CUBA
President’s daughter leads gay rights march
About 500 people marched through the Cuban capital Saturday to the rhythm of conga drums in an early celebration of the international day against homophobia. President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela led the procession of gays and their supporters. Mariela Castro is the head of the National Sexual Education Center and a leading campaigner for gay rights in Cuba. Promoters plan a series of expositions and conferences leading up to another celebration in the city of Ciego de Avila on the day against homophobia itself, which falls on May 17.
ITALY
Immigrant goes on pickax rampage
An immigrant illegally living in Italy went on a rampage with a pickax in Milan at dawn Saturday, killing a passer-by and wounding four others in an apparently random attack, police said. The attack was carried out by a Ghanaian immigrant with a criminal record, police said. The 21-year-old attacker, identified as Mada Kabobo, was taken into custody shortly after the attacks.
MEXICO
2 Spaniards killed in Sinaloa
The handcuffed bodies of two Spanish men were found Saturday with bullet wounds in a car dumped in a canal in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The prosecutor’s office said the victims were Fernando Carmona,58, and Jose Montoya, 50, natives of Spain who had been living in Guadalajara. Prosecutor Julio Cesar Romanillo said the two men went missing a week ago after they left a hotel in the city of Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa. Sinaloa is home to Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel.
EGYPT
Christian teacher’s detention extended
Egyptian prosecutors extended the detention Saturday of a Coptic Christian teacher held over accusations of blasphemy of Islam and proselytizing Christianity, security officials said. Officials say 24-year-old teacher Dimiana Abdel-Nour will be held for another 15 days in a southern village near the famed city of Luxor where she taught history and geography. The defendant, who has denied the charges, went on hunger strike last week and was sent to a local hospital.
GABON
Marchers protest ritual killings
Thousands of Gabonese people marched to protest ritual killings in which people are murdered so their body parts can be used in amulets to bring good luck. Sylvia Bongo Ondimba, Gabon’s first lady, led the event Saturday along with Christian and Muslim religious leaders. The president of the Association for the Fight against Ritual Crimes, Elvis Ebang Ondo, estimates that Gabon has 20 mutilation killings a year. He said there are more such killings in election years, when people seek amulets to win government positions.
SYRIA
Rebels, troops fight over key highways
Syrian rebels on Saturday cut a newly built bypass road linking the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, an activist group said, while state media reported that government troops have secured a strategic highway between the capital and the southern city of Daraa. The reported fighting came as an activist group said U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, who left the country last year, met with a rebel commander Thursday at a border crossing point with Turkey.
PUERTO RICO
Corpses removed from flooded cemetery
Authorities in Puerto Rico removed at least 59 corpses Saturday from a flooded cemetery in the central mountain town of Lares as heavy rains continue to pelt the U.S. territory. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said ongoing downpours have exposed caskets and caused small landslides in the area. He signed an executive order to activate the National Guard to help with the situation. Emergency management director Miguel Rios said authorities plan to remove another 50 corpses. He said new burial spots will be found for the corpses.
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