The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 24 July 2019 ** 17
Ex-Dulwich
College teacher
faces crystal
meth charges
US envoys’ brains shrank after ‘sonic attack’
By Henry Bodkin
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
AMERICAN diplomats’ brains shrank
after an alleged sonic attack on the US
embassy in Cuba, a study has found.
State-of-the-art imaging of staff
members who suffered headaches,
nausea and memory loss after hearing
mysterious noises reveals “significant”
structural changes, scientists said.
Blame for the spate of unusual symp-
toms that afflicted diplomats at the Ha-
vana embassy between late 2016 and
May last year has ranged from a delib-
erate attack using a mysterious sonic
weapon to an abundance of crickets.
More than 20 American staff mem-
bers complained of hearing penetrat-
ing noises in their homes or nearby
hotels. The real cause of the symptoms
has not yet been established, although
State Department officials have previ-ously referred to a “sonic attack” and
“directional phenomena”. The illnesses
prompted the US to more than halve its
numbers at the mission in 2017.
Relations further soured after two
Cuban diplomats were expelled from
Washington and Donald Trump said he
held the Caribbean nation responsible.
Fourteen Canadian diplomats posted
to Havana also reported symptoms,
five of whom are suing their govern-
ment for compensation.
The study, published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association,
took detailed images of the electricalfunctioning of 40 staff members and
compared them to those of healthy par-
ticipants.
Scientists at the University of Penn-
sylvania noticed the whole white mat-
ter volume – areas of the central
nervous system that affect learning – of
the diplomats was roughly five per cent
smaller than usual.
Meanwhile, the functional connec-
tivity in the auditory network was
down around 15 per cent. Dr Douglas
Smith, who took part in the analysis,
likened the neurological effects on
some of the patients as an “electricitybrown-out”. “These types of changes
are completely unknown to us,” he said.
“We haven’t seen anything like it be-
fore and it’s very curious. What it is,
we’re not sure, but there does appear to
be something there.”
Dr Smith disclosed that while some
of the patients have recovered, others
still struggling with their symptoms.
The acoustic weapon theory gained
further currency when an audio re-
cording of a persistent, high-pitched
drone sound was made by US personnel
in Cuba and passed to the press in 2017.
However, an analysis published earlierthis year suggested the din was the re-
sult of the Indies short-tailed cricket.
Prof Jon Stone, an NHS consultant
neurologist and researcher at the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, said: “A whole
range of conditions such as those caus-
ing chronic dizziness, migraine or even
depression will tend to show changes
in the brain in these types of studies in
comparison to healthy controls, since
all those conditions arise from the
brain.”
The Cuban government has consist-
ently denied any involvement in the ill-
nesses.Tests on diplomats who
experienced strange noise
at embassy in Cuba reveal
neurological changes
Leading men Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt share a joke at the premiere of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. They
star in Quentin Tarantino’s ode to 1969 Los Angeles ahead of the Manson massacre, with DiCaprio playing actor Rick Dalton with Pitt as his stunt double.ERIC CHARBONNEAU/REXWorld news
Spanish leader loses
first confidence vote
Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s socialist
caretaker prime minister, lost a first
parliamentary confidence vote
yesterday as he seeks to remain in
power after an inconclusive general
election.
A second, decisive vote has been
scheduled for tomorrow afternoon,
before which Mr Sanchez needs to
reach a coalition deal with far-Left
Podemos, a party that was once an
archrival. If he manages to form a
coalition government, it would be the
first in post-dictatorship Spain.
Mr Sanchez will have another two
months to find a solution if the cannot
secure the backers he needs in
tomorrow’s vote. If he fails, the
Spanish will face another general
election, their fourth in as many years.WORLD BULLETIN
Lollobrigida ex-manager
accused of fast-car fraud
The Italian movie actress, Gina
Lollobrigida, is at the centre of a
financial investigation as Rome
prosecutors claim her former manager
has stolen millions of pounds from her
estate to finance his love of fast cars.
Andrea Piazzolla is alleged to have
taken advantage of the 92-year-old
screen siren – once nicknamed “the
most beautiful woman in the world” –
by stealing funds to purchase luxury
cars, including a Ferrari worth more
than €300,000 (£270,000).
Piazzolla, 32, will appear in court in
Rome over claims he sold three apart-
ments, near the city’s Spanish Steps,
owned by Ms Lollobrigida for more
than €2 million and stole hundreds of
thousands of pounds from her
accounts between 2013 and 2018.Russian LGBT activist
stabbed to death
A female activist in St Petersburg has
been murdered in what friends fear
may be the start of a new wave of
violence against LGBT people.
Yelena Grigoryeva, 41, was found on
Sunday in bushes near her home with
stab wounds to her back and face and
signs of strangulation, the Fontanka
news outlet reported.
A 40-year-old man was detained and
charged with murder, it said.
The killing comes after a
homophobic vigilante group called
Saw, in the style of the horror film,
posted that it had “prepared very
dangerous and cruel gifts” for LGBT
activists including Ms Grigoryeva.
Authorities banned the site last week.Maduro blames ‘criminals’
for nationwide blackout
By Harriet Alexander in New York
VENEZUELA’S power was slowly being
restored yesterday following another
nationwide blackout, which Nicolás
Maduro’s government blamed on “an
electromagnetic attack”.
Over 90 per cent of the country was
plunged into darkness on Monday af-
ternoon, with public transport grind-
ing to a halt and running water ceasing
to flow.
Netblocks, a group monitoring in-
ternet activity, said that network data
showed most of Venezuela was
knocked offline, with national connec-
tivity at just six per cent.
State television, a key way for the
government to keep people informed,
was also off the air, leaving frustrated
Venezuelans to wonder how long they
would be left in the dark.
Mr Maduro described the blackout
as “a new criminal attack against the
peace of the motherland”.
Jorge Rodríguez, the information
minister, issued a statement on Twitter
saying that the outage was due to “an
electromagnetic attack”.
In reality Venezuela’s crumbling
electric grid is collapsing due to years
of neglect and poor maintenance in the
struggling country. Many of the engi-
neers needed to maintain the struc-
tures have joined the four million who
have fled to neighbouring nations.
Freddy Brito, appointed energy min-
ister in June after his predecessor
lasted just two months, said yesterday
that power had been restored in Cara-
cas, the capital, and in five of the 23
states.
“We’re moving forward in the recov-
ery of the national electricity system,”
he said, praising workers at Corpoelec,
the state-run power firm. Schools and
offices were shut yesterday nationwide
as efforts were made to restore power.
Juan Guaidó, who has been trying
since January to oust Mr Maduro,
called for his supporters to rally out-
side the National Assembly.
“They tried to hide the tragedy by ra-
tioning supplies across the country,” he
said. “But their failure is evident: They
destroyed the system and they don’t
have answers.”
A previous blackout, in March, left
millions of Venezuelans without water
or phone communication for nearly a
week, heightening tensions in a coun-
try locked in a political and social crisis.By Our Foreign Staff
A BRITISH former headmaster of an in-
ternational school in China appeared in
a Singapore court yesterday charged
with consumption and possession of
methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Damien Michael Charnock used to
be the head of Dulwich College Shang-
hai, a branch of the exclusive
London private school, and faces five
charges including consumption of
methamphetamine and ecstasy in
March, according to charge sheets.
The 60-year-old is also charged with
possessing packets of meth and ecstasy
tablets, as well as equipment used to
consume drugs, at an apartment in the
city.
The case has echoes of Breaking
Bad, an American TV show which tells
the story of a chemistry teacher who is
diagnosed with cancer and turns to
making meth to raise money to secure
his family’s future.
For each charge of drug consump-
tion, Mr Charnock faces up to 10 years
in jail and a fine of up to Sg$20,
(£12,000), according to The Straits
Times newspaper.
It is not clear why Mr Charnock was
in Singapore when he was arrested.
In an interview in 2015, Mr Char-
nock said he was appointed to work at
the Shanghai institution in 2014 after
years as a headmaster at a school in
London.
He also told the Time Out Shanghai
website that he was raised in Malaysia
where his parents had lived for “many,
many years”.
Dulwich College, founded in the 17th
century, now has several branches in
Asia including one in Beijing which
opened in 2005 and one in Singapore
which was established in 2014.
Mystery poisoning of 140 cows
on farm as father feuds with son
By David Chazan in Paris
FRENCH detectives investigating the
deaths of 140 cows at a family farm
have unearthed evidence of poisoning
amid a bitter feud between the farmer
and his retired father.
Pascal Chazelas, 37, took over the
running of the farm in Pageas, central
France, in 2009. He introduced mod-
ern practices, angering Jean-Louis, his
“old-fashioned” father.
“Nothing was ever good enough for
him,” Pascal Chazelas said. “He
wouldn’t accept change.”
Examinations of the cattle revealed
that poisoning was the most likely
cause of death, with the bodies contain-
ing high levels of nitrates and nitrites.
Mr Chazelas and Marie-Anaïs, 29, his
wife, endured years of harassment in
scenes reminiscent of Jean de Florette,
the French film in which two Provençal
farmers conspire to drive away an en-
thusiastic newcomer.
Their tractor’s tyres were slashed. An
intruder opened the cowshed door one
night. The couple’s two cats also died
suddenly and then Pascal Chazelas fell
ill. Analyses showed he had ingested a
heavy metal that could cause death.
Mr Chazelas then discovered his fa-
ther had taken out life insurance on
him. The older man, who still owned
the farm and was renting it, stood to
collect €150,000 (£134,500) if he died.
The couple were unable to pay their
rent and were taunted by Jean-Louis,who wrote in a letter: “You can’t suc-
ceed in farming if you only work two or
three days a week.”
Police questioned the father but said
there was no conclusive evidence.
He admitted the insurance policy
was “a mistake” but said he was not in-
volved in the cattle deaths.
Mr and Mrs Chazelas are trying to
raise €150,000 through crowdfunding.
“I’ll regret taking over the farm for the
rest of my life,” Mr Chazelas said.‘Nothing was ever good
enough for him. I’ll regret
taking over the farm forthe rest of my life’
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