NICOSIA: A Cyprus criminal court on Monday sentenced an army captain to seven life terms in prison after he pleaded guilty to the premeditated murder and kidnapping of seven foreign women and girls.
In handing down the sentence, the three-judge panel said that Nicholas Metaxas appeared to have mounted a “campaign of murder” in choosing defenseless women, most of whom came to Cyprus looking for work.
The judges said Metaxas “didn’t even hesitate to kill children” over a 2½-year period during which prosecutors said he sought out many of his adult victims on online social networks using the handle “Orestes35” and had sex with them.
Five life terms will run consecutively, while two will run concurrently. The judges said there could be no mitigating circumstances in such a case.
Earlier, Metaxas pleaded guilty and tearfully apologized to the families of his victims for the “unjust pain” he has caused them.
Reading from a prepared statement, Metaxas said he doesn’t “have any clear answers” why he committed the killings and that he has “struggled” to figure out the “why and how.”
The 35-year-old officer said his cooperation with police investigators was the least he could do to ease the pain he caused to the families of the victims and his own family. Metaxas killed four Filipino women and the daughter of one of them, as well as a Nepalese woman and a Romanian mother and her daughter.
“I cannot go back in time and undo what I have done,” Metaxas, clad in a bulletproof vest and surrounded by armed police, told a packed courtroom.
He asked authorities for a scientific panel to interview him in order to delve into his psyche and find the reasons for his actions in what’s believed to be the east Mediterranean island nation’s first serial killer case. He did speak of unspecified events in his past “decades ago” that he tried to forget.
He looked down throughout his court appearance as a state prosecutor said six of the victims died of strangulation and the seventh of a massive head injury.
The case came to light on April 14 when the decomposing body of Mary Rose Tiburcio, 38, from the Philippines, was found by chance down a flooded mineshaft that was part of an abandoned copper mine.
Four days later, the body of 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines, was pulled out of the same mineshaft. Investigators homed in on Metaxas after scrutinizing the online communications of both women.
Metaxas, a divorced father of two children aged 6 and 9, initially refused to cooperate with investigators. But as the evidence increased, he buckled and confessed in a 10-page handwritten note to the seven killings.
His victims included Romanian Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and her 8-year-old daughter Elena Natalia; Maricar Valtez Arquiola, 31, from the Philippines; Ashita Khadka Bista, from Nepal; and Tiburcio’s daughter, Sierra Grace.
Metaxas led police to where he disposed of his victims’ bodies; the bound remains of Bunea, her daughter and Arquiola were placed in suitcases and thrown into a toxic lake that was part of the same abandoned mine. Bista’s skeletal remains were found down a dry well inside an army firing range. Tiburcio’s daughter was found in another lake, wrapped in a sheet and weighed down by a rock.
Metaxas had told investigators under questioning that what prompted him to strangle Tiburcio and Bunea was his “hatred” of them and desire for “vengeance” over his suspicions that they prostituted their daughters. He said he choked the children to death as they slept “so that they would no longer have to suffer.”
Prosecutors said investigations found that both mothers were very loving and cared for their children.
Metaxas also told investigators that he strangled Maricar and Lozano as he climaxed during sex with them. He said he killed Bista, who died of a head injury, in anger after she spat at him for videoing their sexual encounter.
All Metaxas’ victims except Bista had been reported missing to police shortly after their disappearance. The disappearance of Bunea and her daughter in October 2016 was the subject of an investigative report by a local TV reporter, who said police claimed they had good reason to believe that the mother and daughter had crossed into the breakaway north of the ethnically split island.
Police failures to probe those missing persons cases resulted in the resignation of the justice minister and the firing of the police chief. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said lives could have been spared had police acted swiftly in investigating those initial reports.
Cyprus court sentences serial killer to 7 life terms
Cyprus court sentences serial killer to 7 life terms
- The army captain was sentenced to 7 life terms in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping and murdering 7 foreign women and girls
- The 3-judge panel said the serial killer ‘didn’t even hesitate to kill children’ over a 2-and-a-half-year period
Notre Dame bells ring out in Paris for first time since 2019 fire
The sound of the eight bells in Notre Dame’s northern belfry came a month before the cathedral is to reopen following five years of painstaking restoration work in the wake of the blaze.
“This is a beautiful, important and symbolic step,” said Philippe Jost, who runs the public body tasked with restoring the cathedral under challenging circumstances.
On the evening of April 19, 2019 Parisians and the world watched in horror as flames ravaged the world heritage landmark and then toppled its spire.
President Emmanuel Macron quickly set the ambitious goal to rebuild Notre Dame within five years and make it “even more beautiful” than before.
Some 250 companies and hundreds of experts were mobilized for a restoration costing hundreds of millions of euros.
Friday shortly before 10:30 am (0930 GMT), the bells sounded one by one until all eight chimed in harmony.
“It’s not perfect yet, but we will make it perfect,” said Alexandre Gougeon who is in charge of the re-installation of the bells. “This first test was a success.”
The 2019 fire destroyed part of the northern belfry, requiring it to be restored and the bells to be removed, cleaned of dust and lead, and then returned to their space.
The heaviest bell, called “Gabriel,” weighs over four tons, and the lightest, “Jean-Marie,” 800 kilogrammes.
A weekend of ceremonies is to mark Notre-Dame’s reopening on December 7 and 8.
Pakistan’s Punjab province shuts public spaces in smog-hit cities
- Access to parks, zoos, playgrounds, historic monuments, museums and recreational areas banned until November 17 due to poor air quality
- Punjab residents have been trapped in thick smog for over a week ever since the air quality index spiked above 1,000
LAHORE, Pakistan: Pakistan’s most populated province of Punjab ordered public spaces closed in smog-hit main cities, authorities said Friday, as the country battles record air pollution.
Access to parks, zoos, playgrounds, historic monuments, museums and recreational areas will be banned until November 17 due to poor air quality, according to a local government directive seen by AFP.
The concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Lahore’s air was more than 20 times higher than the level deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO). In Multan, it was up to 48 times higher on Friday.
Punjab residents have been trapped in thick smog for over a week ever since the air quality index (AQI), which measures a range of pollutants, spiked above 1,000 — well above the level of 300 considered ‘dangerous’ — according to data from IQAir.
Schools in some of Punjab’s major cities were ordered shut on Tuesday until November 17.
The province extended that order on Wednesday to several more cities enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.
The decision follows restrictions imposed last month on four “hot spots” in Lahore that banned tuk-tuks with polluting two-stroke engines, along with restaurants that operate barbecues without filters.
Seasonal crop burn-off by farmers on the outskirts of Lahore also contributes to toxic air, which the WHO says can cause strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases.
Excess pollution shortens the life expectancy of Lahore residents by an average of 7.5 years, according to the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.
According to UNICEF, nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution, which is also linked to half of childhood pneumonia deaths.
Putin says China is Russia’s ally, backs its stance on Taiwan
- The two countries have not declared a formal military alliance, but have signed a ‘no limits’ partnership deal in 2022
- Putin suggested that Taiwan was trying to stir up a Ukraine-style crisis in Asia in order to attract outside support
SOCHI, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin described China on Thursday as Russia’s ally and threw his weight behind Beijing’s claims over Taiwan, while stating that no countries had anything to fear from deepening Sino-Russian co-operation.
The two countries have not declared a formal military alliance, but Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a “no limits” partnership deal in 2022, less than three weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine.
In May this year they agreed to deepen what they called their “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” for a new era.
“We do not believe that China is pursuing an aggressive policy in the region,” Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
He suggested that Taiwan was trying to stir up a Ukraine-style crisis in Asia in order to attract outside support.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite strong objections by the government in Taipei, and regularly holds wargames near the island.
“A lot is going on around Taiwan,” Putin said. “Everyone formally acknowledges, yes, Taiwan is part of China. But in reality? In reality, it is acting in a completely different direction. Provoking the situation toward escalation.
“We do support China. And because of this, we believe that (China) is conducting a completely reasonable policy. And also because it is our ally. We have a very large trade turnover, we co-operate in the security sector.”
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said China and Russia were the real problem.
“The regime of Russia’s Putin launched a war of aggression against Ukraine, leading to misery for Ukraine’s people and sanctions and condemnation from the international community,” it said in a statement.
“China and Russia together continue to undermine the rule-based international order and have become a serious threat to world peace and stability.”
Putin compared military drills between Russia and China to those the United States holds with Japan.
“These exercises do not threaten anyone,” Putin said. “They are aimed at ensuring our security.”
Swiss ‘burqa ban,’ condemned by Muslims, to take effect from Jan. 1, 2025
- Anyone who unlawfully flouts the ban faces a fine of up to $1,144
- Facial coverings remain permitted for reasons relating to health, safety
ZURICH: A contentious Swiss prohibition on facial coverings in public spaces widely known as the “burqa ban” will take effect on Jan. 1, the government said on Wednesday.
Narrowly passed in a 2021 referendum in neutral Switzerland, and condemned by Muslim associations, the measure was launched by the same group that organized a 2009 ban on new minarets.
The governing Federal Council said in a statement it had fixed the start of the ban, and that anyone who unlawfully flouts it faces a fine of up to 1,000 Swiss francs ($1,144).
The ban does not apply to planes or in diplomatic and consular premises, and faces may also be covered in places of worship and other sacred sites, the government said.
Facial coverings will remain permitted for reasons relating to health and safety, for native customs, or due to weather conditions, it said. They would also be allowed on artistic and entertainment grounds and for advertising, it added.
If such coverings are needed for personal protection in exercising freedom of expression and assembly, they should be permitted provided the responsible authority has already approved them and public order is not compromised, it said.
Two separatist militants, two government-run militia members killed in Indian-administered Kashmir
- Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989
- Many support rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as independent country
NEW DELHI: Two suspected militants were killed in a gunfight with government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said Friday, while assailants killed two members of a government-sponsored militia elsewhere in the disputed region.
The region, divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both in its entirety, has experienced an increase in violence in recent weeks.
The Indian military said a joint team of soldiers and police raided a village near northwestern Sopore town late Thursday following a tip about the presence of a group of militants.
The militants “fired indiscriminately” at the troops, leading to a gunbattle in which two were killed, the military said in a statement.
Troops were continuing to search the area, it said. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
Meanwhile, assailants killed two members of a government-run militia called the “Village Defense Group” in the remote southern Kishtwar area late Thursday, officials said.
Police blamed rebels fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir for the killings.
The two were abducted from a forested area where they had gone to graze cattle on Thursday. Their bodies were found late Thursday, police said.
The militia was initially formed in the 1990s as a defense against anti-India insurgents in remote Himalayan villages that government forces could not reach quickly. As the insurgency waned in their areas and as some militia members gained notoriety for brutality and rights violations, the militia was largely disbanded.
However last year, after the killing of seven Hindus in two attacks in a remote mountainous village near the highly militarized Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, authorities revived the militia and began rearming and training thousands of villagers, including some teenagers.
The Kashmir Tigers, which Indian officials say is an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, claimed responsibility for the killings of the two in a statement on social media. The statement could not be independently verified.
Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.” Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
