ISRAEL
Africans leave detention unit
Hundreds of African migrants have marched out of a detention center and are now camped out by the border with Egypt after the army prevented them from crossing. Migrant activists said in a statement yesterday that nearly 1,000 Eritrean and Sudanese migrants left the open detention facility in protest on Friday because the government had not processed their claims for asylum. The migrants are imploring the UN to help resettle them elsewhere. About 50,000 Africans have poured into the country from Egypt in recent years. The migrants say they are fleeing persecution and danger, while the government says many are actually looking for employment. Some believe that the country’s history as a refuge for Holocaust survivors compels it to help the downtrodden, but others fear that taking in so many Africans will threaten the national Jewish character.
SAUDI ARABIA
King fires defense official
King Abdullah on Saturday sacked deputy minister of defense Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, just a month-and-a-half after appointing him. A royal decree cited by the official SPA news agency said the decision was taken at the request of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who also holds the defense portfolio. The reasons for the move were not immediately known and no successor was announced for Prince Khaled, who was named to the post on May 14. His removal comes amid fears of a spillover of the violence in Iraq from the Sunni militant offensive overrunning the Shiite-majority country. On Thursday, Abdullah instructed authorities to take “necessary measures” to defend the nation from the jihadists battling Baghdad.
UNITED STATES
Third abuse lawsuit dropped
A former aspiring model who accused several Hollywood figures of sexually abusing him as a child has dropped a third lawsuit. Lawyers for Michael Egan III said in a federal court filing in Honolulu on Saturday that they were dismissing a lawsuit against theater producer Gary Wayne Goddard. That leaves only one lawsuit filed by Egan still open, against X-Men franchise director Bryan Singer. Egan earlier dropped lawsuits against two television executives. Egan’s lawyers did not say why they dropped the lawsuit. Egan had accused the men of sexually abusing him as a child during trips to Hawaii. The men have denied the allegations.
UNITED STATES
Ancient boy reburied
The 12,600-year-old remains of an infant boy were reburied on Saturday in a Native American ceremony after scientists recovered DNA from the child discovered in Montana in 1968. The remains were put back as close as possible to the original burial site. Two film crews, about 30 tribal representatives and others attended the ceremony, The Billings Gazette reported. “I hope that this is the final closure for you, too, as it is for us,” said Crow tribal elder Thomas Larson Medicine Horse Sr, addressing the family on whose property the child was found. The DNA taken from the boy provided new indications of the ancient roots of today’s American Indians and other native people of the Americas.
GERMANY
Merkel lauds ‘Valkyrie’ men
Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute on Saturday to army officers who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler toward the end of World War II. Speaking ahead of the 70th anniversary of the failed plot, Merkel said those responsible had acted “in accordance with their conscience.” It showed “how men in an extremely difficult situation were able to take a decision in accordance with their conscience, to not be guided by unconditional loyalty, but form their own idea of what was necessary for Germany,” she said during her weekly podcast. The “20 July plot,” as it came to be known, saw army officers team up with members of the resistance to try to blow up the Nazi leader at his headquarters in Rastenburg, Eastern Prussia, which is now part of Poland. The Wehrmacht officers aimed to seize political control and make peace with the Allied forces. They codenamed the mission “Operation Valkyrie.” Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg placed a briefcase containing a bomb under a table at which Hitler was seated. The bomb killed three officers and the stenographer, but Hitler escaped. Von Stauffenberg and several others were executed afterward, and the war continued for nearly a year.
GERMANY
Refugee abode surrounded
Hundreds of police officers have surrounded a former school in Berlin that has been occupied by refugees who refuse to leave. The predominantly African refugees are demanding the right to stay in the nation, even though most of their asylum applications have been rejected. Adam, a Sudanese refugee who only gave his first name, told reporters on Friday that many of the migrants had climbed onto the roof and were ready to jump off the building if police entered it. The stand-off involved 40 to 80 refugees and supporters who stayed in the building after police earlier in the week evicted most of the about 200 who had occupied it since 2012. City officials say they are willing to negotiate with the refugees about their demands, but only if they leave the school.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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