Tag: crime

Denmark to charge 1,000 youths with spreading sex videos via Facebook

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — More than 1,000 youths in Denmark are to be charged with spreading sex videos of two 15-year-olds through Facebook, Danish police said on Monday, in the nation’s largest case of its kind. Facebook had received reports of two videos and an explicit photo from 2015 being spread on its instant messaging service, showing a boy and a girl having consensual sex. The company later informed US authorities. The material was spread […]

Ahead of pope’s Chile visit, priests accused of child sex abuse

by Giovanna Fleitas Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Almost 80 Roman Catholic clergies have been accused of sexually abusing children in Chile since 2000, a US-based monitoring group said Wednesday ahead of a visit to the country next week by Pope Francis. Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, has spoken out against such abuse, which has rocked the church for years but has faced calls to improve accountability and transparency. BishopAccountability.org compiled its database […]

Armed robbers seize jewels worth ‘4 million euros’ from Paris Ritz

PARIS, France (AFP) — A gang of five armed robbers launched a spectacular raid on the world famous Ritz hotel in Paris Wednesday, making off with an estimated four million euros worth of jewels, investigators said. Three of the gang were detained at the scene but two remained at large as of Thursday evening, a police source said. A judicial source put the value of the jewels seized at “more than four million euros” ($4.75 […]

Cocaine worth $2.5m washes up on Philippine seashore

  MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Millions of dollars of cocaine packed in a plastic drum has washed up on a seashore in the eastern Philippines, an anti-narcotics official said Friday. A local fisherman in the town of Matnog found the drum on Wednesday and reported it to authorities, not knowing what was inside, said Christian Frivaldo, a regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Inside the drum, anti-drug agents found about 24 kilograms (53 […]

Australian gran escapes death in Malaysia drugs case

by Patrick Lee Agence France-Presse SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AFP) — An Australian grandmother who said she was tricked into carrying drugs into Malaysia after falling for an online romance scam was Wednesday cleared of trafficking, a crime punishable by death. Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto wept and hugged her son after being found not guilty of smuggling crystal methamphetamine, a rare outcome in a country where hundreds of people have been sentenced to death for drugs […]

2017 Mexico’s most violent year in two decades: officials

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — 2017 was Mexico’s most violent year in two decades, with 23,101 murders carried out between January and November, according to official figures released Friday. The number of murders in the first 11 months of this year surpassed the previous record of 22,409 killings during the whole of 2011. In November alone, 2,212 murders were recorded — while 2,380 killings were carried out in October, making it the most violent month since the […]

Rio’s stray bullets give innocent nowhere to hide

by Sebastian Smith Agence France-Presse RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — While the fighting in Rio de Janeiro’s crime war is done by commando-style police and heavily armed drug traffickers, a growing number of the victims look quite different: innocent, joyful children like Maria Eduarda. Firefights erupt in densely packed, poor favela neighborhoods, leaving thousands of people with nowhere to hide each time the shooting, involving Kalashnikovs and other military grade rifles, begins. AFP has investigated the […]

Cambodia seizes shipment of ivory hidden in hollow logs

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodia has seized nearly a tonne of ivory hidden in hollowed-out logs and discovered inside an abandoned shipping container, an official said Wednesday. The country has become a key regional transit point for the illicit wildlife trade. Nearly 280 pieces of ivory — full and partial elephant tusks — were found in the container at the southwestern port of Sihanoukville after sitting there for a year. The shipment, owned by […]

US to study legality of bump stocks used in Las Vegas massacre

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Justice Department announced Tuesday that it is reviewing the legality of “bump stocks,” two months after a man shot down 58 concert-goers from a Las Vegas hotel window using the devices. The Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — which regulates firearms but not gun accessories — will determine whether the devices, which make a semi-automatic weapon perform like an automatic weapon, are illegal. “Possessing firearm […]

Wife of California shooter found dead under floorboards

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Detectives searching the home of a man who went on a shooting rampage in northern California said Wednesday they had found his wife’s body under the floorboards, raising the death toll to five. Police in Tehama County believe Kevin Janson Neal shot her dead on Monday night before he began roaming the streets the following morning, armed with two semi-automatic rifles and selecting targets apparently at random. “We believe that is […]

UPDATED: Four killed in California mass shooting

by Jocelyne Zablit Agence France Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Four people were killed and nearly a dozen were wounded, including several children, when a gunman went on a rampage Tuesday at multiple locations, including a school in rural northern California. Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told reporters that the assailant was killed by police following the mass shooting, which began around 8:00 am (1600 GMT) at a home in Rancho Tehama […]

Massive data breach has cost Equifax nearly $90 million

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — A massive security breach that hit Equifax has cost the US credit bureau nearly $90 million so far, a figure that is set to rise further, its chief financial officer said on Thursday. The company, which gathers data on consumers to help lenders determine borrowers’ creditworthiness, revealed in September that hackers had stolen the personal details, including names, dates of birth and social security numbers, of nearly 146 million people. In […]