COLOMBIA
Oil pipeline bombed
The Cano Limon oil pipeline in eastern Arauca Department was bombed on Wednesday, state-run oil company Ecopetrol said, the 11th time it has been attacked this year. Explosive devices were detonated along the pipeline in a rural area of Arauquita municipality near the border with Venezuela. An Ecopetrol representative said that it would not be clear until yesterday whether any oil spilled. The pipeline was not pumping at the time of the bombing. There have been more than a dozen attacks on Colombian pipelines in the year to date, 11 of them on Cano Limon. There were more than 80 attacks on the 780 pipeline last year, which kept it offline for most of the year. Although Ecopetrol does not usually name groups responsible, oil infrastructure bombings are regularly carried out by leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, considered a terrorist organization by the US and the EU. The ELN opposes multinational companies, saying that they seize natural resources without benefiting Colombians.
MEXICO
Authorities liberate refugees
Mexican authorities on Wednesday said that military personnel rescued 34 Central Americans from a home in violent northeastern Tamaulipas state, but no arrests were made because the people who were watching over the migrants fled. The eight Guatemalans, 25 Hondurans and one El Salvadoran who were rescued are likely not the same group of people as the 22 passengers kidnapped by armed men from a bus in northern Mexico last week, a state spokeswoman said. “Military personnel rescued 34 people of Central American nationality, of which 19 are adults and 15 minors... At the same address four vehicles, three high-caliber weapons, magazines and cartridges were found,” state authorities said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Crime boss shot dead
The reported crime boss of the New York mafia’s Gambino family, Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, was gunned down in front of his Staten Island home late on Wednesday, police and media said. Cali, 53, was fatally shot multiple times to his torso shortly after 9pm in front of his home, police said. Media, including the New York Post, reported that Cali was shot at least six or seven times and also run over by a blue pickup truck driven by the shooter, citing unidentified police sources. The Gambino crime operation is one of the five historic Italian-American mafia families in New York and makes its money through violence and extortion, Reuters has previously reported. Charges against members of mafia operations, including Gambino family operatives, have included murder, loan sharking, gambling and illegal drug distribution, reports have said. The New York Daily News in 2008 reported that Cali was among 62 people arrested on federal racketeering charges and he later pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort money. He served a 16-month sentence.
UNITED STATES
Lamb on the lam in NY
A wayward lamb running around a New York City bridge briefly held up traffic before its rescue. The animal was first seen trotting eastbound along the shoulder of Gowanus Expressway at about 9:30am on Wednesday. New York City Police Officer Dominick Gatto said he was on duty when a motorist informed him about the lamb on the lam. Gatto and other police officers chased down and caught the animal, taking it to the Animal Care Center in Staten Island.
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
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the