RAMIEH: In a scene more befitting a nature documentary than a border incident, residents of the southern Lebanese town of Ramieh reported an unusual intrusion Thursday: a group of monkeys crossing in from the Israeli side.
According to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), the primates were seen roaming the outskirts of the village in what is being viewed as the latest — and perhaps most bizarre — breach along the fragile Lebanese-Israeli border.
This primate incursion follows a separate incident just weeks ago, when a herd of Israeli cattle wandered into Ramieh and neighboring Aita Al-Shaab, reportedly exploiting gaps in the fence separating the two countries.
Local sources told NNA that these repeated animal crossings are the result of structural openings in the Israeli border barrier, which have allegedly been created — and at times used — by the Israeli army for nightime incursions into Lebanese territory.
Monkeys cross from Israel into southern Lebanese town exposing border vulnerabilities
https://arab.news/jt8m3
Monkeys cross from Israel into southern Lebanese town exposing border vulnerabilities
- According to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), the primates were seen roaming the outskirts of the village
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
