Iran executes athlete whose case gained world’s attention
TEHRAN — Iran said Saturday that it had executed a 2 7-ye a r- o l d wrestler accused of murder after he took part in antigovernment protests two years ago, a case that set off a campaign by international sports groups to demand clemency for the athlete.
Navid Afkari was executed Saturday morning at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, his lawyers confirmed. Afkari was accused of fatally stabbing a utility worker amid unrest in Shiraz, a center of the antigovernment protests that swept the country in 2018.
The charges against him had been met with widespread skepticism in Iran and abroad, with many government critics saying he was being used as an example to silence dissent. In an audiotape smuggled from prison, Afkari said he had been tortured until he falsely confessed to the crime.
Afkari’s lawyers said Saturday that Iranian officials had carried out the execution without giving their client a final visit with his family, which they said was dictated by law.
“How much of a rush were you in to carry out the sentence that you denied Navid one last meeting?” one of the lawyers, Hossein Younesi, posted on Twitter.
Afkari’s legal team had been preparing a last-ditch motion for judicial review of the case.
Sally threatens: Tropical Storm Sally formed Saturday off south Florida, becoming the earliest 18thnamed storm on record in an Atlantic hurricane season as it enters the Gulf of Mexico amid signs of strengthening further.
In the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. forecast, meteorologists said a hurricane watch was in effect for metropolitan New Orleans. The watch extended from Grand Isle, Louisiana to the AlabamaFlorida line and included Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas in Louisiana.
Forecasters said a lifethreatening storm surge is possible along parts of the Gulf Coast beginning Monday.
Sally emerged from a tropical depression swirling off south Florida, headed Saturday into warm Gulf waters. It was expected to become a hurricane by late Monday that could threaten a wide swath of the northern Gulf coast early in the week.
It becomes the earliest 18th named storm beating Stan, which formed on Oct. 2, 2006.
Pence cancels plans: Vice President Mike Pence has canceled plans to attend a Trump campaign fundraiser in Montana following revelations that the event’s hosts had expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign told The Associated Press on Saturday that Pence’s schedule had been changed, but the campaign did not provide a reason or say whether the fundraiser might be held at a later time. The change comes after the AP reported Wednesday that hosts Cayrn and Michael Borland in Bozeman, Montana, had shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts.
The baseless conspiracy theory alleges Trump is battling an entrenched bureaucracy and sex trafficking ring run by pedophiles.
Three Republicans seeking election in Montana also had been scheduled to attend the fundraiser: U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who faces a November challenge from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock; U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, a Republican running for governor; and state auditor Matt Rosendale, a candidate for the U.S. House.
Pence, Daines and the other Republican candidates are still scheduled to hold a campaign rally Monday afternoon near Bozeman. Pence will host a rally earlier in the day in Wisconsin, an event that was added as a substitute for the fundraiser, the Trump campaign said.
Charlottesville statue comes down:
A crowd cheered Saturday as workers in Charlottesville, Virginia, removed a Confederate statue near the site of a violent white nationalist rally three years ago.
The removal of a bronze figure of a Confederate soldier known as “At Ready” is seen in Charlottesville as a milestone in eliminating divisive symbols of the Civil War.
The Washington Post reports that the process of removing the statue began Saturday morning as workers affixed straps to the 900-pound statute to prepare to remove it from its base.
A crowd of about 100 people cheered behind metal barricades as the figure was lifted from its pedestal and lowered to the ground. The statue has been outside the Albermarle County courthouse for 111 years.
The scene was in stark contrast to the violence at the “Unite The Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017. One woman was killed and dozens were injured when a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist gathering.
Congo mine deaths:
More than 50 people are dead after landslides caused the collapse of three artisanal gold mines near the city of Kamituga in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province on Friday, officials said.
Heavy rains for days led to the disaster.
“The diggers and the transporters of the stones were swallowed up by the waters,” said the Kamituga mayor, Alexandre Bundya. “A team of rescuers with motor pumps came to recover the bodies of the victims.”
Diwa Honore, who survived the tragedy, said more than 50 people had been in the three mines, which are about 54 yards deep.
Most of the dead were young people, according to a statement from the office of the governor of South Kivu, Theo Ngwabidje Kasi, who offered condolences to families.
Another collapse at Atlanta site:
A concrete slab at a parking deck under construction in Atlanta collapsed Saturday — the second collapse at the site in as many days — sending a worker trying to shore up the structure plunging several stories below, authorities said.
The man suffered leg injuries after falling eight to 10 floors, Atlanta fire spokesman Sgt. Cortez Stafford said. The worker was taken to a hospital for treatment, and was alert and conscious, authorities said.
Authorities have stopped all work at the site and blocked off streets around it. The two collapses have compromised the structure and created a risk of additional falls, Stafford said.
The 3,000-space parking garage is being built at one of Emory University’s hospitals just north of downtown Atlanta. It was supposed to be completed next year.
On Friday, a section of concrete on the prefabricated parking deck partially collapsed, injuring six workers. A column on the 11th floor gave way, causing debris to fall onto the 10th floor in that initial collapse.
Stafford said that a construction problem, not faulty design, was to blame for that first collapse.