Pot Pourri

Colombian caught in Spain with cocaine under toupee
MADRID: A Colombian man was detained at Barcelona’s international airport after half a kilo of cocaine was found hidden under an over-sized toupee, Spanish police said on Tuesday. Arriving on a flight from Bogota, the man attracted police attention as he looked nervous and had a disproportionately large hairpiece under his hat. They found a package stuck to his head with about 30,000 euros ($34,000) of cocaine. “There is no limit to the inventiveness of drug traffickers trying to mock controls,” said the police statement. The statement enclosed a photo of a middle-aged man – apparently still wearing the toupee though with his eyes blocked in the image – but gave no more details of his identity. Over 100 kilos of cocaine were seized by Spanish police at the Barcelona-El Prat airport in 2018. The Colombian was detained at the end of June. (Reuters)

Egypt releases transgender woman after 4 months in jail
Cairo: An Egyptian rights group said that authorities have released a transgender woman who was held for more than four months in connection to a call for protests. The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms on Tuesday released a statement informing that Malak el-Kashef was released earlier this week. El-Kashef was among dozens arrested over calls for demonstrations following a February 27 train crash in Cairo that killed at least 25 people. Prosecutors say that they suspect she belongs to an unnamed terrorist group, a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The rights group says el-Kashef underwent a forced anal exam at a government hospital that amounted to torture and sexual harassment. Egypt has waged a sweeping crackdown on dissent in recent years, targeting political critics as well as anyone believed to be gay or lesbian. (AP)

Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit unveiled at Smithsonian
WASHINGTON: The spacesuit astronaut Neil Armstrong wore during his mission to the moon went on public display for the first time in 13 years on Tuesday, at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum exactly 50 years to the day when Apollo 11 launched into space. Armstrong’s son Rick unveiled the suit along with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who recalled how the country was deeply divided in the late 1960s but came together in pride when Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong died on Aug. 12, 2012 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Armstrong’s suit was displayed for about 30 years at the Smithsonian before it was taken down in 2006 because curators were concerned about deterioration. For the past 13 years, the suit has been subject to extensive conservation work, which included interviews with the designers and creators of the spacesuit and research into the materials and products used. (Reuters)