UNITED STATES
Child killer executed
A man convicted of killing and mutilating a 12-year-old boy whose blood he claims he drank was executed by the US state of Texas, authorities said on Wednesday. Pablo Vasquez, 38, was put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas penitentiary officials said. Vasquez, who was 20 at the time of the crime, killed David Cardenas while at a party; he struck the boy in the head with a pipe and slit his throat. In police transcripts of a videotaped 1998 confession, Vasquez said he heard voices telling him to drink the dead boy’s blood. “The blood was dripping and [I] got it all over my face, so I don’t know. I mean, something just told me drink,” he said at the time.
VENEZUELA
Day off to save power
Workers will get Fridays off for the next two months as part of an emergency plan to save electricity, the president said. The country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but its economy is a mess, with rampant inflation, shortages of goods as basic as soap and toilet paper and constant blackouts. Because of a severe drought that has left levels at hydroelectric dams at extremely low levels, to save on electricity, the government is effectively shutting the labor force down for a three-day weekend, starting today and lasting until June 6.
CANADA
G20 protest suit begins
A court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to two class-action lawsuits against police for alleged civil rights abuses during the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto. The lawsuits involve more than 1,000 complainants who claimed to have been swept up in mass arrests and held in deplorable conditions at a makeshift detention center in the city. About 20,000 policemen from across Canada were deployed in June 2010 to secure summit sites in Toronto and Huntsville, north of the metropolis, where leaders of the world’s top economies were meeting. When storefronts were smashed and a police car set ablaze, police fanned out across the city on orders to “take back the streets.”
TURKEY
Syrian rockets hit town
The country’s state-run news agency said two rockets fired from Syria have landed in a Turkish border town, injuring one person. Anadolu Agency said one of the rockets exploded near a park in Kilis yesterday. The second rocket did not explode, the agency reported. Several ambulances were sent to the area. Last month, two people, including a four-year-old boy, were killed by rockets fired from Islamic State-controlled territory across the border.
UNITED STATES
Obama commends Myanmar
The White House on Wednesday said that President Barack Obama called Burmese President Htin Kyaw and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, praising the move toward civilian-led government. Obama called the pair to offer his congratulations, as military hardliners try to limit Aung San Suu Kyi’s formal role. Banned from becoming president by a junta-era constitution, Aung San Suu Kyi has cemented control over the country’s first civilian-led government in decades by taking on a string of senior roles in the new administration. She has vowed to rule “above” the president, picking school friend and close aide Htin Kyaw for the role. According to the White House, “the president commended Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s determined efforts ... to achieve a peaceful transfer of power.”
LEBANON
Four Australians detained
Police said authorities have detained four Australian citizens on suspicion they were involved in the kidnapping of two children. A police official yesterday said that the four were being questioned over the kidnapping of Noah and Lahela al-Amin. They are the son and daughter of a Lebanese man and an Australian woman. Police said an alleged kidnapping on Wednesday, in which the children were taken after an attack on their Lebanese grandmother near Beirut, was part of a family dispute. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media did not give the names of the Australians. Australian media said that the detainees included journalists working for Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes who were filming the child snatch operation.
VANUATU
Third large quake strikes
A strong earthquake struck the Pacific nation yesterday, but there was no tsunami threat and no immediate reports of any damage or injuries. The magnitude 6.9 quake was the third strong earthquake to strike the island nation since Sunday, although none have caused problems. The quake hit 109km west of the village of Sola and 453km northwest of the capital, Port Vila, according the US Geological Survey. Its depth was 32km. Shadrack Welegtabit, the director of Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office, said he did not feel the quake in the capital and had not received any reports that it has affected the nation. He said he was not sure what has triggered the recent spate of earthquakes. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a destructive tsunami.
CHINA
Terror lists sought
Beijing is asking countries participating in this year’s G20 summit in the city of Hangzhou to provide lists of possible terror groups and terrorists who might target the meeting, a state-run newspaper said yesterday. The summit, expected to be held in early September, is to gather major world leaders like President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Barack Obama. “We’re facing a grim task in fighting terrorism and we hope participating countries will work together with Chinese policy to ensure the safety of such large-scale meetings,” senior counterterrorism official Hou Le told the China Daily. The newspaper said the nation was asking police liaisons to hand over lists of groups or people who might be a security threat or target leaders at the summit. “Risk assessments for possible attacks are also welcomed,” it added.
CAMBODIA
Tiger imports mulled
A plan to fight the extinction of wild tigers in the nation would require importing the big cats from abroad in what conservationists say would be the first transnational tiger reintroduction. The last tiger seen in the wild in Cambodia was in its east in 2007, Un Chakrey, communications manager for the conservation group WWF-Cambodia, said on Wednesday. Poaching and the loss of habitat have wiped out tigers in the nation and the animals are considered functionally extinct there, with no breeding pairs, WWF-Cambodia said. According to a plan approved last month by the government, a small number of tigers are to be imported and introduced to the Mondulkiri Protected Forest, the last place in the country a tiger was seen. The first phase of the plan would call for two male tigers and five to six female tigers to be released, Un Chakrey said, adding that they could be introduced as soon as 2020.
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