Japan coast guard finds body of dead male suspected from North Korea

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Coast Guard found the body of a male and parts of a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on the coast of one of Japan’s outlying islands on Saturday, an official said.

The Coast Guard made the discovery around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday (2130 GMT on Friday) on Sado island, which is off the coast of Japan’s northwestern prefecture of Niigata, a coast guard official said, declining to give his name.

The guard also found a pack of cigarettes written in Korean and other personal belongings with Korean written on them near the body, the official said.

The cause of death is still unknown, the official said.

The discovery on Saturday marks the second time this month that parts of a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea have washed up on the shores of Sado island, the official said.

Finding the body will add to the increasing unease in Japan and South Korea over North Korea’s nuclear arms program after U.S. President Donald Trump redesignated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, allowing the U.S. government to levy additional sanctions.

On Friday, police found eight North Korean men near a boat at a seaside marina in northern Japan. The men appeared to be fishermen whose boat had trouble, rather than defectors, the police said.

Last week, the Coast Guard rescued three North Korean men on a capsized boat in the Sea of Japan who said they were fishermen and were later sent home aboard a North Korean vessel.

A North Korean soldier dramatically defected to South Korea last week after being shot and wounded by his country’s military as he dashed across the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone between the two countries.

(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Texas police say body found in Texas ‘most likely’ missing three-year-old girl

Wesley Mathews, 37, arrested for suspected child endangerment for the treatment of his three-year old daughter after he punished her for not drinking her milk by telling her to stand outside by herself at night near an alley behind her home, is shown in this police booking photo in Richardson, Texas, U.S., provided October 9, 2017 Richardson Police Department/Handout

(Reuters) – The body of a toddler found in a culvert beneath a Texas road was likely that of a girl reported missing by her father about two weeks ago, police in the Dallas suburb of Richardson said on Monday.

Police were awaiting a report from the local medical examiner before saying if it was 3-year-old, Sherin Mathews, an adoptee born in India, who disappeared in early October.

The body was found on Sunday with the help of search dogs about a half mile from the family’s house in Richardson.

“It is most likely her,” Richardson Police Sgt. Kevin Perlich said, referring to the missing child.

The girl’s father, Wesley Mathews, 37, was arrested on Oct. 7 for suspected child endangerment after he told police that he disciplined Sherin for not drinking her milk by telling her to stand outside at night near an alley behind their residence.

Wesley Mathews had been released on bond, police said earlier this month.

No new arrests have been made in the case, said Perlich on Sunday. The girl’s parents were told that the body had been found prior to the police announcement, he said.

A phone call to Mathews’ attorney on Monday was not immediately returned.

According to an arrest affidavit, “Mathews said he directed his daughter to stand near a large tree at approximately 3 a.m. (on Oct. 7) because she wouldn’t drink her milk.”

The father told police he checked on her about 15 minutes later and she was gone, the affidavit said.

About five hours after sending her outside, Mathews called police to report her missing, a police spokesman said.

 

 

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; editing by Diane Craft)

 

Man’s body, seen tossed from plane, found on roof of Mexican hospital

Police officers stand guard near a crime scene where the body of a man, who witnesses said was tossed from a plane, landed on a hospital roof in Culiacan, in Mexico's northern Sinaloa state April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jesus Bustamante

By Gabriel Stargardter

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The body of a man, who witnesses said was tossed from a plane, landed on a hospital roof in Mexico’s northern Sinaloa state on Wednesday, according to a public health service official in the region, which is home to notorious drug traffickers.

The body landed on the roof of an IMSS hospital in the town of Eldorado, around 7:30 a.m. local time, said the official, who was not authorized to give his name.

Witnesses standing outside the health center reported a plane flying low over the hospital and a person thrown out, the health official said.

Later on Wednesday, Sinaloa’s Deputy Attorney General Jesus Martin Robles said a body, found on the hospital roof, showed injuries that appeared to be related to a strong impact. He did not confirm that it had been thrown from a plane.

The public health service official said two more bodies were reported to have been found in the town, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Culiacan, the state capital. Local media reported that those two bodies were thrown from the same plane as the body that landed on the hospital.

The official did not know if the man was alive when he was thrown from the plane. Officials from the state prosecutor’s office were at the scene, he said.

“This is an agricultural area and planes are regularly used for fumigation,” the official said, adding that the IMSS hospital was operating normally.

Local media reported that suspected gang members had picked up the two other corpses.

Sinaloa is the home state of Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, who ran the Sinaloa drug cartel until his arrest in 2016. He was extradited to the United States earlier this year.

Ever since Chapo’s arrest, security in the state has deteriorated, as the Sinaloa cartel struggles to adapt to infighting and fresh threats from rival groups.

(Additional Reporting by Noe Torres; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Leslie Adler)