ZIMBABWE An American allegedly paid USD50,000 to kill a well-known, protected lion named Cecil, Zimbabwean conservationists said, as authorities yesterday said two Zimbabwean men will appear in court for allegedly helping with the hunt. The two Zimbabwean men — a professional hunter and a farm owner — face poaching charges, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority and the Safari Operators Association said in a joint statement.
UK A member of Britain’s House of Lords quit yesterday, apologizing for causing “pain and embarrassment” after he was filmed allegedly snorting cocaine during sessions with sex workers. John Sewel — whose title is Lord Sewel — caved in to pressure, telling parliamentary officials he was “terminating my membership of the House of Lords.” The 69-year-old is at the center of a political sleaze scandal after The Sun tabloid ran images appearing to show him snorting white powder through a rolled-up banknote and lounging in an orange bra.
ETHIOPIA Closing a historic visit to Africa, President Barack Obama yesterday urged the continent’s leaders to willingly and peacefully leave office when their terms expire. “I don’t understand this” phenomenon of leaders who refuse to step aside when their terms end, Obama said, referring to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, who was just elected to a controversial third term, although he is constitutionally limited to two.
USA An initial toxicology report for a U.S. woman, who died in a jail cell three days after her arrest during a traffic stop, raises the possibility that she may have used marijuana while in custody, two experts said. The amount of THC, one of the active components of marijuana, in Sandra Bland’s system was 18 micrograms per liter, according to the report released Monday. That’s more than three times the legal limit for drivers in Colorado and Washington, states that permit the recreational use of marijuana.
USA The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons. “Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period,” said the HRC’s president, Chad Griffin.
USA A U.S. prison worker pleaded guilty yesterday to smuggling hacksaw blades in frozen hamburger meat to two killers who later broke out and spent more than two weeks on the run. Joyce Mitchell, a tailor shop instructor at Clinton Correctional Facility in northern New York state, was jailed shortly after the elaborately staged June 6 escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat. Matt was shot and killed by searchers June 26, about 30 miles west of the prison; Sweat was captured near the Canadian border two days later and sent to another prison.
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