UNITED STATES
Death row inmate executed
The administration of President Donald Trump on Friday carried out its 13th federal execution since July last year, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden — an opponent of the federal death penalty. Dustin Higgs, convicted in the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, was the third to receive a lethal injection this week at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Trump’s Department of Justice resumed federal executions last year following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions. Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1:23am.
BELGIUM
Owner sleeps inside cafe
A fed-up cafe owner is sleeping in her premises with little food, in protest of the months-long shutdown of her sector to curb the spread of COVID-19. “To remain like this, without working, losing everything — every day to see you’re losing a little bit more — it’s hard,” Christelle Carion told reporters as she sat on the edge of her bed, set up beside the bar. The 48-year-old has been holed up in the closed Amon Nos Autes cafe in the eastern village of Pepinster since Tuesday, to draw attention to the ordeal that she and other owners in the bar and restaurant sector are going through. They have been ordered shut since Oct. 19 last year to counter the second coronavirus wave sweeping Europe, after having been closed for three months for the first wave early last year.
GUATEMALA
Migrants cross border
At least 4,500 Honduran migrants on Friday night pushed past police and crossed into Guatemala, passing the first hurdle of a journey north they hope will take them to a better life in the US. The crowd of men, women and children — many wearing masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic — pushed their way past police and border gates dividing the two countries at the town of El Florido. A Guatemalan police official said the police force had let the migrants cross, as there were many families with children in the crowd and that using tear gas at night could have resulted in casualties.
AUSTRALIA
Pigeon spared from death
A pigeon due to be put down after apparently flying across the Pacific was spared the death sentence on Friday, after a leg tag identifying it as belonging to a US bird organization was declared a fake. The tag suggested it had lost its way during a race in Alabama and flown more than 13,000km to Melbourne — thereby falling foul of strict quarantine regulations forbidding the importation of live animals or birds.
AFGHANISTAN
Insider attack kills 12
Two Taliban fighters who had infiltrated a base of pro-government militiamen killed 12 of them, officials and the insurgent group said yesterday. The nighttime attack at a post manned by the militiamen occurred in Ghorian District of the western Herat Province late on Friday, district Governor Farhad Khademi told reporters. “Twelve pro-government militiamen were killed in the Taliban attack in Ghorian District last night,” he said. Herat provincial council member Mohammad Sardar Bahaduri confirmed the attack and said it was carried out by two Taliban fighters who had infiltrated the base. “The militiamen were dining when the attack happened,” he said.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not