EL SALVADOR
President condemns ruling
President Salvador Sanchez Ceren on Friday criticized a Supreme Court ruling that would allow prosecutors to investigate crimes committed during a long civil war that ended nearly 25 years ago. On Wednesday, the court struck down a 1993 amnesty law, which had barred investigation and possible prosecution of perpetrators of atrocities committed during the 1980 to 1992 conflict. Sanchez Ceren told domestic television that the court decision does not address “the real and current problems of the country” and could threaten society’s unity. “Far from helping to resolve the day-to-day problems of Salvadorans,” Sanchez Ceren said, the court ruling “aggravates” them.
PANAMA
Noriega to undergo surgery
Imprisoned former politician and military officer Manuel Noriega will undergo surgery next week for a benign brain tumor, his doctor said on Friday. Physician Eduardo Reyes said the surgery is set for Thursday at the Hospital Santo Tomas in Panama City. He is to be admitted tomorrow for medical testing. Noriega’s relatives renewed calls to move the 82-year-old to house arrest for health reasons, requests that have been turned down several times. Reyes said the tumor was originally diagnosed in France and “has grown in Panama in recent years in a worrisome way.” The doctor said Noriega’s age along with his heart and lung diseases made the surgery “high risk.” Noriega’s lawyer Angel Ezra did not rule out that the octogenarian could refuse the operation if conditions are not optimal.
UNITED NATIONS
Genital mutilation disfavored
The UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said that about two-thirds of people in countries where female genital mutilation is common oppose the practice and want it stopped. According to figures released on Friday, 67 percent of girls and women as well as 63 percent of boys and men in countries with available data oppose the practice where parts of the female genitalia are removed. The practice is common in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. UNICEF estimates that at 200 million girls and women alive today in 30 countries around the world have undergone female genital mutilation. The UN has said it aims to stamp out harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage by 2030.
UNITED STATES
Turtles delay flights
Of all the factors that could delay flights at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, this one is probably the slowest: turtles. Nearly 400 diamondback terrapins have turned up on the airport’s property this year, most near the sandy turf bordering runways where they lay eggs and build nests. Some of the visitors have managed to crawl onto the runways and taxiways, causing delays while workers round them up, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that operates the airport said on Friday. While officials said they did not have information on whether a plane has ever hit a turtle, they did say that it is not uncommon to have delays of several minutes at a time while workers pluck turtles from the potential path of planes. The turtles are then measured, tagged and returned to a safe habitat. That normal habitat is the nearby Jamaica Bay salt marshes. However, each year after mating, during a month-long nesting season that peaks in the middle of July, they find special spots for their eggs to hatch, mostly in the sand along the perimeter of the airport.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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