UNITED STATES
Husband-killer moved
A New Hampshire man who was 16 when his lover persuaded him and his friends to kill her husband has been moved to a minimum-security prison. William “Billy” Flynn was moved last week as part of a work-release program. At 15, he began a torrid affair with Pamela Smart, his teacher for a self-esteem course at his high school. He testified that Smart helped plan her husband’s killing to make it look like a burglary. Flynn was convicted of killing Gregg Smart in May 1990, a week before the couple’s wedding anniversary. Pamela Smart was also convicted and is serving a life sentence. Flynn was sentenced to 28 years in prison. The case was tabloid fodder and led to books and movies, including To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman.
UNITED STATES
Lightning kills again in park
For the second day in a row, lightning has been blamed in the death of a visitor to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson says officials were notified on Saturday of four people being struck by lightning near Rainbow Curve, at 3,300m along Trail Ridge Road. The four were rushed to a hospital, but Patterson says one man died of his injuries. On Friday, park officials said lightning killed one woman and injured seven other people. That also occurred near Trail Ridge, which is the nation’s highest continuously paved road. Patterson says they are the park’s first lightning fatalities since 2000, when a technical climber was struck on the Diamond on Longs Peak. No other key details were immediately released on Saturday’s strike, including the names of those hit. A park news released identified the woman who died on Friday as 42-year-old Rebecca Teilhet.
ISRAEL
Flight forced to turn back
Delta Air Lines says a flight leaving for New York developed a mechanical problem and had to return to Tel Aviv and make an emergency landing. An airline spokeswoman says Delta Flight 469, with 370 passengers and 17 crew members aboard a Boeing 747, returned safely to Ben Gurion Airport early yesterday. Spokeswoman Jennifer Martin says the emergency landing was made “out of an abundance of caution.” The flight interruption came at a time of heightened tension as the government continues to exchange rocket fire with Palestinian militants. There was no indication the mechanical problem was related. The plane was due at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport yesterday.
NICARAGUA
Missionary killer in jail
A man who confessed to killing a Wyoming woman on a missionary trip has been sentenced to 39 years in prison. A judge on Saturday issued the order against Fernando Aburto Reyes, who was found guilty of killing, raping and robbing Karen Colclough. He can remain imprisoned for up to 30 years. Colclough disappeared in April after she left her church group to take photographs while staying at a hotel on Montelimar Beach, about 48km southwest of Managua. An autopsy found she had been beaten and strangled. The 37-year-old resident of Jackson Hole and members of her church had been on a trip to help impoverished families in villages in the central province of Matagalpa. She originally was from Lynnfield, Massachusetts.
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