CHINA
Rocket launchers installed
Beijing has installed rocket launchers on a disputed reef in the South China Sea to ward off Vietnamese military combat divers, the state-run Defense Times newspaper reported on Tuesday. Norinco CS/AR-1 55mm anti-frogman rocket launcher defense systems with the capability to discover, identify and attack enemy combat divers had been installed on Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑島) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), the paper said on its WeChat account. The reef is administered by China, but also claimed by Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam. The report did not say when the defense system was installed, but said it was part of a response that began in May 2014, when Vietnamese divers installed large numbers of fishing nets in the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島).
AUSTRALIA
Backpacker attacker jailed
A man who brutally attacked two female backpackers on a remote beach is to spend at least 17 years in jail, with a judge yesterday accusing him of damaging the nation’s reputation as a safe destination. Roman Heinze was found guilty of six offenses in March over the harrowing ordeal in which the 61-year-old tied up and sexually assaulted a Brazilian woman and beat her German friend with a hammer when she tried to intervene. “You have violent and obsessive sexual preoccupations for which you have amply demonstrated you’re capable of acting out,” Justice Trish Kelly said, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported from the South Australian Supreme Court. Heinze was sentenced to 22 years and four months jail with a non-parole period of 17 years.
INDONESIA
Gay couple to be caned
An Islamic court has sentenced two men to 85 lashes of the cane for having sex together, Aceh Province judges said, ignoring pleas for clemency from human rights groups. The public caning handed down by a panel of judges is the first time laws against homosexuality, introduced in the province in 2014, have been used. The sentence was more severe than the 80 lashes requested by the prosecutor. “The defendants are proven to have committed sodomy and are found guilty,” presiding judge Khairil Jamal said in a statement. The two men had opted to represent themselves in court and said they would not appeal the verdict. Human Rights Watch had called on the government to release the men who were detained in March after vigilantes reported them to religious police for allegedly engaging in gay sex.
AUSTRALIA
Luxe boomerang criticized
French fashion house Chanel has triggered an uproar by selling a luxury monogrammed boomerang with a price tag of nearly US$1,500, with critics saying the accessory is an insult to the nation’s Aborigines. Chanel is accused of turning the hunting weapon, an important part of Aboriginal heritage, into a status symbol by offering a black wood and resin boomerang for sale in its spring-summer collection. “When I think about Aboriginal culture, I think @chanel,” Aboriginal activist Nayuka Gorrie tweeted sarcastically. “Have decided to save for the next three years so I can connect with my culture via @CHANEL.” He told the Guardian Australia: “Having a luxury brand swoop in, appropriate, sell our technologies and profit from our cultures for an absurd amount of money is ridiculous and hurtful.” Chanel released a statement saying it was “extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and regrets that some may have felt offended.”
UNITED STATES
Tornadoes kill two people
Two people have died and dozens were injured after tornadoes flattened a mobile home park in Wisconsin and a housing subdivision in Oklahoma during powerful spring storms that battered an area from the South Plains of Texas to the Great Lakes. The storms hit late in the afternoon on Tuesday and into the evening, leveling the Prairie Lake Estate Mobile Park near Chetek, Wisconsin. In Oklahoma, another tornado damaged much of a subdivision on the southern fringe of Elk City. Fire Chaplain Danny Ringer told reporters at the scene that one person was known to be dead.
UNITED STATES
White House eyes Guilfoyle
Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle is in conversations with the administration of President Donald Trump about replacing Sean Spicer as White House press secretary. The former first lady of San Francisco told the Mercury News in San Jose, California, on Monday that taking that job or having another press role at the White House has been “raised by a number of people” in the Trump administration. “I’m a patriot and it would be an honor to serve the country,” Guilfoyle said. “I think it’d be a fascinating job.”
UNITED STATES
Georgia executes murderer
Georgia yesterday carried out its first execution this year, putting to death a man convicted of killing his 73-year-old neighbor 25 years ago. J.W. Ledford’s time of death was 1:17am, after an injection of compounded barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. Ledford, 45, was convicted of murder in the January 1992 stabbing death of Harry Johnston in Murray County. When given a chance to make a final statement, Ledford appeared to quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke. “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach,” he said. “I am not the failure. You are the failure to communicate. You can kiss my white trash ass.”
UNITED STATES
Transgender man rejected
The Alaska Legislature on Tuesday rejected the appointment of Drew Phoenix, a transgender man, to serve on the state’s human rights commission. The vote came near the end of an hours-long joint session called to consider Alaska Governor Bill Walker’s nominees to boards, commissions and administration posts. Phoenix was the only nominee to be voted down. In a telephone interview, Phoenix said he was “incredibly upset and disheartened” by the vote. “I just find it so ironic that somebody like myself, with so much years’ experience personally and professional working on behalf of human rights, that they would not confirm me to the commission on human rights,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Caffeine overdose kills teen
A coffee, a caffeinated drink and an energy soda proved a deadly combination for a South Carolina teenager who died within two hours of consuming them, triggering warnings about the risks of caffeine overdose. Davis Cripe died on April 26 from a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia,” the Richland County coroner’s office wrote in a statement. Two hours before he collapsed, Cripe drank a cafe latte, a large Diet Mountain Dew and an energy drink. Richland County Coroner Gary Watts noted that such occurrences are “highly unusual.” “It was mainly due to the time period that he ingested a rapid amount of caffeine that affected his heart,” Watts told the Post and Courier.
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