Colombian diplomat hit by a stray bullet in Sao Paulo as a robbery attempt was taking place nearby
SAO PAULO (AP) — A Colombian diplomat in Brazil was wounded by a stray bullet on Friday and hospitalized to undergo surgery, authorities said.
Vice Consul Claudia Ortiz Vaca was passing by a robbery attempt on a vehicle in central Sao Paulo, local police said. An off-duty police officer witnessed two suspects approach a car and intervened, security officials said in a statement. It's unclear whether the gunshot came from the officer or one of the suspects, and where she was struck by the bullet.
The Colombian Consulate in Sao Paulo said in a statement that Ortiz Vaca was undergoing surgery and in stable condition.
One suspect was arrested, and the other escaped, according to police. Local authorities said they would investigate the case.
Violent street crime is common in Brazil, and foreigners sometimes become victims.
Last December, an Argentine tourist was shot in Rio de Janeiro after he mistakenly drove his car into a low-income community on his way to the Christ the Redeemer statue. Gastón Fernando Burlon, president of the Argentine Chamber of Student Tourism, was then taken to a local hospital.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A bid for bail by former New Jersey US Sen. Menendez is rejected by appeals court as prison looms
NEW YORK (AP) — A bid for bail by former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez while he appeals his bribery conviction was rejected Wednesday by a federal appeals court, a week before the veteran New Jersey politician is scheduled to report to prison. Menendez, 71, was convicted last July of selling his clout for bribes. FBI agents who searched his home three years ago found $480,000, some of it stuffed inside boots and jacket pockets, gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage. Prosecutors said that in exchange, Menendez performed corrupt favors for the New Jersey business owners. They said he tried to protect the men and associates from criminal investigations, helped two in business deals with foreign powers and met with Egyptian intelligence officials before helping that country access $300 million in U.S. military aid. Menendez, a Democrat, has insisted that he is innocent and is seeking to overturn his conviction. He is scheduled to surrender to federal prison authorities on Tuesday. A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his bail motion in a brief order issued Wednesday. The decision did not include a rationale, but it said one of the three judges would have granted the motion. An email seeking comment was sent to his attorneys. Menendez, who once served as chair of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned his seat a month after his conviction. He had been in the Senate since 2006. Two business owners also were convicted last year along with Menendez. His wife, Nadine Menendez, was convicted in April of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes from the business owners. Her trial was delayed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and required surgery. Her sentencing has been set for Sept. 11.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What to know about Harvey Weinstein's conviction on a top sex crimes charge at his #MeToo retrial
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty again, convicted Wednesday of a top sex crimes charge at his #MeToo retrial in New York City. The mixed and partial verdict came more than five years after his first conviction, which an appeals court overturned last year. The jury returned a verdict on two of three charges against Weinstein, acquitting him of one. Jurors indicated that they had yet to achieve unanimity on the final count. That could mean more deliberations on Thursday. The verdict capped an extraordinary fifth day of deliberations. The jury foreperson complained that he was being bullied by other jurors. Weinstein's lawyer then asked for a mistrial, and Weinstein himself addressed the judge without jurors in the courtroom, imploring him to end the case without a verdict. Minutes later, the jury of seven women and five men declared the ailing 73-year-old guilty of one count of criminal sex act, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Weinstein denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone. Once he's sentenced, he can appeal. Here's what you need to know about the verdict: What was Weinstein convicted of? Jurors convicted Weinstein of one count of criminal sex act, finding that he forcibly performed oral sex on a TV and movie producer and production assistant, Miriam Haley, nearly two decades ago. Haley, who had a short stint working on the Weinstein-produced 'Project Runway,' testified that he assaulted her in July 2006 after inviting her to stop by his SoHo apartment before a flight his company booked her on the next day to Los Angeles to attend a movie premiere. Haley testified that Weinstein backed her into a bedroom, pushed her onto a bed and forced oral sex on her, undeterred by her kicks and pleas of, 'No, no — it's not going to happen.' Weinstein was convicted of the same charge at his first trial. Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, told jurors that she was never interested in any sexual or romantic relationship with Weinstein but still wanted his help professionally. She acknowledged she kept in touch and exchanged warm messages with him and accepted an invitation to his hotel room two weeks after the alleged assault, when she said he pulled her into bed for sex. What was Weinstein acquitted of? Weinstein acquitted of a charge of criminal sex act relating to a previously uncharged allegation that he forced oral sex on Kaja (KEYE'-ah) Sokola, a psychologist and former Polish model and actor, at a Manhattan hotel in 2006 just before her 20th birthday. Sokola, who wasn't a part of Weinstein's first trial, testified that Weinstein assaulted her after luring her to his hotel room by telling her had a script to show her. As he pushed her onto a bed, stripped off her boots, her stockings and her underwear, 'my soul was removed from me," she said. Now 39, Sokola said he held her down while ignoring her pleas of 'please don't, please stop, I don't want this.' She said she tried to push him away but was no match against the much larger Weinstein. Sokola also testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old, but that allegation was beyond legal time limits for a potential criminal charge. Sokola said she stayed in touch with Weinstein because she had dreams of an acting career. She went to authorities in January 2020, a few days into Weinstein's first trial. Prosecutors halted their investigation after Weinstein was convicted, but revived it when the verdict was thrown out last year. What charge hasn't been decided yet? The jury hasn't reached a verdict on a third-degree rape charge involving Jessica Mann's allegation that Weinstein assaulted her in March 2013. Mann, a cosmetologist and hairstylist, said she met Weinstein at a party in late 2012 or early 2013, when she was 27 and trying to launch an acting career. She alleges Weinstein trapped her in a Manhattan hotel room, demanded that she undress as he loomed over her, grabbed her arms and raped her after, she believes, he injected himself with an erection-promoting drug that she later found in the bathroom trash. Mann said she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein, but that he was volatile and violated her if she refused him. She said she kept in touch with Weinstein after the alleged rape, telling jurors she 'compartmentalized the part of Harvey that was hurting me,' and that flattery and friendliness 'kept the peace.' The Associated Press generally does not name sexual assault accusers without their permission, which Haley, Mann and Sokola have given. Why was there a new trial? New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, threw out Weinstein's conviction in April 2024. In a 4-3 decision, the court said the judge in the first trial, James Burke, denied Weinstein a fair trial by letting three women testify about allegations that didn't result in charges and by deciding that prosecutors could confront Weinstein, if he testified, about stories of him behaving brutishly. The court labeled the allegations against Weinstein 'appalling, shameful, repulsive conduct' but warned that 'destroying a defendant's character under the guise of prosecutorial need' did not justify some trial evidence and testimony. Burke's term expired at the end of 2022, and he is no longer a judge. Prosecutors were not allowed to retry Weinstein on charges that he was acquitted of during his first trial, including predatory sexual assault and one count of first-degree rape. What about Weinstein's other criminal case? Weinstein is appealing his conviction in Los Angeles in a similar case in 2022. Jurors there found him guilty of three of seven charges, including rape, and he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Weinstein's lawyers argued he did not get a fair trial. They contend that the judge in the California case wrongly allowed jurors to know about Weinstein's 2020 New York conviction, and that the jury was unfairly prejudiced by testimony from women about alleged assaults Weinstein was not charged with. __ Associated Press journalists Ruth Brown and Philip Marcelo contributed to this report.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
An Omaha food plant owner says he followed the rules for hiring immigrants. It was raided anyway.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The owner of an Omaha food packaging company says his business has been unfairly hamstrung by federal immigration officials, who raided the plant and arrested more than half its workforce. The raid took place despite the company meticulously following the government's own system for verifying the workers were in the country legally, owner Gary Rohwer said Wednesday. Glenn Valley Foods now is operating at about 30% of capacity as the business scrambles to hire more workers, Rohwer said as he stood outside the plant. Asked how upsetting the raid was, Rohwer replied, 'I was very upset, ma'am, because we were told to e-verify, and we e-verified all these years, so I was shocked.' 'We did everything we could possibly do," he said. E-Verify is an online U.S. Department of Homeland Security system launched in the late 1990s that allows employers to quickly check if potential employees can work legally in the U.S., often by using Social Security numbers. Some of America's largest employers use it, including Starbucks and Walmart, but the vast majority of employers do not. Critics say the system is fairly easy to cheat, particularly with false documents. Rohwer noted that federal officials have said his company was a victim of those using stolen identities or fake IDs to get around the E-Verify system, which lead agents conducting the raid described as 'broken' and 'flawed' to Glenn Valley executives. But that does nothing to repair the company's bottom line, Rohwer said. 'I'd like to see the United States government ... come up with a program that they can communicate to the companies as to how to hire legitimate help. Period,' he said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that more than 70 people were arrested during the Glenn Valley Foods raid on Tuesday. It also said one of the workers, described as a Honduras national, assaulted federal agents as he was being detained. The Omaha raid comes amid an immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump. The administration has been intensifying its efforts in recent weeks, and Trump deployed more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines this week to respond to ongoing protests in Los Angeles over his immigration policies. The raid, in the southeastern section of Omaha where nearly a quarter of residents are foreign born according to the 2020 census, led to hundreds of people turning out to protest Tuesday evening. But it also had a chilling effect on the south Omaha community. The Metropolitan Community College's South Omaha campus and an Omaha library branch in the area closed Tuesday afternoon, and several businesses along south Omaha's normally bustling 24th Street closed as news of the raid spread. Several of them remained closed Wednesday, said Douglas County Board of Commissioners Chairman Roger Garcia, whose district covers south Omaha. 'Everybody's still on alert, waiting to see what happens today and in the coming days,' Garcia said. 'So there's still a lot of anxiety and fear out there.' That fear will show up in the form of a weakened economy in Omaha, he added. 'You know, when products are not being sold, taxes are not being collected, and people are not able to get their goods as well. So it affects all of us,' he said. An aunt of Garcia's wife was among those taken away by ICE during the Omaha raid, he said. They have been unable to determine where she is being held. The raid came on the same day of the inauguration of newly elected Omaha Mayor John Ewing, a Democrat who unseated three-term Republican Jean Stothert last month. During a news conference Wednesday to address the raid, Ewing declined to speculate on whether the timing of it was intended to distract from his swearing-in. But he denounced the action by federal authorities, saying, 'My message to the public is that we are with them.' Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer also declared that his department will play no part in checking immigration or the legal status of residents in the community. 'That is not our mission. Our mission is public safety,' the chief said. 'I need victims to come forward. They will not come forward if they're fearful of Omaha Police Department being immigration officers.'
