NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Most wanted: Canadian police officers on bicycles chased down and caught a Laotian-born alleged drug smuggler who is on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s list of 10 most wanted suspects, authorities said Tuesday. Montreal police Commander Miguel Alston said Katay-Khaophone Sychanta, 35, was on a park bench preparing to smoke a joint with another man when police approached and questioned him last week. Alston said the officers were not satisfied with his answers after he produced identification that turned out to be a fake driver’s license from Maryland. Alston said Sychanta tried to run, but officers caught him and arrested him for suspected drug possession. Fingerprint checks revealed his identity.
_2 Win for whalers: The environmentalist group Sea Shepherd has called off its annual pursuit of Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, according to the group’s founder, who said it cannot keep up with Japan’s surveillance technology. “What we discovered is that Japan is now employing military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd ship movements in real time by satellite,” the group’s founder, Paul Watson, said in a statement. “If they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid us.” Sea Shepherd, a self-described “eco-vigilante” group founded in 1977, has spent years patrolling the remote Antarctic Ocean, investigating and documenting illegal fishing and whaling operations, putting it directly at odds with Japanese vessels.
_3 Nuclear sites: Iran on Tuesday dismissed U.S. demands for the inspection of Iranian military sites by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, shrugging off a request by America’s ambassador to the U.N. as only a “dream.” Iran government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told reporters that the demand by Ambassador Nikki Haley wasn’t worth any attention. Iran will not accept any inspection of its sites and “especially our military sites.”
_4 Railway scare: British police say a scare at a busy London railway station has turned out to have been caused by an electronic cigarette. British Transport Police said in a statement Tuesday night that officers responded to Euston Station in north London after receiving reports of an explosion there. The station was evacuated while bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in to help search the premises. The police statement says the investigation is ongoing, but the small explosion “is believed to have been caused by an e-cigarette which was in a bag at the station.” No injuries were reported, although some passengers reportedly fled the station in panic. _5 Show of support: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that he continues to fully support the head of a U.N. anticorruption commission in Guatemala despite the attempt by the president of that country to expel him. Guterres said he was shocked by President Jimmy Morales’ order to remove Ivan Velasquez. Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah, West Bank, the U.N. chief noted he had met with Morales just days before and said that while the Guatemalan leader had expressed concerns, he didn’t ask for Velasquez’s removal. Guterres praised the commission’s work in helping Guatemalan prosecutors attack corruption, a campaign that has proved popular in the Central American nation. Guatemala’s Constitutional Court suspended Morales’ order Sunday so it could study the legality of the action.