Baby stolen from Colombian woman’s womb
Bogota: A 19-year-old pregnant Colombian woman’s unborn child was stolen after she was drugged and cut open, authorities in the northern province of Magdalena said.
The case occurred near Santa Marta, the provincial capital, police Col. Cesar Granados told reporters.
Andrea Carolina Pallares Cabrera, seven months pregnant, was in Santa Marta doing some personal errands when she was approached by an unknown woman who offered to help her enroll her baby in a public health programme.
Granados said that Pallares was taken to a wooded area outside Santa Marta, but doesn’t yet remember how they got to the place.
There they used some instrument to cut her open, removed the baby from her womb and left her stranded.
The young woman managed to reach a highway where she was picked up by a local and taken to a hospital.
Due to the seriousness of her condition, she was moved to a better-equipped clinic in Santa Marta, where she is in intensive care.
According to a medical report, the woman was admitted with a transverse incision in the abdomen and the uterus open, with blood and sand in the abdominal cavity. She was operated to remove the risk of infection.
Police said that a woman has been arrested in the case, who had been found with a premature baby and who said she had given birth with the aid of a midwife.
A medical exam showed that the woman in custody had not given birth recently, after which the woman admitted that several months ago she had been pregnant, but lost the baby because of the abusive treatment inflicted by her man, who promised to bring her a substitute baby.
The woman lives near where Pallares was attacked, according to Granados.
“Everything indicates that the baby was stolen from the mother’s womb. A DNA test is pending to fully establish the relationship,” the colonel said.
The newborn remains in intensive care at a clinic in Santa Marta. (IANS)
Man, woman killed over video in Pakistan
Islamabad: A young man and a woman were gunned down over the woman’s video that was shot with a mobile phone in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The video was sold to a shop selling compact discs, police said.
Akbar Shah, father of Khalid who shot the video, said that two men shot dead his son. They also killed the woman, reported Dawn Friday.
The media report did not mention about what the video contained. (IANS)
Tunisia bans police unions
Tunis: Tunisia has banned all police unions in the country, as it views them being a threat to the national security, Xinhua reported.
The police unions in Tunisia are demanding fair trial for the 23 officers arrested in connection with the killing of protesters before the Jan 14 unrest, which ended the 23-year rule of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Tunisia’s interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi announced Tuesday a ban on all police unions, which he said represent a threat to the country’s security, the official press agency TAP reported.
Essebsi blamed the police unions for “inciting insurrection”, saying that any union activity will be punished as per law.
He also announced a set of measures aimed at restoring law and order in the face of increasing acts of violence in the country. They included giving more power to the interior minister and governors to prevent sit-ins, attacks on police stations and government buildings, as well as violence against army and police forces.
Meanwhile, hundreds of policemen demonstrated outside his office at the Kasbah Tuesday, seeking resignations of Interior Minister Habib Essid and the army’s Chief of Staff General Rachid Ammar. (IANS)
Philippines catches ‘largest’ crocodile on record
Manila: A giant saltwater crocodile weighing more than a tonne was captured in a remote Philippine village following a spate of attacks on humans and livestock, officials said today.
The 21-foot (6.4-metre), 1,075-kilogramme reptile may have eaten a farmer who went missing in July, along with several water buffaloes in the southern town of Bunawan, crocodile hunter Rollie Sumiller said.
A crocodile also bit off the head of a 12-year-old girl in Bunawan in 2009, according to the environment ministry. Josefina de Leon, wildlife division chief of the environment ministry’s protected areas and wildlife bureau, said it was likely the biggest crocodile ever captured.
“Based on existing records the largest that had been captured previously was 5.48 metres long,” she told AFP.
“This is the biggest animal that I’ve handled in 20 years of trapping,” Sumiller added, estimating the male to be more than 50 years old.
“The community was relieved,” he told AFP, but added: “We’re not really sure if this is the man-eater, because there have been other sightings of other crocodiles in the area.”
The team, employed by a government-run crocodile breeding farm, began laying bait using chicken, pork and dog meat on August 15, but the reptile simply bit off both meat and line the it was skewered on.
An eight milimetre (0.31-inch) metal cable finally proved beyond the power of its jaws and the beast was subdued at a creek on Saturday with the help of about 30 local men.
The local government decided against putting down the reptile and will instead use him as the main attraction at a planned nature park in the area.
“He’s a problem crocodile that needs to be taken from the wildlife so that it can be used for eco-tourism,” Sumiller said.
Crocodylus porosus or estuarine crocodile is the world’s largest reptile that usually grows to five or six metres long and can live up to 100 years. While not considered an endangered species globally, it is “critically endangered” in the Philippines, where it is hunted for its hide to feed the fashion industry, de Leon said. (AFP)
Pub owner in China jailed for gay shows
Shanghai: A pub owner in China who organised gay performances has been sentenced to five months in prison and fined 5,000 yuan ($783).
The Huangpu district people’s court jailed Wang Bing for pornography, the Shanghai Daily reported.
The 47-year-old owns a pub in the downtown area and is also a marketing director of a local arts venue. When he opened his pub, it failed to do good business, and he tried to organise gay performances to woo customers.
Wang invited Xiao Hui, a bar dancer, to perform at his pub. But police raided the pub on neighbours’ complaints.
Wang pleaded guilty and was later jailed. The gay performer’s fate couldn’t be known. (IANS)