomy in the linguistically-divided country.
It took Iraqi Kurds and Shiite and Sunni Muslims 249 days to reach a political pact late last year and 40 more days to form a government. (AFP)
Doing 291 kph
A 22-year-old Brazilian man has been caught driving at an eye-watering 291 kilometres per hour on the German motorway, almost three times the speed limit, police said.
Many stretches of Germany’s extensive autobahn network have no speed limit but the area near Hamburg in the north where the man was caught had a 100-kph restriction.
Police attempted to give chase in an unmarked patrol car but the seven-series BMW with Polish number plates was too fast. He was eventually caught further on with the help of several police cars.
“Searching the boot of the car, police also recovered a small volume of drugs,” a statement said. “The 22-year-old is now facing four points (on his licence), a three-month driving ban and an €1,800-euro fine.” (AFP)
Escaped cobra
A deadly Egyptian cobra led a New York zoo on a snake hunt yesterday after escaping its enclosure and forcing shut down of the entire reptile section.
The Bronx Zoo said the “Reptile House will be closed until further notice” while keepers scoured for the venomous cobra, which is an adolescent and still only 50 cm long.
The zoo said New Yorkers had nothing to worry about in the wake of the snake-out late Friday.
“Based on our knowledge of the natural history and behaviour of snakes, we know they seek closed-in spaces and are not comfortable in open areas,” the zoo said in a statement. (AFP)