Day: May 13, 2024

National security council chief unworried about any imminent siege of Kharkiv; US confirms delivery of latest weapons package; EU gives another year’s reprieve from trade tariffs on Ukrainian goods

new york — Less than three years ago, Mary Ann and David Giordano were taking turns lying on the living room floor with their Afghan hound, Frankie, hand-feeding the desperately ill dog anything she would eat. 

She had developed severe kidney problems after contracting Lyme disease, despite being on medications meant to repel the ticks that carry the bacteria that cause it. Veterinarians weren’t sure she would survive. 

Yet on Monday, Frankie was at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, healthy and ready to compete. She would face off against over a dozen other Afghan hounds — including the winner of last month’s World Dog Show in Croatia — for a chance to advance to the next round of the United States’ most prestigious canine event. 

“It was really tough,” Mary Ann Giordano said, her voice halting as she described Frankie’s eight-month ordeal. “But she made it.” 

For all the pooch pageantry of Westminster — the coiffed poodles, the top-knotted toy dogs, the formality of dogs trotting around a ring — it’s also an illustration of the bond people form with dogs, and what each will do for the other. 

Like setting up an array of box fans and even a portable dehumidifier to get a puli’s long, thick cords dry after a bath, a process that can take 24 hours, in Valarie Cheimis’ experience. The cords form naturally, though owners aid the process by separating them. 

Why go through all that? 

“These are fun dogs. They’re full of personality,” Cheimis said as she petted Csoki, one of her pulik (the proper plural), ahead of ring time. 

Sure, the Hungarian herding breed can be stubborn and barky, Cheimis said, but Csoki also looks after her geese and chickens at home in Kingfield, Maine, even lying down next to the goslings. 

Mister, a bloodhound who won a merit award in his breed Monday, also puts his breed’s ancient instincts to work. He’s qualified to trail missing people, though his calls so far have been resolved before they got into the field, said co-owner, breeder and handler Renee Wagner of Niagara Falls, New York. 

The 148th Westminster show kicked off Saturday with an agility competition — won by a mixed-breed dog for the first time since Westminster added the event in 2014. Nimble, the winner, was handled by Cynthia Hornor, who took the trophy with a border collie last year. 

Monday marked the start of the traditional judging that leads to the best in show prize, to be awarded Tuesday night. Semifinals begin Monday night, pitting the winners of each breed against others in their “group,” such as hounds or herding dogs. 

The 2,500-plus first-round entrants range from tiny Yorkshire terriers to towering Great Danes. They include a newly added breed, the Lancashire heeler, represented Monday by a single contestant named Mando. 

If he knew a lot was riding on his little shoulders, he didn’t show it as he appeared in the first-round ring and someone in the audience yelled, “Yay! History!” 

“He just has a rock-star attitude,” handler Jessica Plourde said afterward. 

The show also was a first for Alfredo Delgado and Maria Davila, who had traveled from Juncos, Puerto Rico, with their French bulldog, Duncan. 

Their path started when Delgado’s brother found a lost Frenchie. It was soon reunited with its owner, but Delgado was intrigued by the breed. 

Fast-forward some years, and he was in the Westminster ring as Duncan’s breeder, owner and handler, with Davila cheering him on. 

“We made a dream come true to be here,” Davila said afterward. “To share with experienced people in the ring — that was awesome.” 

Westminster routinely attracts a roster of dog showing’s heavy hitters. This year’s field includes Stache, a Sealyham terrier who won the National Dog Show televised last Thanksgiving, and Comet, a shih tzu who won the huge American Kennel Club National Championship that was televised on December 31. 

Comet is “just everything you would want in a shih tzu,” co-owner, breeder and handler Luke Ehricht said after Comet won his breed Monday morning. With a flowing coat like a vanilla-and-caramel ice cream sundae that’s melting onto the table, the dog looked up at his handler with the sweet expression that’s prized in the breed. 

“He’s a very sweet, loving dog” who knows when it’s time to perform and when it’s time to relax, said Ehricht, of Monclova, Ohio. 

Later, Frankie, the recovered Afghan hound, and her littermate Belle stood side-by-side in their breed’s ring. So did the Giordanos, an Annandale, New Jersey, couple who have been side-by-side since high school. David handled Frankie, while his wife led Belle. 

Both dogs took jaunty spins around the ring, but neither won. Nor did the recent World Dog Show winner, named Zaida. The ribbon went to another highly ranked Afghan, named Louis. 

“This breed’s supposed to be ‘the king of dogs,’ and he knows he is,” handler and co-owner Alicia Jones said.

pittsburgh — Dr. Cyril Wecht, a pathologist and attorney whose biting cynicism and controversial positions on high-profile deaths such as President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination caught the attention of prosecutors and TV viewers alike, died Monday. He was 93.

Wecht’s death was announced by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, which did not disclose a cause or place of death, saying only that he “passed away peacefully.”

Wecht’s almost meteoric rise to fame began in 1964, three years after he reentered civilian life after serving a brief stint at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. At the time, Wecht was serving as an assistant district attorney in Allegheny County and a pathologist in a Pittsburgh hospital.

The request came from a group of forensic scientists: Review the Warren Commission’s report that concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated Kennedy. And Wecht, with his usual thoroughness, did just that — the beginning of what became a lifelong obsession to prove his theory that there was more than one shooter involved in the killing.

After reviewing the autopsy documents, discovering the president’s brain had gone missing, and viewing an amateur video of the assassination, Wecht concluded the commission’s findings that there was a single bullet involved in the attack that killed Kennedy and injured Texas Governor John Connally was “absolute nonsense.”

Wecht’s lecture circuit demonstration detailing his theory that it was impossible for one bullet to cause the damage it did on that November day in Dallas made its way into Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK” after the director consulted with him. It became the famous courtroom scene showing the path of the “magic bullet.”

Wecht’s outspokenness on the Kennedy assassination, and the publicity he generated, later made him a go-to pathologist on dozens of other high-profile cases ranging from Elvis Presley to JonBenet Ramsey, the child beauty queen whose death remains unsolved.

At the homicide trial of school head Jean Harris, accused of murdering “Scarsdale Diet” physician Herman Tarnower, Wecht testified unsuccessfully for the defense. His testimony at the trial of Claus von Bulow may have helped acquit Von Bulow of charges he tried to kill his heir wife, Sunny.

After studying Elvis’ autopsy report, Wecht concluded, and shared his findings on national television, that Presley had likely died of an overdose, not heart disease. His findings spurred Tennessee officials to reopen the case in 1994, though, in the end, the official cause of death remained unchanged.

In the months preceding the O.J. Simpson homicide trial in 1994, Wecht was a frequent talk show guest, conjecturing on the “Today” show and “Good Morning America” about the significance of blood samples and other evidence.

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, Wecht again took to the airwaves, discussing the deadly mix of drugs and sedatives that killed the King of Pop.

Wecht detailed many of his cases in six books. In Cause of Death — a book authored by Wecht, his son Benjamin, and Mark Curriden, formerly a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Dallas Morning News — attorney Alan Dershowitz praised the pathologist as the “Sherlock Holmes of forensic sciences.”

The son of a grocer, Wecht attended undergraduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and later received medical and law degrees from the same school. He served two stints as Allegheny County’s coroner, ending his second in 2006, when he resigned after being indicted with fraud and theft charges.

His first term, from 1970 to 1980, was also fraught. Then, too, he was accused of using county morgue facilities for his private forensic business while coroner. He paid $200,000 in restitution following a lengthy legal fight. He also served a four-year term as an Allegheny County commissioner.

A run for U.S. Senate against John Heinz III in 1982 was unsuccessful.

washington — President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base. 

The order forces the divestment of property operated as a crypto mining facility near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. It also forces the removal of certain equipment owned by MineOne Partners Ltd., a firm that is partly owned by the Chinese state. 

This comes as the U.S. is slated on Tuesday to issue major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plan. 

The divestment order was made in coordination with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — a little-known but potentially powerful government agency tasked with investigating corporate deals for national security concerns that holds power to force the company to change. 

A 2018 law granted CFIUS the authority to review real estate transactions near sensitive sites across the U.S., including F.E. Warren Air Force Base. 

The order was vague about the specific national security concerns, with the Treasury Department saying only that there were issues with “specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities” that “presented a significant national security risk.” 

According to CFIUS, the purchase was not filed with the body, as required, until after the panel received a public tip. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who serves as the chairperson of CFIUS, said the role of the committee is “to ensure that foreign investment does not undermine our national security, particularly as it relates to transactions that present risk to sensitive U.S. military installations as well as those involving specialized equipment and technologies.”

EU FMs warn about Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ law  TVP World

ToplumTV case in Azerbaijan

Relatives of Alasgar Mammadli and Ruslan Izzetli, arrested in the “Toplum TV case” in Azerbaijan, are worried about their health. They claim that their right to medical care is being ignored, jeopardizing their lives. Meanwhile, the UN Committee Against Torture has expressed concern over reports that human rights defenders and journalists in the country continue to face physical and judicial pressure, and in some cases, torture and cruel treatment.

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• In Georgia, students have declared a strike
• “No critical mass in Yerevan’s streets, there will be no PM resignation.” Opinion
• Meeting with the US Ambassador in Baku didn’t change things – the court kept journalists in custody

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“Alasgar Mammadli’s condition has worsened”

The health condition of Alasgar Mammadli, a well-known media law expert and founder of the independent online television Toplum TV, who is in detention, has deteriorated. This was reported by his brother Nasimi Mammadli. According to him, his brother’s treatment has been discontinued.

“The course of treatment prescribed by the doctor has ended, and a new one has not started. Alasgar’s tests were taken 10 days ago, but he has not been informed of the results, so he cannot start a new course of treatment. Alekser was promised to undergo a biopsy, and they even asked him where he wanted to take this test, but nothing has been done,” Nasimi Mammadli said.

“Today we talked to Alasgar on the phone. His voice has noticeably changed. The reason is a thyroid tumor. Apparently, due to the tumor’s enlargement, it puts pressure on the vocal cords. And there have been no examination results for three weeks,” wrote Gunay Mammadli, Alasgar Mammadli’s wife, on social media.

There is suspicion that Alasgar Mammadli has cancer.

On April 26, Alasgar Mammadli was examined at the Ministry of Internal Affairs hospital, and blood tests were taken. Then he was returned to the pre-trial detention center. Neither Mammadli nor his lawyer were informed of the examination results.

He was arrested in early March 2024 right in front of the clinic where he was supposed to undergo a biopsy to diagnose a thyroid tumor.

On March 8, the media law expert was arrested for four months on charges of violating Article 206.3.2 (smuggling by prior conspiracy) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. Since then, despite numerous appeals to the penitentiary service, the biopsy has still not been performed.

“Ruslan Izzetli has gallstones, posing a life-threatening risk”

Gunay Manaflı, the wife of Ruslan Izzetli, who was arrested in the same “Toplum TV case,” also stated that she is concerned about her husband’s health.

“The results of blood tests taken from Ruslan Izzetli in pre-trial detention have finally become known. According to the analysis, he has elevated sugar and cholesterol levels. There are other problems as well. He had diabetes before and was treated for it. It seems that the disease is progressing again. The doctor I showed the test results to said that if he is not treated, this could lead to vascular occlusion and a heart attack in the future. He also said that an abdominal ultrasound and a heart examination are necessary.

Gallstones also pose a life-threatening risk. They themselves confirmed the presence of stones.

By keeping sick people hostage, you are creating additional health problems for them! I demand immediate release!” she wrote on social media.

The UN Committee Against Torture is concerned about the situation in Azerbaijan

The UN Committee Against Torture, after analyzing the activities of six member states in its latest session, including Austria, Azerbaijan, Finland, Honduras, Liechtenstein, and North Macedonia, published its findings.

According to the Committee, its conclusions include key issues and recommendations regarding the implementation of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in each of the listed countries.

Concerning Azerbaijan, the report expresses concern over reports that human rights defenders and journalists in the country continue to face physical and judicial pressure, and in some cases, torture and cruel treatment.

“The Committee expressed concern about the shrinking civil space in the country and reminded that a free and independent civil society is key to preventing torture and cruel treatment. The Committee called on the State party to ensure favorable conditions for human rights defenders and journalists to carry out their work without threats, repression, violence, or other forms of persecution,” the information states.

Typically, official Baku does not accept international criticism and considers it biased. The country’s leaders assert that fundamental freedoms are fully guaranteed, and people are persecuted for specific violations of the law.

mumbai, india — At least four people are dead, 61 injured and more than 40 feared trapped after a massive billboard fell during a rainstorm in India’s financial capital of Mumbai on Monday, local officials said.

The rainstorm was accompanied by gusty winds, causing the billboard, located next to a busy road in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar, to collapse on some houses and a gas station.

A rescue operation for the people remaining trapped under the billboard is ongoing. Fire services, police, disaster response officials and other authorities are all involved in the rescue efforts, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the civic body that runs Mumbai, said on X.

News channels and posts on social media showed the towering billboard billowing in the wind for a while before it gave way and crashed to the ground.

The local weather department had predicted that moderate spells of rain, accompanied by gusty winds reaching 40-50 kilometers per hour were likely to occur in parts of Mumbai district on Monday.

There were temporary flight disruptions at the Mumbai airport, with 15 flight diversions and operations suspended for a little over an hour, Asian News International, in which Reuters has a minority stake, reported.

Mumbai, like several Indian cities, is prone to severe flooding and rain-related accidents during the monsoon season, which usually lasts from June until September every year.

What Does Azerbaijan-Slovakia Strategic Partnership Promise? – OpEd  Eurasia Review

We will build specialized sports schools named after all Olympic champions – PM  ARMENPRESS

Long Island native Michael Cohen testifies of orchestrating hush money payments with Donald Trump before the 2016 presidential election  Newsday