UNITED STATES
Judge tosses vaccine suit
A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by employees of a Houston hospital system over its requirement that all of its staff be vaccinated against COVID-19. After the Houston Methodist Hospital system last week suspended 178 employees without pay over their refusal to get vaccinated, 117 sued to overturn the requirement and over their suspension and threatened termination. In a scathing ruling on Saturday, US District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston deemed lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges’ contention that the vaccines are “experimental and dangerous” to be false and otherwise irrelevant. He also found that her likening the vaccination requirement to the Nazis’ forced medical experimentation on concentration camp captives during the Holocaust to be “reprehensible.” Hughes also ruled that making vaccinations a condition of employment was not coercion, as Bridges contended.
UNITED STATES
Actor Ned Beatty dies, 83
Ned Beatty, the prolific and Oscar-nominated character actor known for his roles in Network, Superman and Toy Story 3, has died, aged 83, US media reported on Sunday. “Ned passed away from natural causes Sunday morning, surrounded by his family and loved ones,” Shelter Entertainment Group talent manager Deborah Miller said, according to CNN. The Kentucky native made his big-screen debut in the 1972 film Deliverance. That film, in which Beatty won attention for his performance in a humiliating rape scene, started a film career that would continue until 2013. It was Beatty’s role in Network that won him his first and only Oscar nod, for best supporting actor, a performance that included a memorably cynical monologue on dollars, cents and “the primal forces of nature.” Writing on Twitter, actor and director Seth Rogen called it “one of the greatest monologues ever in a movie.”
ARGENTINA
Chilean fugitive detained
The government on Sunday said it had arrested a Chilean fugitive wanted for dozens of murders committed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Walther Klug Rivera, a retired army colonel, was arrested on Saturday near his hotel in Buenos Aires. Authorities had spotted him earlier in the month when he attempted to board a flight to Spain, it said. He had been sentenced in 2014 by the Supreme Court in Chile to 10 years in prison. Klug Rivera was the head of a detention camp during the Pinochet years and is accused of the killings of workers at two hydroelectric power plants, as well as the kidnapping of university student Luis Angel Cornejo Fernandez, listed as disappeared. At least 3,200 people were killed or disappeared during Pinochet’s dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. An estimated 38,000 were tortured.
INDONESIA
Rare rhino calves spotted
Two Javan rhinoceros calves have been spotted at a national park, offering a rare sighting of one of the world’s most endangered mammals. The pair — ranging in age from three months to one year — were caught on footage snapped by camera traps in March at Ujung Kulon National Park, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said. On the westernmost tip of Java Island, Ujung Kulon is the last remaining wild habitat for Javan rhinos. After years of population decline, there are believed to be just 73 of the rare mammals at the sanctuary. Javan rhinos have folds of loose skin giving them the appearance of wearing armor plating.
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