CUBA
Hunger strike help arrives at Gitmo
Medical reinforcements arrived at Guantanamo Bay to help deal with a hunger strike among prisoners at the U.S. base in Cuba. Lt. Col. Samuel House said Monday that about 40 nurses and other specialists arrived over the weekend. They are U.S. Navy personnel. Their arrival was planned several weeks ago as the number of prisoners joining the hunger strike kept growing, he said. Prisoners began the hunger strike in February to protest conditions and their indefinite confinement.
KOSOVO
Three guilty in organ trafficking case
A court in Kosovo found two people guilty of human trafficking and organized crime Monday. The defendants were accused of running an international organ trafficking ring that took kidneys from poor donors lured by financial promises. Judges sentenced urologist Lutfi Dervishi to eight years in prison and his son Arban Dervishi to seven years and three months. A third defendant, Sokol Hajdini, was sentenced to three years in jail for causing grievous bodily harm. The victims were promised $10,000 to $12,000 in return for their kidneys, but many said they were never paid.
MEXICO
Official’s daughter gets restaurant closed
A Mexican official’s daughter sent inspectors to shut down a restaurant that didn’t give her the table she wanted. The government said Monday it launched an investigation into the weekend incident at the Maximo Bistrot in Mexico City’s trendy Roma Norte neighborhood. Andrea Benitez, the daughter of the federal attorney general for consumer protection, Humberto Benitez Trevino, went to the restaurant and apparently didn’t get the table she wanted or had been promised. Just hours after the incident, inspectors showed up with official “suspended” signs to punish the restaurant.
UNITED KINGDOM
Pedophile inquiry finds widespread abuse
A new investigation re-examining decades-old child abuse claims at 18 children’s care homes in north Wales has identified 140 possible victims, British police said Monday. The inquiry collected “significant evidence of systemic and serious sexual and physical abuse of children” at the care homes, police said in a report. The alleged victims, mostly men, were from 7 to 19 years old when they say they were targeted between 1965 and 1992. The alleged offenses ranged from verbal abuse to indecent assaults and rape. The number of care homes was larger and the timeline involved was longer than previously thought.
EGYPT
Necropolis looting sparks youth protest
Egyptian youths protested Monday at a key historic site, demanding that authorities put a stop to looting and construction that threatens one of the nation’s oldest pyramids and burial grounds. Illegal construction of a new cemetery has been going on for months in part of a 4,500-year-old pharaonic necropolis. Authorities issued an order in January to remove the construction equipment, instructing the Interior Ministry’s police to implement it, but no action has been taken.
INDIA
Dad accused of letting kid drive Ferrari
Police arrested a man Monday who allowed his 9-year-old son to drive his Ferrari in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Mohammed Nisham was arrested on charges of endangering the life of a child and allowing a minor to drive, Inspector Biju Kumar said. He was released after posting bail of 5,000 rupees ($92), Kumar said. Nisham’s wife filmed the boy driving the sports car on his ninth birthday two weeks ago with his 5-year-old brother in the passenger seat. Police Inspector M.V. Verghese said the boy’s father, who has a thriving tobacco and real estate business, owns 18 cars worth an estimated $4 million.
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