US inmate executed after court ruling is reversed

Arkansas: The US government executed its first federal prison inmate in 17 years after a divided Supreme Court reversed rulings made by lower courts.

Daniel Lewis Lee had been scheduled to receive a lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at 4pm local time on Monday.

Lee, from Yukon, Oklahoma, was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her eight-yearold daughter, Sarah Powell. But a court order issued by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday prevented his execution.

Judge Chutkan said inmates had presented evidence showing the government’s plan to use pentobarbital in executions “poses an unconstitutionally significant risk of serious pain”.

The inmates had identified alternatives, including the use of an opioid or anti-anxiety drug at the start of the procedure or a different method altogether, a firing squad, she said.

A federal appeals court in Washington refused the administration’s plea to step in, leaving the stay in place, before the Supreme Court acted by a 5-4 vote.

Lee was executed yesterday morning.

Wellington: Long-serving politician Judith Collins will lead New Zealand’s opposition National Party into a general election against a popular government in just over two months.

She will take over from Todd Muller, who quit the leadership yesterday, citing health reasons.

Mr Muller shocked members in the right-ofcentre party when he issued a statement yesterday saying he was stepping down “effective immediately”. The 67-yearold former business executive had led the party for only 53 days, toppling previous leader Simon Bridges in a leadership coup.

Ms Collins was chosen to take over the leadership in a hastily arranged meeting of the party’s parliamentary caucus in Wellington last night.

New York: Mary Trump can talk about the highly critical book she wrote about her uncle, Donald Trump, despite objections from the president’s brother, a US judge ruled as he lifted an order that had blocked her from publicising or distributing her work.

State Supreme Court Judge Hal B Greenwald, in Poughkeepsie, New York, rejected arguments by Robert Trump that Ms Trump is blocked from talking about family members publicly by an agreement relatives made to settle the estate of her father after his death.

The judgek wrote: “Notwithstanding the book has been published and distributed in great quantities, to enjoin Mary L Trump at this juncture would be incorrect and serve no purpose. It would be moot.”

Tanegashima: The lift-off of the United Arab Emirates’ Mars orbiter has been postponed until Friday due to bad weather at the Japanese launch site.

The orbiter, named Amal, or Hope, is the

Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.

The launch was scheduled for today from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan, but the UAE mission team announced the rescheduled date on Twitter.

Hope is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation.