UNITED STATES
More executions planned
Arkansas is rushing to execute a slew of prisoners this week before its cache of lethal drugs run out at the end of the month. What began as a macabre plan to put eight convicted murderers to death in 11 days has seen one prisoner executed — Ledell Lee — on Thursday last week and four win reprieves. However, with the clock still ticking, Arkansas authorities were planning to administer lethal injections yesterday to Marcel Williams and Jack Jones. One more execution is scheduled for Thursday: Kenneth Williams, whose lawyers say he is intellectually disabled.
AMERICAN SAMOA
Pence encourages troops
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday addressed about 200 soldiers during a refueling stop in Pago Pago. Pence said that these are “challenging times” in the Asia-Pacific and told the troops that President Donald Trump’s administration was seeking a large increase in military funding. He also dedicated a sign that will greet visitors at a veterans’ clinic. Pence met with local officials and troops on his way to Hawaii at the end of a tour of the Asia-Pacific region that included a stop along the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.
GUATEMALA
Farmer wins Goldman prize
Farmer and activist Rodrigo Tot has been awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for work in his homeland. It is an honor that comes after two previous Latin American winners have been murdered in the past year. The diminutive, soft-spoken evangelical pastor is being recognized for defending his indigenous Q’eqchi community’s lands against a mining company and the government. Goldman praised what it calls Tot’s “intrepid leadership of his people and defense of their ancestral land.” It said that had come at a great personal cost to Tot: In 2012, one of his sons was shot dead in “an assassination that was passed off as a robbery.” Tot said he considered the award to be a recognition of the community’s struggle to defend its land and resources.
VENEZUELA
Maduro supporter dies
A woman wounded while participating in Thursday’s pro-government march died on Sunday, an official said, raising the death toll in three weeks of unrest to 21. Almelina Carrillo, 47, succumbed to injuries suffered when she was struck in the head by a bottle thrown from a building during the march in Caracas, state ombudsman Tarek Saab said on Twitter. The nation has seen near-daily protests since the beginning of the month, with opponents of President Nicolas Maduro demanding his ouster. Anti-government protests scheduled for yesterday urged demonstrators to block roads in a bid to grind the country to a halt.
UNITED STATES
Fire victim expected to live
Authorities said a man who escaped a deadly house fire that killed five people, including three children, is expected to survive. The New York Police Department said early yesterday that the man was being treated at a local hospital. He was not identified. The victims of Sunday afternoon’s fire in Queens Village neighborhood were two boys, aged 2 and 10; two girls, aged 16 and 17; and a 20-year-old woman. Their names have not been disclosed pending notification of their families. Officials are still trying to piece together who the victims are, and how or if they were all related. There is no immediate theory on what started the blaze.
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