UNITED STATES
‘El Chapo’ eager for trial
Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is eager to go to trial, his defense attorney Eduardo Balarezo told reporters on Thursday after a hearing in which a judge set Sept. 5 for jury selection for a trial in New York City. Guzman wanted to knock down any speculation he might plead guilty and cooperate with US authorities in his drug trafficking case, said Balarezo, who also renewed complaints about conditions at a jail where his client is being held in solitary confinement. Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his Sinaloa cartel laundered billions of US dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings.
EL SALVADOR
Abortion ruling overturned
A woman serving a 30-year jail sentence for having an abortion was released from prison on Thursday on the orders of the Supreme Court, her lawyer and rights groups said. The court ruled that the evidence in the case did not prove she took any specific action to abort the pregnancy and thus was eligible for a form of clemency. Teodora del Carmen Vasquez said she was working in 2007 when she began to experience intense pain, then bleeding. She called for help before fainting. When she regained consciousness she had lost her nearly full-term baby. Authorities charged Vasquez with aggravated murder and she was convicted in 2008.
HONDURAS
OAS official resigns
The head of the Organization of American States’ (OAS) anti-corruption mission in Honduras on Thursday said he would resign over a lack of support from authorities in the Central American country and clashes with OAS leadership. “With great regret and after deep reflection, I announce my resignation,” Juan Jimenez, a Peruvian, wrote in a post on Twitter explaining the reasons for his departure. Jimenez, a former minister of justice, also attributed his resignation to differences of opinion with OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro. “This mission can’t work without the support of the secretary,” he said in an interview on local television.
UNITED STATES
Wind farm hosts marine life
Offshore wind proponents are touting new undersea footage suggesting a vibrant marine habitat is growing around the nation’s first offshore wind farm. The American Wind Energy Association posted a short video on YouTube this week from Deepwater Wind’s five-turbine operation off Rhode Island. The video shows mussels and fish clustered around the turbine bases, as well as positive testimonials from local recreational fishermen and charter boat owners. Association director of offshore wind Nancy Sopko said the video shows the potential for the fishing industry as wind projects are planned all along the east coast.
SOUTH AFRICA
Tutu drops Oxfam role
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu on Thursday said he would no longer serve as an ambassador for the British-based aid group Oxfam after allegations that senior staff members in crisis zones paid for sex among the desperate people the group was meant to serve. A statement from the office of the former archbishop said he was “deeply disappointed by allegations of immorality and possible criminality.” Tutu’s office said it had written to Oxfam “to inform them of his retirement as a global ambassador.”
UNITED STATES
Officers moved from Japan
The navy yesterday said it had removed three senior officers deployed on Okinawa for “personal misconduct,” after one was reportedly found wandering the base drunk and naked. The navy did not disclose the details of Monday’s incident, but the Navy Times reported that Lieutenant Commander Jason Gabbard was relieved of duty after “being discovered in the woods wearing only his boots” in Camp Shields. Commander James Cho and Command Master Chief Jason Holden were sacked for their handling of the incident, the newspaper added. The three have been temporarily assigned to the construction group in California, the navy said.
MALAYSIA
Apology over ad ‘cock-up’
The government has apologized after an advertisement in Chinese-language newspapers featuring a picture of a barking rooster to mark the Year of the Dog sparked a flood of mockery. The full-page ad by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism showed a rooster emitting the character “wang” (汪), used to represent a dog’s bark in Mandarin and a message welcoming a “prosperous Year of the Dog.” While some online comments lambasted the government for what they saw as a picture mix-up, others thought it was a cack-handed attempt to avoid using a dog image as the animals are considered unclean in Islam. The ad was a “national embarrassment,” one person wrote, accusing authorities of seeking to avoid using a canine picture. “There is nothing wrong with using the dog image as it’s a Chinese zodiac animal,” the person added. The ministry issued an apology late on Thursday and said a “technical error” was behind the mistake, without saying how they had intended the ad to appear.
UNITED KINGDOM
Billboards demand action
Campaigners for victims of the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London have taken inspiration from the US film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to press for more action by police. Three mobile billboards were driven through London on Thursday on behalf of the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign, which was established after the fire last year that killed 71 people. The signs read: “71 dead. And still no arrests. How come?” Police investigating the blaze say they are considering possible manslaughter charges, but no one has yet been charged.
UNITED STATES
Ban ‘unconsitutional’
A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, has found that President Donald Trump’s latest ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries is unconstitutional. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday said that it examined statements made by Trump and other administration officials, as well as the ban itself, and concluded it is “unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia