News Brief Oct. 2-6

International

Canada has been told to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats from India. An official familiar with the matter said the reason behind the removal may be due to Canada accusing India of being involved in the death of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not comment on the removal, but one spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, had previously called for a reduction of diplomats to even out the number of Indian diplomats in Canada. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was a Sikh leader who was killed in June by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver.

Trudeau gave a comment directed at the current ambassador issue.

“Obviously, we are going through an extremely challenging time with India right now, but that’s why it is so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government and there to support Canadians and Canadian families,” Trudeau said. “We’re taking this extremely seriously, but we’re going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the Indian government.”

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly preferred to keep the diplomatic affairs private.

“We will continue to engage privately because we think that diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private,” Joly said.

National

An anonymous CIA trainee is suing the agency. She is accusing the CIA of repeatedly discouraging her from filing a criminal complaint against another CIA employee who sexually assaulted her in the CIA headquarters. 

The lawsuit claims the CIA shared internal workspace messages with the criminal defense team. Though the messages did not enter the court, she is arguing the leak was a violation of her privacy rights and she is labeling the leak as an attempt to intimate her into silence. 

In August, her assailant was convicted of assault and battery. Other female employees of the CIA came forward to say their “allegations of sexual misconduct were “grossly mishandled.”

The CIA declined to comment on the case but gave a statement about its commitment to handling sexual assault cases.

“CIA continues to take concerns about our handling of employee allegations of sexual assault and harassment extremely seriously, and we have already taken significant steps in this regard,” the spokesman said. 

Local

A 13-foot long python has been slithering around a trailer park in South Oklahoma City for roughly five months according to a report from KFOR. 

The python has eaten several small animals during its time at the park, including the pet cats of residents. Red Beard Wildlife Control was brought on site last week to capture the python. Experts believe the python was likely a pet who escaped.

The snake is believed to have hidden under a particular home.

“That home is pretty long and so getting two people in a foot-and-a-half crawlspace to fight a 13-foot snake is just impossible,” Treavor Bounds of Red Beard Wildlife Control said. “When we looked underneath the floor at the home it created, that’s when we started seeing a bunch of carcasses of large animals.”

“…I can imagine that each one of those cats put up a nasty fight. So, when it’s been attacked that many times and to that extent, the nice non-aggressive pet snake we once knew is no more. This thing is dangerous now,” Bounds said

Bounds classified the snake as an albino Reticulated Python, one of the largest in the world with the possibility of growing up to 24 feet long. 

An unfenced Bryant Elementary School is next to the mobile home park, leaving the children at the school vulnerable to a cold-blooded companion on the playground. 

“The constricting is what can be the dangerous part,” Bounds said. “You can’t have small children or pets going near this thing, that’s why this should’ve been tackled a whole lot sooner. Things could have gotten much worse.”

Bounds has a motion camera set on the house where the python has been hiding. The camera will notify him as soon as it moves and then he plans to remove it from the park immediately.