Nation & World Glance
Italy judge: Teen claims he knifed officer in self-defense
ROME — Two American teenagers jailed in Rome in the slaying of an Italian police officer showed “total absence of self-control,” making them highly dangerous to society, a judge concluded in ordering them kept behind bars while the investigation continues.
Judge Chiara Gallo said in the ruling, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, that there were “grave” indications that the California teens carried out the slaying of Carabinieri Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, who was stabbed 11 times Friday after he and a fellow plainclothes officer confronted the Americans as part of an investigation into a cocaine deal the two were allegedly involved in. He died shortly afterward at a hospital.
Gallo cited testimony from witnesses, including the officer’s surviving partner, as well as a porter and a doorman in the Rome hotel where the teens were staying and the Americans’ own, sometimes conflicting accounts, to investigators.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, were taken into custody hours after the slaying by police who said a search of their hotel room found the alleged weapon, a military-style attack knife, hidden inside the room’s drop ceiling.
“It can’t be forgotten that the two were looking for drugs in the course of the evening and that both had drunk alcohol as they themselves declared,” the judge said in her ruling, issued late Saturday. “It’s a matter of circumstances which, evaluated together with their conduct, testifies to the total absence of selfcontrol and critical ability of the two suspects, and, as a result, makes plain their elevated social danger.”
Phoenix police: Man drove car into home, injured wife, baby
PHOENIX — A man accused of intentionally driving a vehicle into a west Phoenix house with his wife and baby daughter inside the car has been arrested on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder.
Phoenix police say 20-year-old Ricardo Munoz also is facing charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, child abuse and endangerment.
They believe Munoz and his wife got into an argument before the car crashed into the garage area of a house on July 21.
Court records released Monday show the car was travelling 61 mph at impact.
Police say Munoz, his 17-year-old wife and 2-yearold daughter all suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Munoz was arrested last Saturday upon his hospital release.
Bond has been set at $500,000 for Munoz, who didn’t have an attorney at his initial court appearance.
Johnson presses EU to give way amid no-deal Brexit warnings
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushed Britain closer to a no-deal exit from the European Union on Monday, insisting he will not hold Brexit talks with EU leaders unless the bloc lifts its refusal to reopen the existing divorce deal.
Johnson is trying to pressure the EU to give ground by intensifying preparations for the U.K. to leave in three months without a withdrawal agreement.
But the pound fell to a two-year low as business groups warned that neither Britain nor the EU is ready for a no-deal Brexit, and that no amount of preparation can eliminate the economic damage if Britain crashes out of the 28-nation trading bloc without agreement on the terms.
Johnson became prime minister last week after winning a Conservative Party leadership contest by promising the strongly proBrexit party membership that the U.K. will leave the EU on the scheduled date of Oct. 31, with or without a divorce deal.
The EU struck a withdrawal agreement with Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, but it was rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament. Johnson is insisting the bloc make major changes to May’s spurned deal, including scrapping an insurance policy for the Irish border that has been rejected by U.K. lawmakers.
Death toll in attack at Afghan political office rises to 20
KABUL, Afghanistan — The death toll from an attack against the Kabul office of the Afghan president’s running mate and former chief of the intelligence service climbed to at least 20 people on Monday, an official said.
Around 50 other people were wounded in Sunday’s attack against the Green Trend party headquarters, which lasted hours and included a gunbattle between security forces and the attackers, who were holed up inside the building, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.
Several gunmen were killed by the security forces, Rahimi said.
The attackers’ potential target, vice presidential candidate and former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, was “evacuated from the building and moved to a safe location,” Rahimi said. Some 85 other civilians were also rescued from inside.