UNITED STATES
Baby starfish numbers surge
Droves of baby starfish are returning to Oregon and Northern California’s shores after a wasting disease decimated whole populations of the creatures over the past two years along the West Coast. Data collected by Oregon State University researchers showed an unprecedented number of baby starfish, or sea stars, survived the summer and winter last year, the Eureka Times Standard reported on Saturday. “When we looked at the settlement of the larval sea stars on rocks in 2014 during the epidemic, it was the same or maybe even a bit lower than previous years,” Oregon State University marine biology professor Bruce Menge said in a statement. “But a few months later, the number of juveniles was off the charts — higher than we had ever seen — as much as 300 times normal.” A similar increase was found at sites just north of Trinidad, California, near Patrick’s Point State Park. A baby starfish boom was also seen in the summer of 2014 near Santa Cruz. A virus killed millions of starfish on the Pacific Coast from Southern California to Alaska by causing them to lose their limbs and eventually disintegrate into slime and piles of tiny bones. The cause of the massive outbreak remains unclear. Some have hypothesized it to be abnormally warm waters in the Pacific Ocean, which have wreaked havoc on marine ecosystems for the past two years. Humboldt State University Marine Lab Director Brian Tissot disagreed with that hypothesis as the virus spread during colder months and did not expand as much during last year, which was abnormally warm. “There is no clear environmental cue,” Tissot said, adding that the deadly wasting disease has declined in intensity, but remains present. Experts say that while it is encouraging to see the abundance of baby starfish, the disease, competition and environmental factors make their survival difficult.
EL SALVADOR
Ex-president faces court case
A court has agreed to consider a civil case against former president Mauricio Funes, his wife and one of his sons for possible illicit enrichment. The San Salvador court media office on Saturday said that several government institutions have been ordered to hand over information related to the family’s finances, properties and businesses. Under scrutiny is about US$728,000 in unexplained income and expenditures. Funes has 20 days to respond to present evidence in his defense. The former president has criticized the allegations in the past. He said some of the Supreme Court justices who voted to order the lower court to open the case in February had previously attacked his government, while sitting on the Constitutional Court. The civil prosecution does not include criminal charges.
UNITED STATES
House to get paint job
An Ohio home that was pelted with eggs more than 100 times over a year is to finally get a fresh finish thanks to a local painting company. WEWS-TV reported that Neubert Painting in Brook Park is planning to paint the Euclid home. Work was scheduled to start on Wednesday last week, but was postponed because of the weather. Jason Kozan was in March charged with vandalizing the home between May 2014 and June last year. He told WEWS-TV he is not responsible for the vandalism. Neubert Painting had offered to paint the home in summer last year as part of its “Paint it Forward” program. The company was waiting for police approval because the case was under investigation. It was given the go-ahead last fall.
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