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    Police Recover Diamond Earrings Worth $769,500 That Thief Swallowed

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    The police in Orlando, Fla., said that a suspect spent time in a hospital while they waited for the stolen jewels to be “expelled from his system.”“Am I going to be charged with what’s in my stomach?” Jaythan Gilder asked a Florida jail employee on Feb. 26.The answer, apparently, was yes.The next day, the authorities charged Mr. Gilder, 32, with first-degree grand theft and third-degree robbery with a mask. They say that he had stolen two pairs of diamond earrings worth a total of $769,500 from Tiffany & Company in Orlando — then swallowed them hours later as the police were about to arrest him.On Friday, the Orlando Police Department announced that it had recovered the earrings from Mr. Gilder, who spent more than 12 days in a hospital, when they were “expelled from his system.”The police said that on Feb. 26, Mr. Gilder of Houston, using the alias “Shawn” and posing as a representative for an N.B.A. player on the Orlando Magic, was escorted into a private room in the back of a Tiffany & Company store in an Orlando mall.There, he viewed two pairs of diamond earrings, valued at $769,500, and a diamond ring, worth $587,000, according to court records. Mr. Gilder was looking at the jewelry when he suddenly jumped up and grabbed it, according to the arrest warrant filed by an Orlando police officer.Mr. Gilder rushed toward the door, pushing and pulling at the handle as he tried to leave, the warrant said. But as he struggled to get out, an employee pulled the ring from him. Mr. Gilder was able to flee with the earrings, the warrant said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Witnesses to Sydney Mall Stabbing Describe Harrowing Scenes

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      Witnesses to the stabbings at a mall in a Sydney, Australia, on Saturday described a scene of terror as shoppers fled from the knife-wielding man or huddled in stores as panic spread through the shopping center.Some shoppers hid inside as alarms blared. Others ran out, screaming as they passed by bodies on the floor.When Gavin Lockhart, 37, saw people running as he sat inside a coffee shop at the mall, there was a moment of confusion. “Is it a celebrity?” he first thought. “Is it because of a gunman?”Then he fled when he heard, “He’s got a knife! He’s got a knife!”He followed the coffee shop’s owner, Michael Dunkley, 57, who also brought his wife, who was cooking, and two baristas into a staffroom where they could lock the door. Mr. Dunkley said afterward that just one thought was in his mind when the screaming began: “I have to get my wife and staff to safety.”Mr. Dunkley left the room to try to chase down the attacker, whom he described as a thin man with a beard and short hair, wearing dark green pants and a green jersey.Then, Mr. Dunkley recounted, he saw a police officer attempt to stop the assailant. When the officer told the man to put his knife down, he lunged toward her with his weapon, the cafe owner said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Bangladesh Fire Kills at Least 43 in Shopping Mall

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      Officials said the deadly fire broke out just before 10 p.m. on Thursday night. Crews took about two hours to extinguish the multistory fire, which left dozens injured and many in critical condition.At least 43 people were killed and dozens were injured when a fire ripped through a shopping mall late Thursday night in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, officials said.“So far, we know that 43 have died,” Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, the health minister, told reporters outside a hospital where some of the injured were being treated. “The condition of those who are wounded is not good,” he added.At least 75 people were injured, fire officials said. Some were being treated at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mr. Sen said.The fire erupted at about 9:51 p.m. on the mall’s second floor, which features a popular biryani restaurant. It quickly spread to the rest of the seven-story building, fire officials said, ripping through a clothing store on the third floor.It took crews at least two hours to put the fire out, officials said.Videos showed that most of the floors were charred by the flames. A firefighter atop a fire engine ladder could be seen trying to extinguish a small fire that was still burning near one of the upper floors.The shopping mall, on Bailey Road, houses a mix of eateries and stores. Almost every floor has a restaurant and most have gas cylinders, a fire official told a television news reporter. He added that the cylinders may have played a role in the fire spreading so quickly.The mall is a popular spot on Thursdays, the end of the workweek in Bangladesh.Alamgir Hossain, an assistant director at the fire department, told The New York Times that a restaurant called Kacci Bhai had been offering a special on Thursday night.Mass-casualty fires and industrial disasters, particularly in garment factories, have been a recurring problem in Bangladesh. The steady economic growth of the country of 170 million people has been a regional success story in recent years, but human rights and labor organizations have long expressed concern about poor working conditions and workplace safety measures.The worst of the disasters happened in 2013, when the collapse of an eight-story garment factory killed more than 1,100 people. In 2021, a factory fire in the city of Narayanganj killed at least 51 people. More