Briefly

UNITED STATES

Militia leader jailed over Capitol riot

The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia was handed an 18-year prison sentence on Thursday for sedition in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, the toughest penalty given yet over the Jan 6 assault. Out of the more than 1,000 people charged over the attack, Stewart Rhodes was singled out for directing his heavily armed group to descend on Washington and use violence if necessary to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president. The sentence fell short of the 25 years the government had sought. Just ahead of the sentence, Rhodes, wearing an eye patch and dressed in his orange prison jumpsuit, defiantly defended his group and their actions in support of former president Donald Trump.

JAPAN

Man arrested after four killed in attack

Japanese police on Friday detained a man who had holed up in a building after allegedly killing four people, including two police officers, in a gun and knife attack. Masanori Aoki, 31, was taken into custody at his house outside a farm near the city of Nakano in the Nagano region, police said. The suspect dressed in camouflage, a hat and mask, fled the scene of the fatal attacks, local media said, and barricaded himself in what was later confirmed to be his father's house. Several local media reported Aoki is the son of the speaker of Nakano's city assembly. The rampage was a rare instance of violent crime in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world's toughest gun laws. Last year, there were nine gun-related incidents that led to four people being killed reported nationwide, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said.

INDIA

Cheetah cubs die amid sweltering heat wave

Three cheetah cubs born to a big cat that was brought to India from Africa last year died in central India's Kuno National Park in the past week, forest officials said, as a heat wave in the region sent temperatures soaring. The cubs were the first to be born in India in more than seven decades. Once widespread in India, cheetahs became extinct in 1952 from hunting and habitat loss. Their mother was among the 20 cheetahs that India flew in from Namibia and South Africa as part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce the world's fastest land animal to the South Asian country.

Agencies via Xinhua