World in brief: Cuba deports alleged drug lord
Cuba deported reputed drug kingpin Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante to Colombia, which plans to extradite him to the United States to face trafficking and money laundering charges, officials said Thursday.
Gomez, an alleged boss of the Norte del Valle cartel, had been held in Cuba since his 2004 arrest at Havana’s main airport. He fled Colombia after Washington offered a $5 million reward for the capture of that country’s top drug traffickers.
Cuba’s government said Gomez was turned over to Colombian authorities Thursday at Havana’s international airport. Oscar Galvis, a spokesman for the Colombia’s DAS intelligence agency, confirmed that Gomez arrived in Colombia on an air force flight from Cuba.
The Cuban statement did not mention Colombia’s plans for Gomez. But a Colombian official said Wednesday that an order had already been signed to send Gomez to the United States.
OTTAWA
Mad cow case investigated
The United States said Thursday it would dispatch a specialist to help investigate Canada’s latest case of mad cow, but that Washington did not expect the new finding to hurt trade between the two countries.
On Wednesday, Canada confirmed its ninth case of mad cow disease since 2003, in an Alberta bull that died on a farm last week. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said that a mature bull tested positive for mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Eating meat products contaminated with BSE has been linked to more than 150 human deaths, mostly in Britain. No human deaths as a result of mad cow have been reported in Canada.
Eight previous cases of BSE have been detected in Canadian cattle since May 2003, when the discovery of an Alberta cow with the disease caused the United States to close the border to cattle exports.
SAO PAULO, Brazil
8-year-old saved from anaconda
A 66-year-old Brazilian saved his grandson from the grip of a 16-foot-long anaconda by beating the snake with rocks and a knife for half an hour, police said Thursday.
“When I saw the snake wrapped around my grandson’s neck I thought it was going to kill him,” Joaquim Pereira said. “It was agonizing, I pulled it from one side, but it would come back on the other.”
Pereira’s 8-year-old grandson, Mateus, was attacked by the anaconda near a creek on his grandfather’s ranch in the city of Cosmorama, about 250 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.
While the boy was playing with friends, the snake attacked and wrapped itself around him, police officer Hudson Augusto said. Anacondas are not poisonous, but kill their prey by coiling around them and squeezing until victims suffocate.
Mateus’ friends ran to get his grandfather, who reached the scene and battled with the snake until it released his grandson. The boy was rushed to a hospital and needed 21 stitches on his chest where he was bitten.