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.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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