UNITED STATES
Transgender ban lift opposed
Officials say Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has had pushback from senior military leaders on whether the Pentagon should lift its ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces. Carter initially told troops in Afghanistan that he was open-minded when asked if the Department of Defense was planning to remove one of the last gender or sexuality-based barriers to military service. However, defense officials say several members of his top brass told Carter later that they had serious reservations. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Much of the issues centers on where transgender troops would be housed, what bathrooms they would use, and if their presence would affect unit cohesion.
BANGLADESH
Two workers freed by IS
Two workers abducted in Libya by suspected Islamic State group (IS) militants have been freed after more than two weeks, Dhaka said yesterday. They were among a group of nine people, including four Filipinos and an Austrian, reportedly taken hostage in southern Libya this month in an attack blamed on the extremist group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The pair were released on Tuesday and were in good health, the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. They spent the night at a local hospital and were due travel to Tripoli yesterday. At least eight guards were killed in the attack on the al-Ghani oilfield in southern Libya on March 7. Bangladesh initially blamed the Islamic State group for the abduction, but a junior foreign minister later said no militant group had claimed responsibility. An estimated 30,000 Bangladeshis are believed to be working in Libya.
UKRAINE
Billionaire fired as governor
President Petro Poroshenko has fired billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky as governor of a key region in the east after a raid by armed men on the Kiev offices of a state oil firm, his Web site said yesterday. The 52-year-old has been at the center of a political storm since men, armed and masked, briefly entered the offices of UkrTransNafta on Thursday last week after its director, an ally of Kolomoisky, was replaced. As governor of Dnipropetrovsk, Kolomoisky, a banking, energy and media tycoon with a fortune estimated at US$1.8 billion by Forbes last year, has been a valuable ally to the central government by financing volunteer battalions there to defend against pro-Russian separatists.
UNITED STATES
‘X-Files’ to make return
Cult sci-fi TV show The X-Files is returning for six new episodes, 13 years after David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s last outing as agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series — which ran for nine seasons, or more than 200 episodes between 1993 and 2002 — is to begin production this summer with the original stars, broadcaster Fox said. “I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” creator and executive producer Chris Carter said, adding: “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger — a perfect time to tell these six stories.” The series follows the adventures of FBI agents Mulder and Scully, who investigate mysterious cases blamed on paranormal phenomena. The series, which went from breakout sci-fi show to a global hit, won 16 Emmy Awards and five Golden Globes.
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