IRAN
Three Afghanis executed
Authorities have hanged three Afghan nationals in a prison in Tehran after they were found guilty of raping an Afghan man’s pregnant wife, the state-run Iran newspaper reported yesterday. The report neither identified the culprits nor the victims, but said that crime occurred about two years ago, and the men were sent to the gallows on Saturday. The latest hangings bring to 92 the number of executions reported in the country so far this year, according to a count based on media reports. The authorities say 80 percent of those executed have been drug traffickers. Local media reported 179 hangings last year. In 2009, the nation executed 388 people, according to international human rights groups, making it second only to China in the number of people it put to death.
SAUDI ARABIA
Shiite cleric freed
Authorities have released a Shiite cleric whose arrest last month provoked demonstrations and a Facebook call for a “Day of Rage,” Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, president of Human Rights First in Saudi Arabia, said yesterday. “Sheikh Tawfiq al-Aamer was freed on Sunday night,” hetold reporters by telephone. Several hundred people protested in the east of the kingdom on Friday after Aamer was arrested on Feb. 27, reportedly for calling for a constitutional monarchy in the kingdom, which is an absolute monarchy.
MEXICO
Suspected trafficker arrested
Police have arrested a suspected high-ranking figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel. A general in charge of a the nearby military garrison in Hermosillo says police detained Julio Cesar Aguilar Garcia, known as “El Vaquero,” or “The Cowboy,” in Sonora state. The general says Aguilar is a suspected trafficker for the Sinaloa cartel’s Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Aguilar is alleged to have directed air shipments of drugs in the Valley of Mexicali, near the Arizona border. A traffic violation led to Friday’s arrest of Aguilar and five others.
MEXICO
Authorities ask for US info
Mexico City on Sunday asked the US for information on a US law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed illegal smuggling of guns into the nation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has requested “detailed information on this case.” CBS News, which earlier broke the story, said the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the operation allowing weapons to cross the border. CBS reported some guns turned up at violent crime scenes, including two AK-47 assault rifles found at the murder scene of US border patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed in December.
TURKEY
Court jails journalists
A court in Istanbul charged five journalists overnight with plotting against the government, media reports said yesterday. The move came a day after prominent journalists Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik were charged and remanded in custody. The five include Yalsin Kucuk, television channels reported. Sik is co-author of a book about the investigations and trials in the Ergenekon case — named after an organization allegedly at the center of a conspiracy. He had been working on a book about the police. In all, 10 people, most of them journalists, were placed in preventive detention on Thursday on suspicion of an alleged plot against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of