NICOSIA: Cypriot authorities on Tuesday recovered the remains of a body stuffed in a suitcase at the bottom of a lake believed to be the sixth victim of a suspected serial killer.
A Greek Cypriot army officer is in custody after reportedly confessing to murdering five foreign women and two of their daughters in a string of killings that have left the Mediterranean holiday island in shock.
The police have so far recovered five other bodies, including remains dumped inside two other suitcases found in the same lake.
“A suitcase was found in the lake which on first examination appears to be the remains of a body in a state of decomposition,” police spokesman Andreas Angelides told reporters.
“This is a very important development... we will now proceed with identifying the body,” he added.
The suitcase is thought to contain the body of missing Filipino Maricar Valdez.
New Cyprus police chief Kypros Michaelides said what he saw at the lake was “unprecedented” in his 42 years of service and that he had never seen such “savagery.”
State radio reported the suitcase was weighed down with slabs of pavement.
Investigators are still searching a different lake for the remains of a six-year-old Filipino girl, whose mother’s corpse has already been found.
Authorities said Thursday they may partially drain that lake in efforts to find the body after weeks of searching with the help of UK and Israeli experts produced no results.
The killings, which went undetected for nearly three years, came to light when tourists spotted a body brought to the surface of a mine shaft by unusually heavy rains.
That triggered a murder investigation which led to the army captain’s arrest on April 18.
The failure by the authorities to follow up on reports that the women were missing has sparked ire and led to the dismissal of the police chief and the resignation of the justice minister.
Cyprus finds suspected remains of sixth ‘serial killer’ victim
Cyprus finds suspected remains of sixth ‘serial killer’ victim
‘State of Palestine’ applies to join South Africa’s case at top UN court accusing Israel of genocide
‘State of Palestine’ applies to join South Africa’s case at top UN court accusing Israel of genocide
The request published Monday says that Israel’s ongoing military operation is “part of a systematic effort to wipe Palestinian society and its culture and social institutions from the map.” The request to the International Court of Justice was signed by Palestinian Authority foreign ministry official Ammar Hijazi.
South Africa filed its case with the world court late last year accusing Israel of breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza. Israel denies it is committing genocide in its military operation to crush Hamas triggered by the deadly Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.
The court has issued three preliminary orders in the case calling on Israel to do all it can to prevent deaths in the enclave, ramp up humanitarian aid and, most recently, halt its offensive in Rafah.
It is unclear how long the court’s judges will take to rule on the request. If granted, Palestinian officials will be able to address the court in writing and during public hearings.
In their request, the Palestinians said they are directly affected by the case.
“The Israeli onslaught has obliterated and damaged, beyond recognition, Gaza’s hospitals, mosques, churches, universities, schools, homes, shops, and infrastructure, as part of a systematic effort to wipe Palestinian society and its culture and social institutions from the map,” the request says.
The request adds that, Israel is violating the court’s orders and continuing with “its genocidal acts including deliberately and systematically impeding humanitarian aid, resulting in an intentionally engineered situation of starvation and a creeping famine that is increasingly imminent.”
The Palestinians have been to the court before. In 2018, The Palestinian Authority filed a case asking its judges to order Washington to remove the relocated US embassy from Jerusalem. The case followed the decision of the administration of then-US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.
That case remains before the court, where cases can take years to resolve.
Italy’s Meloni to visit migrant centers in Albania
- PM Rama defended the deal, saying Albania — which is seeking to join the EU — was ‘showing solidarity over the demographic problem facing Europe’
- International Rescue Committee NGO condemned the agreement as ‘dehumanizing,’ while Amnesty described it as ‘illegal and unenforceable’
TIRANA: Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni will travel to Albania on Wednesday to visit migrant centers to be run by Italy, her office said, just days before European elections.
Under a controversial deal between Rome and Tirana, Albania has agreed to take in asylum seekers plucked from the seas off Italy, register them at a center on the Adriatic Sea and then house them at another center inland while their claims are processed.
Meloni’s hard-right government had hoped to have the project up and running before European Union-wide elections on June 6-9 to bolster her claim to be tough on illegal migration.
The Italian leader, who heads the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, will meet Albanian counterpart Edi Rama and discuss the holding centers for migrants.
Her office confirmed on Monday she would conduct a joint visit with Rama to the “areas envisioned” under the migrant deal signed with Albania in November 2023.
Her visit coincides with the Italian cultural week in Albania.
Authorities in the Albanian port city of Shenjin said at the weekend that the migrant holding center there had been completed.
The asylum claims processing center in Gjader is still unfinished, however, and no delivery date has been announced.
The centers, to be managed by Italy, can hold a maximum of 3,000 asylum seekers at any one time.
Italy will pay to build the centers and foot the bill for expenses relating to security and medical care, at a cost estimated at between 650 to 750 million euros ($700-800 million) over the first five years.
In an interview aired on Italian television on Sunday evening, Rama defended the deal, saying Albania — which is seeking to join the 27-nation EU — was “showing solidarity over the demographic problem facing Europe today.”
The International Rescue Committee NGO has condemned the agreement as “dehumanizing,” while Amnesty International described it as “illegal and unenforceable.”
Finnish court dismisses lawsuit challenging Covid restaurant rules
- A man sued the Finnish state and a Finnish food company after a cafe refused to serve him in December 2021
HELSINKI: A Finnish court has dismissed a lawsuit brought against the state for discrimination over restrictions introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a ruling reviewed by AFP on Monday.
A man sued the Finnish state and a Finnish food company after a cafe refused to serve him in December 2021 because he lacked a Covid-19 certificate to prove he had been vaccinated.
At the time, Finland’s Covid regulations allowed cafes and restaurants to demand vaccine certificates for entry.
When the man was denied breakfast at the Fazer Cafe in central Helsinki, he decided to sue the state for imposing the restrictions, as well as the company that owned the cafe.
He argued the refusal was discriminatory and violated his human rights, and demanded 20,000 euros ($21,800) in compensation.
But the Helsinki District Court on Friday dismissed the lawsuit, ordering the plaintiff to pay 105,000 euros in legal compensation to the Finnish state within a month and 16,460 euros in legal fees to Fazer.
“The plaintiff was aware of the corona passport requirement when he entered the cafe” as there were notes informing customers about the rules outside, the court said in its ruling.
In addition, the man’s lawyer was ordered to contribute to the payments, with the court citing his negligent handling of the case.
Niko Pyrhonen, a researcher focused on alternative media at Helsinki University, told AFP on Monday that the case had received attention among the anti-vaccination movement and critics of Covid-19 restrictions.
“The implementation of the Covid-19 passport only directly touches upon people who have not taken the vaccination,” he said, adding that the case had raised international interest because there was “similar opposition to policies that had been implemented in other countries.”
Alert level raised for Philippine volcano after ‘explosive eruption’: volcanology agency
- Mount Kanlaon on the central island of Negros erupted shortly before 7:00 p.m.
- Kanlaon is one of 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation
MANILA: The alert level for a Philippine volcano was raised Monday after an “explosive eruption” sent a plume of ash, gas and steam five kilometers (three miles) into the sky, the volcanology agency said.
Mount Kanlaon on the central island of Negros erupted shortly before 7:00 p.m. (1100 GMT), prompting warnings for nearby residents to wear facemasks due the threat of volcanic gases and falling ash.
“When it erupted we heard a thunder-like sound,” Ethan Asentista-Khoo, 35, said from his home in Pula village near the volcano.
“There was like a fire on the mouth of the volcano, which lasted around one to two minutes. I didn’t see any lava or rocks coming out.”
The Philippines is located in the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire” that hosts more than half of the world’s volcanoes.
Kanlaon is one of 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation.
Eruptions can be deadly, with pyroclastic and lahar flows as well as ashfall posing hazards to communities surrounding the volcano.
Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan acquitted in state secrets case, but to stay in jail
- Former leader was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022
ISLAMABAD: A high court in Pakistan acquitted jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday from a conviction on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer and his party said, but Khan will remain in prison for now due to a conviction in another case.
Khan, 71, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was Khan’s foreign minister during his tenure from 2018-2022, was also acquitted of the charges.
“Thank God, the sentence is overturned,” a spokesman for legal affairs from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Naeem Panjutha, said in a post on the X social media platform.
Despite the acquittal, Khan will remain in prison, having also been convicted in another case relating to his marriage to his third wife, Bushra Khan, contravening Islamic traditions.
