Suspect in plot at Halifax mall confesses
TORONTO – Canadian police have foiled a plot by three suspects who were planning to go to a mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and kill as many people as they could before committing suicide on Valentine’s Day, police said Saturday. One of the suspects fatally shot himself as police moved in to arrest him, and an American suspect confessed to the plot when she was arrested at the Halifax airport, a senior police official told The Associated Press.
Police and Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the plot was not related to terrorism.
“This appeared to be a group of murderous misfits that were ... prepared to wreak havoc and mayhem on our community,” MacKay said Saturday. “The attack does not appear to have been culturally motivated, therefore not linked to terrorism.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said friends Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, of Geneva, Illinois, and Randall Steven Shepherd, of Nova Scotia, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Maker of Nutella dies on Valentine’s Day
ROME – Michele Ferrero – the world’s richest candymaker whose Nutella chocolate and hazlenut spread helped raise generations of Italians and define Italian sweets – has died, officials said. He was 89.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella praised Ferrero as one of the protagonists of Italian industry, “always ahead of his time thanks to innovative products and his tenacious and reserved work.”
Ferrero was the patriarch of the eponymous family empire best known for not only Nutella, but also Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
His father, Pietro, started making Nutella when cocoa still was rationed during World War II, Forbes noted in ranking Ferrero and his family 30th on its list of the worlds richest billionaires, worth $23.4 billion.
Polish candidate vows better ties with Russia
OZAROW MAZOWIECKI, Poland – The presidential candidate for Poland’s main left-wing party criticized the antagonistic attitude to Russia by the country’s current leadership and said she would be willing to speak directly to President Vladimir Putin.
Magdalena Ogorek told a convention of the Democratic Left Alliance that Poland cannot afford to continue being described as “enemy number one” in the Russian media.
Poland’s center-right government, which includes many communist-era dissidents, has been one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
Ogorek said the party, the successor to the Communist party of the Cold War era, condemns Russian aggression in Ukraine but wants Moscow and Warsaw to communicate.
Ogorek, who will turn 36 later this month, faces an uphill battle in her attempt to unseat the popular incumbent, Bronislaw Komorowski, on election day, May 10. She has the support of only around 5 percent of voters, and critics say her youth and lack of political experience make her an unconvincing candidate for an office usually held by leaders later in their political careers.
She has been criticized as well for refusing to take questions from the media and engage directly with voters since her candidacy was announced in early January. After her speech Saturday she also refused to take questions from reporters. That has allowed some Poles to give attention to frivolous things, including her striking good looks and the fact that her last name means “cucumber.”
Associated Press
