UNITED STATES
Singer marries fourth wife
Billy Joel married Alexis Roderick in a surprise ceremony at the couple’s annual Fourth of July party. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo presided over Saturday’s nuptials at Joel’s Long Island estate, Joel spokeswoman Claire Mercuri said. Party guests did not know the couple planned to exchange vows. Alexa Ray Joel, his daughter with his second wife, model Christie Brinkley, and actor Kevin James were at the party. People magazine first reported the wedding. Joel, 66, and Roderick, 34, have been dating since 2009 and are expecting their first child. This is his fourth marriage.
BARBADOS
CARICOM summit ends
The head of a Caribbean trade bloc said he backs Guyana amid a border dispute with Venezuela. Barbadian Prime Minister and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Chairman Freundel Stuart spoke at a news conference late on Saturday as bloc leaders ended a summit. Venezuela claims about two-thirds of Guyana and a large marine area where Exxon Mobil Corp said it made a significant oil discovery. Stuart said CARICOM leaders met with Venezuela’s vice president and that he pledged to maintain regional peace. Stuart also said that CARICOM has agreed to let the UN mediate a dispute between Haiti and the Dominican Republic regarding a crackdown on unregistered non-citizens.
UNITED STATES
Bodies found in two homes
Police have found three bodies inside two houses in the Maine town of Boothbay Harbor, and authorities think they are from the same family. A Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman said the victims are a man and woman in their 70s and a man in his 40s. Steve McCausland said no other people are thought to have been involved, but did not provide more information. Police said the discovery on Saturday was made after someone called police requesting that they check on one of the properties.
MEXICO
Rights respected: military
The Secretariat of National Defense says its troops were instructed to have “unrestricted” respect for human rights when soldiers allegedly killed at least 12 suspected drug gang members after they surrendered on June 30 last year. The statement late on Friday was the military’s first response to documents released by the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights center showing that top officers had given soldiers standing orders to “kill criminals.” Orders signed on June 11 last year by Lieutenant Colonel Sandro Diaz Rodriguez, on behalf of the command of the 102 Infantry Battalion, said “soldiers should operate on a mass scale at night and reduce daytime activities, with the aim of killing criminals at night.” The statement said that the standing orders included “38 indications protecting human life ... and a focus on protecting human rights.” The rights group said the response was inadequate.
UNITED STATES
Medicare scam terms begin
Five people have been sent to federal prison for their roles in a US$25 million Medicare fraud that involved people from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic posing as US patients. The sentences imposed last week by a Miami federal judge ranged from 15 months to four years. The five are among 10 who have pleaded guilty after they were charged last year in a 36-count grand jury indictment. Court records show the scam involved foreign individuals posing as Florida residents in the filing of fraudulent Medicare claims.
UNITED KINGDOM
Neo-Nazis outnumbered
A small group of neo-Nazis staged an anti-Semitic rally in London, but were hugely outnumbered by counterdemonstrators. About 20 far-right activists protested in central London against Shomrim, a Jewish neighborhood watch group. They had planned to rally in north London’s Golders Green area, home to a large Jewish community, but police decided to move them because of the disorder that could ensue. The group, waving Palestinian and Confederate battle flags, stood surrounded by police in a fenced-in area near Downing Street on Saturday. A counterdemonstration drew more than 100 people, who chanted: “Nazis off our streets” nearby. Police said they could not ban a static demonstration and have a duty to safeguard the right to protest.
UNITED KINGDOM
Putin marks US holiday
President Vladimir Putin has congratulated US President Barack Obama on the US’ Independence Day holiday and expressed confidence that Russia and the US can work together to find solutions to international problems. The Kremlin said Putin noted in a telegram on Saturday that despite the differences between the two countries, their relations remain important for global stability and security. “Putin expressed confidence that by building a dialogue based on the principles of equality and mutual respect for each other’s interests, Russia and the US are able to find solutions to the most complex international problems and effectively counter global threats and challenges,” the Kremlin said. The greetings followed Putin’s telephone call to Obama on June 25, which was the first time they had spoken since February.
LEBANON
Militants kill 25 in video
A video has been posted online purporting to show Islamic State fighters killing about 25 Syrian government soldiers in the historic town of Palmyra in central Syria. The video released on Saturday showed the soldiers being taken in pickup trucks from the town’s notorious Tadmur prison to the amphitheater. At the theater, they appear to be shot dead by young militants armed with pistols. Hundreds of people were seen watching the killings. The video did not indicate when the killings took place. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said these shootings took place on May 27. The Associated Press reported in May that scores of troops and state employees were killed after the Islamic State group captured the town. Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its 2,000-year-old Roman colonnades, other ruins and priceless artifacts.
UNITED STATES
Sturgeon kills girl, 5
A five-year-old Florida girl riding in a boat has died after a sturgeon leaped from the Suwannee River and struck her. Wildlife officials said Jaylon Rippy died after being struck on Thursday night. Her mother and nine-year-old brother were injured and taken to a Gainesville hospital. Their condition was not known. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said this is the first fatality recorded from a sturgeon strike on the Suwannee River. Four people have been injured by jumping sturgeon this year. The fish are known for leaping more than 2.13m above the water. They can grow up to 2m long, weigh up to 90kg and cause serious injuries.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS