Police in the Los Angeles area were looking for a man who swiped a wedding gift box holding $60,000 in cash and checks as guests celebrated the newlyweds at a banquet hall. The brazen theft occurred early Sunday shortly after midnight at Renaissance Banquet Hall in Glendale, a city just northeast of Hollywood, police said in a statement Tuesday. Inside the box was around $60,000 in cash and checks, wedding gifts for the couple, police said. Video from the banquet hall shown on KABC-TV and KTLA-TV of Los Angeles shows the man, bald and dressed in black, grab the box from a table and dash off....
Chief Of Japanese Beverage Giant Suntory Claims Innocence After Resigning Over CBD Supplement
The former chief executive of Japanese beverage giant Suntory acknowledged he was investigated on suspicion of possessing an illegal drug but asserted his innocence despite resigning from his position. “I have not broken the law. I believe I am innocent,” Takeshi Niinami told reporters Wednesday. Suntory Holdings President Nobuhiro Torii, a member of the company’s founding family, held a news conference Tuesday to announce Niinami had resigned. Torii declined to give many details, saying the case was still under investigation. Police in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, confirmed Niinami was being investigated in a possible drug case without giving further details. Niinami said...
Sweeping Russian Air Attack Hits Ukraine As Putin Attends China Parade
Russia launched a sweeping overnight air attack on Ukraine that injured at least four railway workers and damaged critical infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday. The attacks came as Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a military parade in Beijing, to mark the end of World War Two, at which Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the world faced a choice between peace and war. Air raid alerts sounded for hours across Ukraine, with explosions heard in nine of its 24 regions, from Kyiv to Lviv and Volyn in the west, Ukrainian officials and media said. Ukraine ‘s air force said it downed...
Shooting Of Indonesian Diplomat In Peru Investigated As A Contract Killing
Peruvian authorities on Tuesday said they are investigating the shooting death of an Indonesian diplomat as a contract killing amid a surge in violent crime in the South American country. Zetro Leonardo Purba, 40, who worked at the Indonesian Embassy in Peru’s capital, Lima, was shot three times Monday night as he arrived on a bicycle at his apartment building. Authorities said Purba was taken to a hospital but was later declared dead. Officials didn’t immediately provide a motive for the shooting. But Interior Minister Carlos Malaver told lawmakers the attack was a “qualified homicide in the form of a...
Top Japanese Beverage Giant Suntory’s Chief Resigns As He Faces A Drug Probe
Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of Japan’s major beverage maker Suntory, resigned Tuesday to take responsibility for being under investigation for alleged possession of an illegal drug. Suntory Holdings President Nobuhiro Torii, who is from the company’s founding family, told reporters the company had accepted Niinami’s resignation. Torii was vague about details such as the type of allegedly illegal drug, saying the case was still under investigation. Niinami, 66, is a prominent business leader who is credited with guiding strong growth at Suntory, which makes whisky, beer and non-alcoholic beverages. He became the company’s chief executive in 2014, and has won...
Putin Meets North Korea’s Kim In Beijing
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for bilateral talks in Beijing on Wednesday. The two leaders met formally at the Diaoyutai state guest house after attending a major military parade in the heart of the Chinese capital that marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Putin and Kim traveled from a formal reception to the negotiations in the same car, the Kremlin said in a post on social media. After a bilateral meeting between Russian and North Korean delegations, the two leaders held a one-on-one meeting, the Kremlin said. Putin also invited...
Jury Clears Cardi B Of Assault On Security Guard In Los Angeles
Cardi B was cleared of assault by a Los Angeles jury after a security guard sued her for $24m (£18m)in a fingernail attack. Emani Ellis alleged that the US rapper cut her cheek with a 3in (7.5cm) fingernail and spat on her outside an obstetrician’s office in 2018. The rapper was pregnant at the time, which wasn’t public knowledge. The civil trial in Alhambra led to a series of viral moments as the rapper took the stand and offered colourful testimony about the incident and her fashion choices. She told the court that the guard followed her and filmed her...
Maine Mass Shooting Survivors To File Negligence Lawsuit Against The U.S. Government
Families of the victims of a 2023 mass shooting in Maine and dozens of survivors intend to file a negligence lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. government, alleging the military and others failed to respond to warning signs and a threat by the gunman, who was an Army reservist. Robert Card, 40, killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, setting off a two-day manhunt that ended when he died by suicide, authorities said. The approximately 100 plaintiffs are expected to name the Defense Department, the Army and Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, New York, in the suit, which a team of four...
French Actor Gerard Depardieu To Face Trial For Alleged Rape, Actress Says
French actress Charlotte Arnould wrote on social media on Tuesday that film star Gerard Depardieu had been ordered to face trial for allegedly raping her. The Paris prosecutor’s office and her lawyer did not respond to a request for confirmation of Arnould’s comments. Depardieu’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Depardieu has denied wrongdoing in the case. Investigative magistrates placed Depardieu under formal investigation on suspicion of rape and sexual assault in the case in 2022. Arnould, 29, later revealed she was behind those accusations, saying she could not bear remaining silent any longer. “I think I’m having...
Burkina Faso Parliament Passes Law Outlawing ‘Homosexual Practices’
Burkina Faso’s transitional parliament passed legislation outlawing conduct deemed to promote LGBTQ practices, introducing fines, prison sentences and sanctions for persons convicted, its justice minister said. The Persons and Family Code law, making Burkina Faso the latest in a series of African countries to criminalize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activity, also tightens rules on nationality and stateless people. The military that took over Burkina Faso in a 2022 coup has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent amid worsening Islamist militant violence in the West African country. The legislation was passed unanimously by the unelected, 71-member transitional parliament on Monday and...