GUATEMALA
Court clears Rios Sosa run
The Supreme Court of Justice has provisionally cleared the way for the daughter of former president Efrain Rios Montt to run for president in June’s elections. Court spokesman Mario Siecavizza on Wednesday said that the decision allowing Zury Rios Sosa to run for the conservative Vision con Valores party was unanimous. Details on the decision were not available. The Citizen Registry of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal had blocked Rios Sosa’s candidacy, because the constitution bans relatives of presidents from holding the presidency. It made a similar denial in 2015.
IRAN
Military eyes foreign action
A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander on Wednesday said that the government’s response to a suicide attack that killed 27 soldiers in the southeast would not be limited to the country’s borders. Authorities said that Sunni group Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack, operates from safe havens in Pakistan and have repeatedly called on the neighboring country to crack down on it. Reacting to the suicide attack in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, commander Ali Fadavi was quoted by Fars news agency as saying: “Our response in defense of the Islamic Revolution will not be limited to our borders... The enemies will receive a very firm response from the Revolutionary Guards like before.”
MALAYSIA
Crocodile kills Indonesian
An Indonesian man has been mauled to death by a crocodile, with his horrified nephew spotting the victim disappearing into a river during the attack, police said yesterday. Muh Tahir Majid Syam, 40, went missing while hunting for crabs with his nephew on Tuesday by a river in Sarawak state on Borneo Island. While looking for him, the younger man suddenly saw his uncle’s head pop up above the water’s surface before sinking again, local Deputy Police Chief Mohamad Sabri Zainol told reporters. Muh Tahir’s body was found on Wednesday covered in bite marks, leading police to conclude that he was likely killed by a saltwater crocodile. Saltwater crocodiles are often sighted along rivers and by beaches in two states on Borneo, Sabah and Sarawak. The reptiles, which can grow up to 7m long, have been blamed for a series of attacks in the past few years in the area. Authorities in Sarawak in 2017 began granting licenses to hunt crocodiles in a bid to reduce the number of attacks, local media reported.
UNITED STATES
Dog not killed over politics
A Minnesota sheriff said that a dog named Donald Trump was not shot and killed over a political rivalry, despite false claims circulating on social media that have spurred “violent threats” against some county residents. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office concluded that the person who shot the dog on Sunday was “legally protecting their livestock” on private property. The shooter has not been identified. The dog’s owner, Randal Thom, is an avid supporter of President Donald Trump and has been featured in dozens of news stories for frequenting his rallies. Some social media users claimed a neighbor, who they believed to be a Democrat, intentionally killed Thom’s dog. Neighbors have lodged 14 complaints about Thom’s dogs running loose, killing animals and attacking a person, the office said. Thom was convicted on a petty misdemeanor of “dogs and cats at large” in 2015, Minnesota court records showed. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
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