SOUTH AFRICA
Jolie speaks out on rape
Appearing at an African Union summit in South Africa, US actress Angelina Jolie, who is also a UN special envoy on refugee issues, spoke about rape as a weapon of warfare and asked African representatives to support women’s rights. Jolie had been invited to speak on women and conflict on Friday. She shared a panel with African Union Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former British secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs William Hague and other prominent delegates.
ECUADOR
Galapagos islanders protest
Flights to the Galapagos Islands were canceled for the day and soldiers fired tear gas to clear roads blocked by residents protesting cost-cutting legislation that will strip them of subsidies they call essential to absorb high living costs. Hundreds took part in the nine-hour strike on Friday on the two main islands of the archipelago popular with tourists made famous by naturalist Charles Darwin. The National Assembly on Tuesday overturned a 1978 law giving public employees on the islands a wage subsidy that effectively doubled their salaries. The 25,000 inhabitants of the islands, which are 965km from Ecuador’s coast, are also to lose the right to fly free of charge to and from the mainland.
MEXICO
Russians found dead
Officials in the border state of Baja California said the dismembered bodies of a 45-year-old Russian woman and her 12-year-old daughter were found in a garage, adding that they suspect a family member. The women’s rotting bodies were found in plastic bags at their home in Playas de Tijuana, about 1km from the US border. The state prosecutor’s office said the bodies were found on Wednesday after police responded to reports of a stench coming from the garage. Its statement on Thursday said that two people were being questioned and that “the family environment could have been the cause.”
UNITED STATES
Artist’s killer sent to prison
A young man who pleaded guilty in the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old French street artist during a robbery in Detroit in 2013 has been sentenced to between 25 and 40 years in prison. Jasin Curtis, 18, of Detroit, Michigan, learned his punishment on Friday in a local court, where he earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Frenchman Bilal Berreni was found dead in July 2013. He had no identification, and it took seven months before police identified him through fingerprints. A boy who was 13 at the time of the killing is also charged. Police have said the boy told officers that he and his friends were shooting dice when they decided to rob and kill someone. The boy said he and his friends took US$300, credit cards and a backpack from Berreni, according to police.
UNITED STATES
Woodfox release delayed
A former Black Panther activist who spent a record 43 years in solitary confinement on Friday saw his pending release delayed again in a case that has provoked outrage among US rights groups. Albert Woodfox, 68, is the last of the “Angola Three” activists to be detained after decades of legal battles. A federal judge had ordered his unconditional release in a strongly worded ruling on Monday that barred any further trial on charges of murdering prison guard Brent Miller, for which Woodfox received two convictions, both later overturned. However, Louisiana’s attorney general filed an appeal and won a temporary stay on Tuesday.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not