Law

Dramatic video footage shows a gun battle after a suspected drug smuggling aircraft was shot down by drug enforcement agents in Peru. The Bolivian plane, license no. CP1818, was shot down by the agents on 3 May, who then engaged the suspects in a three hour shoot-out. ITV reports: After the plane crashed to the ground, authorities engaged in a three-hour gun battle in a remote area of central Peru, called the Valley of Pichis Palcazu. One suspect, allegedly a Colombian man, escaped, while another, the 58-year-old Bolivian pilot, was shot and taken into custody.

Submitted by Mike "Mish" Shedlock

License To Steal: Italy’s Highest Court Rules “Theft Not A Crime If Hungry”

In a ruling sure to heighten migration tensions in the EU, Italy’s highest court rules “Theft Not a Crime if Hungry“.

Stealing small amounts of food to stave off hunger is not a crime, Italy’s highest court of appeal has ruled.

 

Judges overturned a theft conviction against Roman Ostriakov after he stole cheese and sausages worth €4.07 (£3; $4.50) from a supermarket.

 

An Italian court of appeal has shown some humanity and declared that people who steal food in order to stave off hunger should not be considered as having committed a crime.  Italy’s highest court of appeal ruled that people who are hungry in Italy have a fundamental right to access food – even if that means they steal it. Judges overturned a theft conviction against homeless man Roman Ostriakov, who had been prosecuted for stealing cheese and sausages worth €4.07  from a supermarket in 2015.

Big Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson has lost another legal battle in a row over its talcum powder which allegedly causes cancer. The company have been ordered pay $55 million to a woman who says she got ovarian cancer after using the product. The latest ruling comes less than four months after Johnson & Johnson lost a $72 million case in the same St. Louis, Missouri, court where they were ordered to pay $5 million in compensation and $50 million in punitive damages to Gloria Ristesund.

WhatsApp has been blocked across Brazil for three days. A judge has ordered the Facebook-owned chat service to be suspended from the internet after the popular messaging app refused to hand over encrypted data to the Brazilian government. CNET reports: This isn’t the first time WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $19 billion, has clashed with authorities in Brazil. In December, a judge ordered the shutdown of WhatsApp from the country for two days after not complying with a criminal investigation, but the ruling was overturned the next day.