TRIAL OF 20 SAUDIS IN KHASHOGGI KILLING OPENS
ISTANBUL» Turkey opened a trial into the death of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday, accusing 20 Saudi citizens in absentia, in a case that friends and human rights officials welcomed as an important step in advancing the search for justice in his killing.
None of the accused was present for the trial — Saudi Arabia has declined to extradite them — and it was unclear whether the court could pursue the case legally without defendants.
Nonetheless, the start of proceedings was seen as a sign that Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who knew Khashoggi and was outraged the killing took place in Istanbul — are determined to pursue those responsible and even implicate the Saudi kingdom’s day-to-day ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Macron replaces France’s prime minister in bid to reinvigorate government. PARIS» President Emmanuel Macron shuffled prime ministers Friday, removing the most popular member of his government and a potential rival in a bid to get a fresh start in the wake of a coronavirus outbreak that has hit France hard.
Macron traded in his prime minister of three years, Édouard Philippe, for a relatively unknown technocrat, Jean Castex, who has helped guide France out of the health emergency.
But the president has taken a chance in distancing himself from Philippe: The outgoing prime minister is the only French political leader to emerge from the health crisis with sharply enhanced credibility. By pushing out Philippe, Macron is testing the adage that, in politics, it is better to keep one’s rivals close at hand.
Severe floods in China leave at least 106 dead or missing. In the inland Chinese city of Yichang, the murky water ran waisthigh, stranding people in their cars and turning streets into canals. Near the metropolis of Chongqing, angry torrents of water swept away country roads. The tourist town of Yangshuo experienced a cloudburst that an official called a once-in-two-centuries event.
Weeks of abnormally intense rains have wrought destruction across southern China, leaving at least 106 people dead or missing and affecting 15 million residents in the worst flooding that parts of the region have seen in decades.
One of the hardest-hit provinces has been Hubei, whose capital, Wuhan, also had the first emergence of the coronavirus last year.
Men charged in 1993 killing of diner custodian. BRIDGEPORT, CONN.» Police have arrested two men in connection with the fatal shooting of a 77-year-old restaurant custodian whose killing had gone unsolved for 27 years.
Police said Danarius Dukes was apprehended Thursday in Stamford, and authorities announced Friday that Breeze Brown also was taken into custody. Dukes, 44, was charged with murder and felony murder, and Brown, 46, was charged with felony murder in the 1993 killing of Theodore “Teddy” Edwards at the Duchess restaurant on Boston Avenue, the Connecticut Post reported.