UNITED STATES
Molotov thrower killed
Officers on Saturday shot and killed a man who was throwing Molotov cocktails and setting vehicles on fire near a police station in Raleigh, North Carolina, authorities said. The confrontation began after an officer observed a man lighting vehicles on fire in a parking lot near a district station at about 1:20pm, Police Chief Estella Patterson told a news conference. The officer called for assistance, and three other officers came to help, she said, and the officers ordered the man to stop. Patterson said the man continued to throw Molotov cocktails, ultimately tossing one near an officer close to him. “Multiple officers then discharged their weapons, and the individual was struck multiple times,” Patterson said.
BAHAMAS
Tourists die of illness
Three US tourists have died at a resort in the Bahamas after falling ill, officials of the Atlantic island nation said, and another was airlifted to a hospital for treatment. Acting Prime Minister Chester Cooper issued a statement on Friday saying that police are investigating and the cause of death was unknown, although foul play “is not suspected.” Their identities were not initially made public. The Minister of Health Michael Darville told Eyewitness News Bahamas on Saturday that some hotel guests went to a clinic on Thursday with nausea and vomiting, were treated and left. Three were later found dead. A fourth was flown to a hospital in New Providence.
CUBA
Blast death toll rises to 27
Crews worked through a second night searching for victims of a hotel explosion that killed at least 27 people in the capital and left more than a dozen missing amid the rubble. The Hotel Saratoga, a luxury 96-room hotel in Old Havana, was finishing renovations when an apparent gas leak produced a massive explosion on Friday. On Saturday evening, Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, raised the death toll to 27, with 81 people injured. The dead included four children and a pregnant woman. Spanish President Pedro Sanchez said on Twitter that a Spanish tourist was among the dead and that another Spaniard was seriously injured.
LAOS
Entry curbs to be dropped
The country is to drop COVID-19 entry restrictions for fully vaccinated tourists from today, after it reported falling coronavirus cases and deaths, senior officials said. The Southeast Asian nation saw an 80 percent downturn in international traveler numbers in 2020 — 4.7 million foreign tourists visited the previous year. From January travelers had been required to complete seven days of quarantine, present a negative COVID-19 test, and were limited to traveling within certain areas with officially sanctioned tour groups. Unvaccinated visitors must produce a rapid antigen test issued within 48 hours of leaving their origin country.
SAUDI ARABIA
King undergoes checkup
The kingdom’s octogenarian monarch underwent medical tests yesterday, state-run media reported, just weeks after he had the battery of his pacemaker changed. The report in the official Saudi Press Agency did not provide further details about King Salman’s condition or the nature of the medical examinations. It said that he was admitted to a hospital in the port city of Jiddah. The monarch’s health is closely watched because he holds absolute power in the kingdom.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
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