WORLD BRIEFS
‘Corona’ spike
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States posted a new daily record of 67,632 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24 hours on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks the spread of the disease.
The global leader in infections has seen a surge in the virus since late June, mostly in the south and west of the country.
For the past 10 days, the number of new cases being reported has been between 55,000 and 65,000 every 24 hours.
Mass layoff
NEW YORK (AFP) — American Airlines is notifying 25,000 workers that they could be furloughed beginning 1 October, executives said Wednesday, the latest major carrier to warn about massive layoffs.
Although the number of layoffs may be minimized through voluntary departures, American will have more than 20,000 excess workers on payroll due to a profound downturn in business caused by the coronavirus pandemic, chief executive Doug Parker and president Robert Isom said in a memo to employees.
Clashes resume
YEREVAN, Armenia (AFP) — Border clashes resumed early Thursday between arch-foes Azerbaijan and Armenia after a brief de-escalation in fighting, officials in Baku and Yerevan said.
Armenia’s defense ministry said Azerbaijani forces were “shelling Armenian villages with mortars and howitzers,” while the defense ministry in Baku said clashes were ongoing near the border after “Armenians shelled Azerbaijani villages with large-calibre weapons.”
Execution held
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US District Court judge on Wednesday blocked the scheduled execution of a convicted murderer after his lawyers claimed he is suffering from dementia and does not know why he is to be put to death.
Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, of Kansas, had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday at Terre Haute prison in the midwestern state of Indiana.
Purkey was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to death for the 1998 rape, murder and dismemberment of a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long. He was also found guilty of beating an 80-year-old woman to death with a hammer.