PHILIPPINES
Mayor linked to death squad
A US-based human rights group has reported that a “death squad” that targeted criminal suspects in a southern city was allegedly organized by the former mayor and was responsible for nearly 300 killings over the past seven years. Human Rights Watch yesterday said it has documented at least a dozen of the 298 killings from January 2007 to March this year, based largely on accounts of former hit men, witnesses, relatives of victims and police officers in Tagum City. Former Mayor Rey Uy has denied the allegations and says that they were based on testimonies coerced and paid for by drug dealers and illegal gamblers. Human Rights Watch says President Benigno Aquino III has largely ignored the killings.
MALAYSIA
Panda pair arrives
The government yesterday welcomed a pair of pandas from China, after a month’s delay caused by tensions over the Malaysian airliner which disappeared in March with mostly Chinese passengers aboard. The eight-year-old pandas — female Fengyi (“Phoenix,” 鳳儀) and male Fuwa (“Lucky,” 福娃) — arrived in Kuala Lumpur to an honor guard of water cannons, after a flight from Chengdu in southwestern China where they were bred. Fengyi was briefly shown to the media before being whisked off to the national zoo with her prospective mate. “May the arrival of these two precious icons of China contribute to building an everlasting friendship and sustainable cooperation” between Malaysia and China, Environment Minister Palanivel Govindasamy said at a welcoming ceremony. The two countries agreed in 2012 that China would send the giant pandas for a 10-year stay, in Beijing’s latest use of “panda diplomacy.”
CHINA
Girl killed over homework
An 11-year-old girl was beaten to death by her father for copying a classmate’s homework, state-run media said yesterday. The man “ordered the girl to kneel down, tied her hands and beat her,” Xinhua news agency reported. The father took her to hospital after she stopped breathing, but she died the next day, Xinhua said. Doctors at the hospital in Hangzhou found bruises and injuries on the girl’s neck and back, and signs she had been choked for as long as five minutes, the Xiandai Jinbao said. The incident is the latest in a series of child abuse incidents that have drawn widespread outrage.
AUSTRALIA
Man carries eggs in pants
Australians call tiny swimming trunks “budgie smugglers,” but the term might have new meaning after customs officials at Sydney’s airport yesterday said that they found 16 wild-bird eggs in the crotch of a passenger’s pants. The 39-year-old Czech man arrived on Tuesday on a flight from Dubai when customs officials selected him for a baggage examination, the Customs and Border Protection Service said in a statement. “Officers conducted a frisk search of the man and allegedly found 16 small eggs concealed in his groin area,” the statement said. There was no word on whether it was budgies — small parrots also known as budgerigars — that were allegedly smuggled. The man, whose name has not been released, was to appear in a Sydney court yesterday charged under environmental protection laws with attempting to import regulated live specimens without a permit. The charge carries maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and a fine of A$170,000 (US$157,000).
UNITED KINGDOM
Charles links Putin to Hitler
Prince Charles has stoked controversy during a visit to Canada by comparing the recent actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s to those of Adolf Hitler, the Daily Mail reported yesterday. The newspaper said several witnesses heard the prince make the comment to Marienne Ferguson, a 78-year-old who fled the Nazis aged 13 and lost family members in the Holocaust. “I ... talked with him about my own family background and how I came to Canada,” Ferguson told the paper. “The prince then said: ‘And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler’… I must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do. I was very surprised that he made the comment as I know they [the royal family] aren’t meant to say these things but it was very heartfelt and honest.” Charles met Ferguson during a tour of the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of his four-day trip to Canada
with his wife, Camilla.
UNITED STATES
Supreme Court orders stay
The Supreme Court ordered a last-minute stay of execution for a convicted murderer and rapist who argued that a rare medical condition risked making the lethal injection unconstitutional. Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew, who was convicted of murdering a love rival and raping a former girlfriend, argued that a medical condition which leaves him with growths on his head and neck creates significant risk that he will die an agonizing death — making it unconstitutional. A tortuous and painful death is in violation of the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. Executions by lethal injection have become highly controversial since the 32 states with capital punishment began facing a shortage of drugs used to execute death row inmates.
UNITED STATES
Twelve Russians sanctioned
The Department of the Treasury on Tuesday imposed sanctions against 12 Russians under a law named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who alleged in 2008 that organized criminals colluded with a Russian government official to claim a fraudulent US$230 million tax rebate. The sanctions cover four prison officials, a judge, court official, a law enforcement investigator and alleged co-conspirators in the fraud case, including Dmitry Kratov, a physician who was charged in Magnitsky’s 2009 death, but acquitted of negligence in December last year. The sanctions ban visas for the individuals and freeze assets under Washington’s jurisdiction.
RUSSIA
Five convicted of murder
A court in Moscow has convicted five men of involvement in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, three of whom were acquitted in a previous trial. Tuesday’s jury verdict found that Rustam Makhmudov was the gunman who shot Politkovskaya in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building and that his two brothers, their uncle and a former policeman were accomplices. A judge was expected to sentence the five men yesterday; all could face up to life in prison. Politkovskaya’s work was sharply critical of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya. The Makhmudovs and their uncle are of Chechen origin. Authorities have not identified any person as responsible for ordering the killing.
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