Nation & World Watch
vWashington: Trump says he will rally on health care
President Donald Trump expressed confidence Sunday on social media and on the golf course that he and aides can somehow resurrect their attempt to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Hours before hitting the links with one of his critics on health care, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Trump tweeted: “Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!”
Hours later, Trump — who criticized Obama frequently for playing golf — headed to his golf club in northern Virginia. The White House said the president played a round with Paul and budget director Mick Mulvaney.
vChicago: 2nd teen sought in Facebook sexual assault
An arrest warrant has been issued for a second teenage boy in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old Chicago girl that was streamed live on Facebook, and further arrests are expected, police said Sunday.
A day after announcing the arrest of a 14-year-old boy on sexual assault and child pornography charges, police said they were looking for a 15-year-old suspect in the March 19 attack.
Police Cmdr. Brendan Deenihan said there were multiple cellphone videos made of the attack, not just the one streamed live on Facebook that was viewed by about 40 people — none of whom reported it.
vIsrael: PM warns enemies as missile system unveiled
A joint U.S.-Israeli missile interceptor meant to counter the type of mediumrange missiles possessed by Iranianbacked Hezbollah militants became operational Sunday, completing Israel’s multilayer defense system amid tensions on its frontiers with Syria and Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the unveiling ceremony for the David’s Sling system that defending the home front is of the “utmost importance” and warned that “whoever tries to strike us will be hit; those that threaten our existence put themselves in existential danger.”
vPakistan: 20 devotees die in apparent cult ritual
The custodian of a local shrine and his accomplices murdered 20 devotees after intoxicating them in eastern Punjab province, police said Sunday, in what officials are calling a cult ritual.
Senior police officer Mohammad Bilal said that the shrine custodian in a village near the city of Sargodha, some 200 miles north of Multan, was arrested Sunday morning along with four others for killing worshippers with batons and knives. Bilal said another four people were wounded in critical condition.
Liaquat Ali Chatta, government administrator of the area, said the custodian, Abdul Waheed, was allegedly in the practice of “beating and torturing” devotees to “cleanse” them.
vUnited Kingdom: Six arrested in hate crime
U.K. police questioned six people Sunday in a vicious attack on a teenage asylum-seeker in the London borough of Croydon.
Authorities have arrested four men and two women, all in their 20s, on charges of attempted murder in the attack that left a 17-year-old Kurdish-Iranian boy hospitalized with a fractured skull and a blood clot on his brain.
Police say eight youths approached the teen at a bus stop Friday night. Upon learning he was an asylum-seeker, they chased him through the streets and beat him. The attack only stopped after bystanders intervened and police sirens could be heard.