World news in brief
Family says video shows police smothering Black man
The family of Irvo Otieno, a Black man who died in police custody in Virginia earlier this month, says video from a state mental hospital shows a large group of deputies smothering the 28-year-old to death. “My son was treated like a dog, worse than a dog,” Caroline Ouko said during a press conference. “He was murdered. They smothered the breath out of my baby. They murdered my baby.”
According to the family and their attorneys, who have viewed the video, officers held down Otieno, a death reminiscent of the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. Seven Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies were charged on Tuesday with second-degree murder charges in the death, and three hospital workers were also hit with charges on Thursday related to the death.
Star of The Wire dies ‘suddenly’ at age 60
Lance Reddick, a veteran character actor known for his intense roles in HBO’s hit series The Wire and the John Wick action films, died yesterday. He was 60 and died “suddenly” from natural causes, his publicist said. TMZ, which first reported the news of Reddick’s death, said the actor’s body was found at his home in Studio City, Los Angeles, according to law enforcement sources. The actor’s Wire co-star Wendell Pierce wrote on social media yesterday that Reddick was “a man of great strength and grace”. Filmmaker James Gunn said on Twitter that Reddick was “an incredibly nice guy, and an incredibly talented actor”.
Two arrested in Hong Kong over ‘seditious’ children’s books
Hong Kong’s national security police arrested two men for possessing children’s books that the administration deemed seditious. The men, aged 38 and 50, were arrested following raids at their homes in Kowloon and Hong Kong island. The police said they recovered the publications that “could incite hatred or contempt” against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments and the judiciary. Several copies of the illustrated children’s books were seized, the police said.
The men were arrested on 13 March and later released on bail but have been asked to report to the police the next month, the local newspaper Mingpao reported. The publications were reportedly sent from the UK to Hong Kong. The books portrayed Hongkongers during the 2019 democracy protest as sheep trying to defend their village from wolves – a reference to
the Chinese authorities. Human Rights Watch called the arrests “shameful”.
Tokyo citizens hand in £25m in lost cash
Citizens in Tokyo gave back a record ¥3.99bn (£24.5m) in lost cash to the police last year. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said in a report on Wednesday that police were able to return ¥2.95bn (£18.2bn) of the total amount to respective owners, reported Japan Today. Unclaimed money goes to the metropolitan government, the report said.
Japan’s goods law says anyone who finds money must hand it over to the police, but they can claim a reward of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent if it is retrieved by the owner, according to The Guardian. The police department report also said approximately 3.43 million lost items were handed in to police stations in 2022, recording a 21.9 per cent increase from 2021.
Missile launch test confirmed by North Korea
North Korea has confirmed that it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in a test overseen by the country’s leader Kim Jong Un and his young daughter. State media Korean Central News Agency reported that Mr Kim supervised the test-firing of the Hwasong-17 missile. State television showed the launch from various angles as Mr Kim and his daughter and heir apparent Kim Ju Ae believed to be about 10 years old watched.
Mr Kim said that the test was meant to “strike fear into the enemies” over “open hostility” shown to the North by the USSouth Korea joint military exercises. According to assessments by South Korea and Japan’s militaries, the US mainland is within the missile’s range. Thursday’s launch was North Korea’s second ICBM test this year. The Hwasong-15 launched in February is a slightly smaller weapon than the Hwasong-17.
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