SOUTH AFRICA
Party backs Ramaphosa
A meeting of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress party on Wednesday resolved to close ranks around President Cyril Ramaphosa over his “Farmgate” scandal, public broadcaster SABC reported. The meeting supported Ramaphosa’s decision to launch a legal challenge against an independent panel report that found evidence he committed misconduct, SABC politics reporter Samkele Maseko wrote on X. Ramaphosa earlier this week faced down calls to resign over the scandal, in which thieves stole bundles of cash stuffed in a sofa on Ramaphosa’s ranch in 2020.
Photo: Reuters
UNITED STATES
Knight Rider ticketed
A traffic law violator with unpaid fines is driving a black Pontiac Trans Am that looks like the car from the 1980s TV series Knight Rider and even has the same license plate, leading to trouble for an Illinois museum. The Volo Museum near Chicago, which has a replica of the show’s Trans Am that has not moved from its exhibit in years, received a US$50 traffic ticket from New York, alleging that its car was doing 36mph (58kph) in a 25mph zone in Brooklyn on April 22. The ticket came complete with traffic camera photos showing a black Trans Am with the California license plate KNIGHT. The license plate is also connected to five other unpaid traffic violations in New York City since late 2024, city records show. “The fact that we’re legally tied to a movie prop is interesting,” said Jim Wojdyla, the museum’s marketing director. “We’re known for having our Hollywood cars from TV and movies, but I have no idea how we got registered from a ticket in New York to the plates in California to the Volo Museum in Illinois. We’re still trying to figure it out.” The museum has requested a hearing challenging the ticket.
Photo: AP
PAKISTAN
Soldiers, militants clash
At least five soldiers and seven militants were killed in clashes in Balochistan Province, officials said yesterday. An improvised explosive device detonated near a convoy of paramilitary Frontier Corps troops and was followed by a clash with militants, the officials said. “Five soldiers were killed and another was critically wounded,” a senior official told reporters. “During the operation, a group of terrorists was located and engaged by troops,” with seven terrorists killed, the army’s media wing said in a statement. The Baloch Liberation Army separatist group claimed responsibility for the attack.
JAPAN
Retrials face overhaul
Policymakers on Wednesday approved a proposal to reduce the power of prosecutors to thwart a process for exonerating potential victims of wrongful convictions. The retrial process shaped a century ago is often so lengthy that decades can slip by before someone is granted a shot at a legal do-over. Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers approved a Ministry of Justice reform plan that included the limitation of prosecutorial appeals against court decisions to retry those who might have been wrongfully incarcerated. While in principle prohibiting prosecutors from challenging retrial orders, the ministry’s plan still leaves room for appeals if “sufficient grounds” exist. The LDP spent weeks wrangling with the ministry to push for prosecutors to be stripped outright of their power to appeal. It was a “gut-wrenching” decision for the party to settle for this compromise, but it was still better than no progress at all, LDP lawmaker Masahiko Shibayama told reporters.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
IN PROTECTION: Video released by the Senate showed Ronald dela Rosa being chased through the halls of the upper chamber, pursued by National Bureau of Investigation officers Philippine authorities on Monday said that they would not arrest for now a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, capping a lengthy Senate standoff. Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who served as police chief and Duterte’s top enforcer during the bloody drug crackdown, would be treated as if in the custody of the Senate, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag told reporters after the politician had taken refuge in the legislative building. “We respect that they are a co-equal branch,” Matibag said after the Senate refused
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