News in Brief (2022-04-22)
Friday, 22 April 2022
Queen Elizabeth II turns 96
LONDON, Apr 21: Gun salutes will mark Queen Elizabeth II's 96th birthday on Thursday, although the monarch herself was expected to mark the occasion with little fanfare after a troubled year hit by health concerns. Royal officials released a photograph of the horse-loving head of state with two of her fell ponies, as family members wished her well. Her grandson Prince William and his wife Kate called her "an inspiration to so many across the UK, the Commonwealth and the world". In the British capital, 62 gun rounds will be fired later from the Tower of London and 42 in Hyde Park, where a military band will also play "Happy Birthday". — AFP
Chinese court sentences US citizen
to death for murder
BEIJING, Apr 21: A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced US citizen Shadeed Abdulmateen to death for intentional homicide of a 21-year-old woman, his former girlfriend, state broadcaster CCTV reported. In its verdict the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang Province, found that after a disagreement over the pair's break-up in June 2019 the defendant arranged to meet and talk with the victim, a Chinese citizen surnamed Chen, at a bus top in Ningbo before going on to kill her with a "folding knife". The court held that the defendant's "premeditated revenge killing, stabbing and cutting Chen's face and neck several times, resulting in Chen's death, was motivated by vile motives, resolute intent and cruel means, and the circumstances of the crime were particularly bad and the consequences particularly serious, and should be punished according to law," CCTV reported. — Reuters
Ramos-Horta wins East Timor
presidential election
DILI (East Timor), Apr 21: Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta scored a landslide victory in East Timor's presidential election, according to preliminary results published Wednesday by the election secretariat. The 72-year-old secured 397,145 votes, or 62.09 per cent, against incumbent Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres' 242,440, or 37.91 per cent, the secretariat's website showed after all ballots were counted. "The count of the district, national and regional vote has been completed," said Acilino Manuel Branco, general director of the election secretariat. — AP