ALBUQUERQUE: An Afghan refugee convicted of first-degree murder in one of three fatal shootings in 2022 that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim community pleaded no contest Tuesday to two homicide charges stemming from the other killings.
Prosecutors said Muhammad Syed, 53, entered the pleas to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Naeem Hussain.
A jury had convicted Syed in March in the shooting death of Aftab Hussein, 41, in July 2022.
The three ambush-style killings happened over the course of several days, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion might have been behind the shootings. Investigators soon shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors called the “willful and very deliberate” actions of another member of the Muslim community.
Syed, who settled in the US with his family several years earlier, denied involvement in the killings after being stopped more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Albuquerque. He told authorities he was on his way to Texas to find a new home for his family, saying he was concerned about the killings in Albuquerque.
Bernalillo County prosecutors said Syed faces a life prison sentence in Aftab Hussein’s killings and will serve 30 years behind bars for the no-contest pleas. A sentencing date hasn’t been set.
Authorities said Afzaal Hussain, an urban planner, was gunned down Aug. 1, 2022, while taking his evening walk. Naeem Hussain was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city’s south side.
After Syed’s conviction in March, prosecutors acknowledged that no testimony during the trial nor any court filings addressed a possible motive. Prosecutors had described him as having a violent history, but his public defenders argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
Afghan refugee pleads no contest to 2 murders in case that shocked Albuquerque’s Muslim community
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Afghan refugee pleads no contest to 2 murders in case that shocked Albuquerque’s Muslim community
- Muhammad Syed, 53, entered pleas to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Naeem Hussain
- Three ambush-style killings happened over the course of several days in 2022, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion was involved
Trump invites China’s Xi Jinping to attend inauguration, CBS News reports
The invitation to the Jan. 20 inauguration in Washington occurred in early November, shortly after the Nov. 5 presidential election, and it was not clear if it had been accepted, CBS reported.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump said in an interview with NBC News conducted on Friday that he “got along with very well” with Xi and that they had “had communication as recently as this week.”
It would be unprecedented for a leader of China, a top US geopolitical rival, to attend a US presidential inauguration.
Trump has named numerous China hawks to key posts in his incoming administration, including Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
The president-elect has said he will impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl. He also threatened tariffs in excess of 60 percent on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.
In late November, China’s state media warned Trump that his pledge to slap additional tariffs on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows could drag the world’s top two economies into a mutually destructive tariff war.
Separately on Wednesday, China’s US Ambassador Xie Feng read a letter from Xi to a US-China Business Council gala in Washington, in which the Chinese leader said Beijing was prepared to stay in communication with the US
“We should choose dialogue over confrontation and win-win cooperation over zero-sum games,” Xi said in the letter.
Xie added that the two countries should not decouple supply chains. But Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to Beijing, said in a prerecorded video address that China at times tried to “sugar coat” challenging and competitive relations.
“No amount of happy talk can obscure our profound differences,” Burns said. (Reporting by Jasper Ward, David Brunnstrom, Michael Martina and Costas Pitas; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Mexican judge shot dead in violence-plagued Acapulco
MEXICO CITY: A judge was shot dead Wednesday in Mexico’s once-thriving beach city of Acapulco, local media and the state prosecutor’s office said.
Local press identified the slain judge as Edmundo Roman Pinzon, president of the Superior Court of Justice in Guerrero state, saying he was shot at least four times in his car outside an Acapulco courthouse.
The southern state of Guerrero is one the areas hardest hit in Mexico by violence linked to organized crime, and has seen a string of deadly attacks this year.
In October, the mayor of the state capital Chilpancingo was killed and decapitated just days after taking office.
Weeks later, armed clashes between alleged gang members and security forces left 19 people dead in the state. Last month, a dozen dismembered bodies were discovered in vehicles in Chilpancingo.
Acapulco, the state’s most populous city, was once a playground for the rich and famous, but has lost its luster over the last decade as foreign tourists have been spooked by bloodshed that has made it one of the world’s most violent cities.
On Wednesday, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it was “investigating the crime of aggravated homicide against Edmundo N,” in line with the usual practice of not giving full names.
The killing comes just over a week after President Claudia Sheinbaum led a meeting of the National Public Security Council in Acapulco, with state governors in attendance.
Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched an offensive against organized crime.
Sheinbaum, who took office in October as Mexico’s first woman president, has ruled out launching a new “war on drugs,” as the controversial program was known.
She has pledged instead to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to address the causes of crime.
Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in Guerrero.
South Korea’s Yoon vows to fight ‘until the very last minute’
SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday vowed to fight “until the very last minute,” defending his shock decision last week to declare martial law and deploy troops to the country’s parliament
The South Korean leader is banned from foreign travel as part of an “insurrection” probe into his inner circle over the dramatic events of December 3-4 that stunned South Korea’s allies.
A probe into last week’s turmoil has swiftly gathered pace, with police on Wednesday attempting to raid Yoon’s office to investigate his brief imposition of martial law.
Facing an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday, Yoon vowed to “fight with the people until the very last minute.”
“I apologize again to the people who must have been surprised and anxious due to the martial law,” he said in a televised address.
“Please trust me in my warm loyalty to the people.”
Police on Wednesday were blocked from entering the Presidential office by security guards, later saying they had been given “very limited” documents by Yoon’s staff.
The main opposition Democratic Party warned it would file legal complaints for insurrection against the presidential staff and security if they continued to obstruct law enforcement.
Yoon’s inner circle has come under intense scrutiny for their role in last week’s martial law declaration.
Prison authorities on Wednesday said former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun tried to kill himself shortly before his formal arrest the previous day.
Kim, who is accused of suggesting to Yoon that he impose martial law, was first detained on Sunday, and later formally arrested on charges of “engaging in critical duties during an insurrection” and “abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights.”
The justice ministry and a prison official said he was in good health on Wednesday.
The former interior minister and the general in charge of the martial law operation are also barred from foreign travel.
Two senior police officials were also arrested early Wednesday.
But Yoon on Thursday remained defiant, accusing the opposition of having pushed the country into a “national crisis.”
“The National Assembly, dominated by the large opposition party, has become a monster that destroys the constitutional order of liberal democracy,” Yoon said in a televised address.
But, he said, he would “not avoid legal and political responsibility regarding the declaration of martial law.”
Pentagon chief urges ‘close consultation’ between Israel and US on Syria
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz that it was important for the United States and Israel to be in close consultation over events unfolding in Syria, the Pentagon said on Wednesday after their call.
“Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of close consultation between the United States and Israel on events in Syria,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Austin told Katz Washington was monitoring developments in Syria and that it backed a peaceful, inclusive political transition, according to the Pentagon.
Ukrainian drone hits police barracks in Russia’s Chechnya, injures four
A Ukrainian drone struck the roof of a police barracks in Russia’s Caucasus region of Chechnya early on Thursday, injuring four people, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said, the second such incident in a week.
“The drone detonated in the air, damaged the roof and broke windows,” Kadyrov wrote on the Telegram messaging app of the incident in the regional capital, Grozny. “Falling fragments triggered a small fire, which was quickly put out.”
Four members of a unit guarding the facility suffered slight wounds. A video posted by Kadyrov showed shattered windows.
Kadyrov has been a vocal supporter of Moscow’s war and has sent forces to Ukraine, some 1,000 km (600 miles) away, to fight alongside Russian forces.
Last week, Kadyrov said a drone hit the roof of a police facility, though it was unclear whether the same building was involved.
In October, the roof of a military training center in the Chechen city of Gudermes was set ablaze in what appeared to be the first Ukrainian drone attack directed against Chechnya since the start of the war in February 2022.
