UNITED STATES
Boy charged with murder
An Alabama eight-year-old boy accused of beating to death a one-year-old baby while her mother was at a nightclub has been charged with murder, local media said on Wednesday. One of six children left alone for hours in a Birmingham home, the boy attacked the infant to make her stop crying, officials said. “The one-year-old suffered from severe head trauma as well as major internal organ damage which ultimately led to her death,” police spokesman Lieutenant Sean Edwards said. “It is believed that while the mother and friend were at the club, the eight-year-old viciously attacked the one-year-old because the one-year-old would not stop crying.” The baby, Kelci Lewis, was found unresponsive in her crib on Oct. 12 and later pronounced dead, AL.com said. Her mother, Katerra Lewis, has been charged with manslaughter, the publication said.
CAR
UN probe abuse allegations
The UN said it is investigating new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers in the country. A UN official said that the allegations involve sexual relations with three underage girls. The allegations also involve two pregnancies, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because details have not been made public. The UN peacekeeping mission in the country said in a statement that it learned of the new allegations on Wednesday and sent a team to the location yesterday “to gather the facts, sensitize the troops involved and to take immediate preventive and disciplinary measures.” The UN is already investigating at least 16 other cases of possible sexual misconduct by UN troops and police in the nation.
VATICAN CITY
Leaks scandal widens
A leaks scandal rocking the papacy widened on Wednesday, as the Vatican put two Italian journalists under investigation and said it suspected other Holy See officials had helped the pair, who were arrested for stealing documents. The latest twist in the scandal came in a statement about the two, who wrote books based on the leaks. It said they were being investigated on suspicion of “complicity in committing a crime.” The leaks are one of the biggest internal scandals to hit the papacy of Pope Francis and were reminiscent of the “Vatileaks” furore that preceded the resignation of former pope Benedict in 2013. The Italian media has dubbed the latest episodes “Vatileaks II.” “Investigators are also looking into the role of people who, because of their office positions [in the Vatican] may have cooperated in obtaining the confidential documents,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, indicating that the scandal looks set to widen.
VENEZUELA
Nephews of leader arrested
Two nephews of the first lady have been arrested and taken to the US to face drug trafficking charges, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Franqui Francisco Flores-de Freitas, 30, and Efrain Antonio Campo-Flores, 29, were flown to New York on Tuesday, a source said. Both are nephews of President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, according to two sources linked to the Flores family. The news might tarnish Maduro’s image as he heads toward legislative elections next month that are expected to be among the most difficult for the ruling Socialist Party due to the nation’s economic crisis.
CHINA
Torture uncurbed: Amnesty
The country’s deep-rooted practice of using torture to extract confessions from suspects has seen little improvement, despite measures introduced since 2010 to reform the criminal justice system, Amnesty International said yesterday. The report by Amnesty echoed the same findings by the Human Rights Watch group in a May report, and it was released just days before the UN Committee Against Torture is scheduled to meet in Geneva to review China’s compliance under an international convention against torture since 2008. Both reports say the unlawful and inhumane practice remains routine and that Beijing’s efforts to reform its legal system have done little to curb it. Amnesty International came to the conclusion after interviewing 37 lawyers throughout the country, analyzing 590 court decisions, and parsing judicial rules and procedures. “For the police, obtaining a confession is still the easiest way to secure a conviction,” Amnesty researcher Patrick Poon said. Yet, despite regular accounts by victims, reports by international human rights groups and exposes in state media, authorities have insisted that the practice is waning. In April last year, Zhao Chunguang (趙春光), a senior public security official overseeing police detention facilities, said there had not been a single case of coercing confessions through torture at detention centers following new rules aimed at preventing the use of torture.
JAPAN
Wartime foes shake hands
In 1944, the two men were in northeastern India as foes, fighting one of harshest battles of World War II between Japan and Britain. Yesterday, more than 70 years later, they shook hands and sipped tea in Tokyo. Roy Welland, 94, a former British sergeant, and Taiji Urayama, 93, a former Imperial Army lieutenant, survived the Battle of Kohima in northern India near the Burmese border and met for the first time at a British embassy reception. Another veteran, Mikio Kinoshita, 95, who served as an engineer on the notorious Thai-Burma railway, joined the gathering. A somewhat formal atmosphere quickly thawed, sending the audience into laughter, when the smaller Kinoshita bounced up from the sofa as the well-built and tall Welland sat next to him. Frail-looking Urayama arrived in a wheelchair assisted by his daughter, but moved to the sofa to join the others. They exchanged gifts and shook hands.
ISRAEL
EU to label settlement goods
The EU on Wednesday published new guidelines for labeling products made in the settlements, a move Brussels said was technical, but the government branded “discriminatory” and damaging to peace efforts with the Palestinians. Drawn up over three years by the European Commission, the guidelines mean the country’s producers must explicitly label farm goods and other products that come from settlements built occupied lands if they are sold in the EU.
THAILAND
Orangutans returned
Fourteen orangutans smuggled into the country illegally were sent back to Indonesia yesterday, but the operation was not without incident — one of the powerful apes tore a wildlife officer’s finger off when he tried to put them in cages. Twelve of the orangutans were smuggled into the country as babies and rescued seven years ago by police and sent to a wildlife breeding center in Ratchaburi, 80km west of Bangkok. Two of the great apes were born at the center.
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