EL SALVADOR
Ex-president’s trial finishes
The trial of former president Elias Antonio Saca over the diversion of more than US$300 million during his term concluded on Wednesday, with sentencing set for Sept. 12, a court spokesman said. Saca — who was in power from 2004 to 2009 — previously pleaded guilty to embezzlement, and money and assets laundering in exchange for an abbreviated trial and reduced sentence. As part of the agreement, prosecutors requested a 10-year sentence and the return of US$300.3 million by Saca and his six collaborators as a “civic duty,” the court press office said in a statement. They also asked that former communications secretary Julio Rank return US$8 million to the state and that former president of the state water company Cesar Funes hand back US$886,697.
MEXICO
TV reporter shot dead
A television reporter was on Wednesday shot dead in Cancun, becoming the eighth journalist to be killed this year in a country notoriously dangerous for the media. Javier Enrique Rodriguez Valladares worked as a cameraman and reporter for Canal 10. The station said that his family had confirmed his death. The government of Quintana Roo State said that another man was also shot dead with him, reportedly while the pair were walking down a street in the city center. Canal 10 said he was mainly a cameraman, but also did interviews and features on political issues. Rodriguez Valladares is the third journalist to meet a violent death in the state in the past two months. Ruben Pat, editor-in-chief of the Playa News weekly, was shot dead outside a bar in Playa del Carmen last month, not far from the tourist hotspot. And on June 29, Playa News reporter Jose Guadalupe Chan was shot dead in a Mayan indigenous village in the south of Quintana Roo.
UNITED KINGDOM
Energy drink ban mulled
The sale of high-caffeine soft drinks to children could be banned in England, the government said yesterday, citing public health concerns. The so-called ‘energy drinks’ contain high levels of sugar and caffeine, and have been linked to obesity and a range of other health issues. “With thousands of young people regularly consuming energy drinks, often because they are sold at cheaper prices than soft drinks, we will consult on banning the sale of energy drinks to children,” Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement. Adolescents in the nation who drink energy drinks consume about 50 percent more than their counterparts in mainland Europe, the statement said. The government launched a consultation seeking views on the subject, including at what age the ban should apply. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would not have to follow the ban and are free to set their own policies. The ban would apply to drinks containing 150mg of caffeine or more per liter.
UNITED STATES
Glider crashes in mountain
A glider has crashed in the mountains in Vermont, killing all three people on board. State police said search and rescue crews reached the wreckage near the summit of Sterling Mountain late on Wednesday and discovered the bodies of the glider pilot and two passengers. Morrisville police received a report that the glider was missing shortly before 2pm. It was later spotted about 305m from the summit of the mountain. The glider was owned by Stowe Soaring. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
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
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
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