GUATEMALA
Ex-president ‘unfit for trial’
The nation’s forensic authority on Tuesday said that former president Efrain Rios Montt is mentally unfit to be tried again on genocide charges, two years after his historic conviction was thrown out on a technicality. The National Forensic Science Institute determined that due to cognitive deterioration the 89-year-old would not be able to defend himself against charges that he was responsible for the killings of nearly 2,000 indigenous Maya during a brutal stretch of the nation’s 36-year civil war. Rios Montt’s opponents accuse him of implementing a scorched-earth policy and his earlier conviction had been hailed as a landmark for justice in the nation. The institute’s conclusion was presented by lawyers representing Rios Montt; the tribunal that handles the case must still decide whether or not to accept it at a hearing scheduled for July 23.
NORTH KOREA
Drought threatens kids: UN
A severe drought is putting the lives of children at risk and many are in serious danger of disease and malnutrition, the UN children’s agency said yesterday. UNICEF said in a statement that there had been in a sharp increase in cases of diarrhea among children in drought-affected areas, as access to safe drinking water and sanitation was severely compromised. “Lack of rain reduces access to clean water and undermines effective hygiene, putting children’s lives at risk,” UNICEF regional director Daniel Toole said. The country says it is experiencing its worst drought in a century, with some of its main farming regions particularly hard hit. The country’s large number of malnourished children — as many as one in four children according to a 2012 study —heightens concerns about the impact of drought, UNICEF said. “These children are particularly vulnerable, because children who are malnourished have less resilience to water-borne illness and disease,” the agency said.
UNITED STATES
‘Lady Liberty’ glows anew
The Statue of Liberty has a certain glow about her — thanks to a new lighting system. Onlookers and officials stood on the grounds and boats gathered in the waters around Liberty Island on Tuesday night to see the new ground lights get turned on. The system uses LED and was installed by Musco Lighting of Oskaloosa, Iowa. The lights cast a bright spotlight on the statue, clearly defining the folds of her robes. The National Park Service said much of the previous lighting system was installed underground and damaged in Hurricane Sandy.
UNITED STATES
Same-sex ruling film eyed
20th Century Fox is developing a film about the US Supreme Court case that made same-sex marriage a nationwide right. A representative for Fox confirmed on Tuesday that the studio has acquired the life rights to Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that last month became a landmark in the gay rights movement. Fox also obtained the life rights of Obergefell’s lawyer, Al Gerhardstein, and those to a book proposal by Obergefell and journalist Debbie Cenziper. The project is to be developed by the 20th Century Fox division Fox 2000. Obergefell sued after Ohio refused to list him as the spouse of his longtime partner, John Arthur, on Arthur’s death certificate in 2013. The two had been legally married in Maryland. The New York Times first reported the film project.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion