News
The Top 6
By Sirianna Santacrose ’15
April 24, 2015
Yemeni capital bombed
An explosion destroyed homes in Sana’a, Yemen early Monday morning. The explosion followed an airstrike by the Saudi-led military coalition, which has been on a bombing campaign for more than three weeks to cripple the Houthis, a rebel militant group from northern Yemen. Those wounded were immediately taken to the nearest hospital, and hundreds of U.S. citizens are attempting to flee Yemen as soon as possible. On Tuesday, the Saudi Defense Ministry announced a halt to its airstrike campaign against the Houthi rebels.
Hundreds of migrants killed in shipwreck
Last weekend, hundreds of migrants traveling from Libya to southern Europe were killed in a shipwreck off the Italian coast. A rescue operation saved around 50 people and 24 bodies have been recovered thus far. Since January, an estimated 35,000 refugees and migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea in order to enter Europe.
Mexican police arrest Juárez Cartel leader
On Sunday, Mexican officials announced the arrest of Jesús Salas Aguayo, the leader of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico. Aguayo was arrested in Villa Ahumada, a town 80 miles south of the Texas border. He is suspected of being involved in a 2010 car bombing and a 2012 bar shooting in El Paso, among other violent events. The Mexican government says that it will continue to work to capture and arrest drug lords throughout the country.
Former Egyptian president sentenced to 20 years in jail
Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, was sentenced to 20 years in prison at Cairo Criminal Court on Tuesday. He, along with 12 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, was charged for the torture of protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012. However, he and the other defendants were acquitted of murder charges. The case was televised on Egypt’s state media outlet.
Agreement reached on anti-human-trafficking bill
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that an agreement had been reached on the anti-human-trafficking bill. Debate over the bill has created the longest delay in the election of an Attorney General nominee in decades. McConnell confirmed that as soon as the bill is passed, the confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch will proceed. Lynch would be the first African-American woman to lead the Justice Department in history.
Couple to be jailed for murder in Bali
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, have been sentenced to 10 and 18 years in prison, respectively, for the killing of Sheila von Wiese-Mack last August. Schaefer allegedly killed his girlfriend’s mother in self-defense, and Mack helped him to load her mother’s body into a suitcase outside their hotel. Mack, who gave birth to her daughter last month, will be allowed to keep her baby in prison for two years before nominating someone to assume custody of the child.