NEWS OF THE DAY
_1 Venezuela gold: A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro control of over $1 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault, ruling that it is unlawful to give it to the socialist leader since Britain does not recognize him as president of the Latin American nation. Maduro has demanded the gold to help his cashstarved nation fight the coronavirus pandemic. But the central bank for the United Kingdom, whose government recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as his country’s legitimate leader, had refused to hand it over to Maduro’s socialist administration. Guaidó has sought to preserve the gold stash at the Bank of England to keep it out of the hands of the Maduro government, which it contends is illegitimate and corrupt.
_2 Russia vote: Almost 78% of voters in Russia have approved amendments to the country’s constitution that will allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036, Russian election officials said Thursday after all the votes were counted. Kremlin critics said the vote was rigged. In the weeklong balloting that concluded on Wednesday, 77.9% voted for the changes, and 21.3% voted against, with 100% of the precincts counted by Thursday, the Central Election Commission said. The turnout exceeded 64%.
_3 Defamation payout: An Australian court on Thursday rejected a newspaper publisher’s appeal against Oscarwinning actor Geoffrey Rush’s $2 million payout for defamation. Three Federal Court judges ruled that articles published by Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2017 conveyed the imputation that Rush was a pervert and that the trial judge had correctly included the actor’s loss of earnings in calculating damages. News Corp.owned Nationwide News appealed trial judge Michael Wigney’s ruling last year that Rush was defamed by newspaper reports saying he had been accused of inappropriate behavior by actor Eryn Jean Norvill. She played the daughter of Rush’s character in a Sydney theater production of “King Lear” in 2015 and 2016.
_4 Daniel Pearl: A British Pakistani man and three others convicted in the kidnapping and killing of a U.S. journalist, whose sentences were overturned in April, will remain in government custody for three more months, officials said Thursday. The move comes days after Pakistan’s Supreme Court paved the way for the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh by rejecting a government request for an immediate hearing against his acquittal in the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl. Saeed and three others, Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib, all were acquitted in the murder case. The three prisoners will remain in custody for 90 days. Saeed was found guilty of murder and kidnapping in the 2002 death of the Wall Street Journal reporter. He has already spent 18 years in prison on death row.
_5 Peace talks: Washington’s peace envoy told Pakistani officials that Afghanistan’s Taliban and Kabul’s political leaders were close to starting negotiations to decide the fate of postwar Afghanistan, a crucial next step in a U.S. deal signed with the Taliban in February. Zalmay Khalilzad was in the region to pave the way for intraAfghan negotiations expected to begin sometime this month. No date had been set, but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the first round would be held in Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office. Both sides must still release the remainder of prisoners laid out in the deal, which calls for the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban and the insurgents to release 1,000 government personnel. So far, the government has freed 3,500 and the Taliban about 700.
Chronicle News Services