PIO held guilty of smuggling drugs in UK
London: A 33-year-old Indian-origin man is among members of a drugs smuggling gang busted and convicted for their role in conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis from the Netherlands to the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Joshpal Singh Kothiria was caught as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation in Britain, which uncovered his role as a driver from Wolverhampton in central England who supplied the smuggled drugs to neighbouring Ireland. pti
Zimbabwe releases over 4,000 prisoners
Harare: Zimbabwe has begun releasing more than 4,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty that authorities say will help ease congestion in some overcrowded jails. About 800 prisoners were released Friday from the Central Prison and Chikurubi Maximum Prison in the capital, Harare. Jails in other parts of the country began releasing prisoners who qualified for the amnesty on Thursday, said Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services spokeswoman Meya Khanyezi. ap
US returns ‘Earth Monster’ sculpture to Mexico
Mexico City: Mexico announced on Friday that a huge 2,500-year-old Olmec stone sculpture has been returned from the US. The almost two-metre-tall “Monster of the Earth” sculpture appears to represent gaping maw of a monster, big enough to swallow people, and may represent a symbolic entrance to the underworld. Experts say it is important because of the insights it provides on the cosmological vision of the Olmecs, considered a founding culture of Meso-America. ap
Mother held for abandoning ‘Baby India’ in US
New York: Police in the US state of Georgia have arrested a 40-year-old woman for attempting to commit murder and reckless abandonment for stuffing her newborn dubbed “Baby India” into a plastic bag in 2019 and throwing her in the woods like trash, according to media reports. Karima Jiwani was arrested on Thursday after she was identified as the baby’s biological mother through DNA sampling.
