GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

US mayor accused

SEATTLE: A lawsuit accuses Seattle Mayor Ed Murray of sexually molesting a teenage high-school dropout in the 1980s and, in interviews with

The Seattle Times, two other men claim he abused them. The mayor denied the allegations through his personal spokesman Jeff Reading. “These false accusations are intended to damage a prominent elected official who has been a defender of vulnerable populations for decades,” said a statement. “These unsubstantiated assertions, dating back three decades, are categorically false.”

Honda recall in US

TOKYO: Japanese automaker Honda said yesterday it was recalling 37,000 vehicles in the US to check if replacement air bags contain the recalled Takata inflators that may have been installed prior to the massive Takata recalls last year. Honda Motor Co. said the recall of the front airbag inflator of the 2003 two-door Accord doesn’t affect its vehicles in other regions.

ETA disarms itself

MADRID: The Basque separatist group ETA says it has given up its arsenal of weapons and explosives to civil society groups. “After giving up all its weaponry to Basque civil society representatives, it is now a disarmed organization,” the militant group said in a letter published by the BBC. It is the group’s first public communique in more than five years, since it gave up the violence it waged to achieve an independent Basque state in southern France and northern Spain.

Tenants going ape

HAVANA: Chimpanzees have broken Marta Llanes’ television, chewed her phone to pieces and ruined her furniture. But she has forgiven their transgressions. It’s hard to stay angry at a baby chimpanzee when it clambers into your arms. While zoos in other countries may have facilities for raising baby animals, in Cuba the job falls to Llanes, a 62-year-old zoologist, who has cared for baby chimps in her Havana apartment since 1983.

Trafficking women

HONOLULU: A Chinese man faces deportation after being convicted of trafficking women from China to work as prostitutes in Hawaii. Wei Li, also known as Xin Li, pleaded no contest to racketeering-related charges.

Couple linked to IS

MANILA: US and Kuwaiti security officials helped Philippine authorities identify and arrest a Middle Eastern couple with suspected links to the Islamic State group who may have been planning bomb attacks, Filipino officials said yesterday.