The death toll from a violent weekend storm that lashed Central America neared 150 Tuesday, and more fatalities were feared as rescuers reached villages cut off by floods and mudslides.
Guatemala’s President Alvaro Colom told a news conference that 123 people were now confirmed killed and another 90 missing in his country as a result of Tropical Storm Agatha, which dumped heavy rains before dissipating in the country’s highlands.
“I want to make clear that those are provisional numbers because new information continues to come in,” he said. “There are many villages that still have not been able to report their tragedies.” Earlier, the Red Cross disaster response unit in Panama City had reported 118 dead in Guatemala, 17 in Honduras and nine in El Salvador. Most of the fatalities were due to landslides.
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Man tears out friend’s heart while he was alive
Washington : A man in the US ripped out a friend’s heart while he was still alive as he “needed to stop the devil”. Jarrod Wyatt, 26, also cut out Taylor Powell’s tongue and tore most of his face in the vicious assault.
Powell bled to death after his heart was taken out, the Telegraph reported Tuesday.
The police found him standing naked over Powell’s body with body parts, including an eyeball, lying in the flat in Klamath, California. The incident took place in March and the pre-trial hearings are on.
Wyatt said he had drunk a cup of tea spiked with hallucinogenic mushrooms and after the attack, he threw the heart into a fire along with other organs that he had removed from the body.
—IANS
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Times Square suspect’s hearing today
New York : Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American accused of trying to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square, is scheduled to appear in a federal court here on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.
Thirty-year-old Shahzad, son of a retired Air vice-marshal of Pakistan Air Force, faces five counts in connection with the botched car bomb attempt in Times Square on May 1.
Shahzad could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Dressed in a grey sweatsuit and free of handcuffs, Shahzad appeared before a federal magistrate May 18 to hear the charges against him. His lawyer did not object to a judge’s order that he remain in federal custody. —PTI