Former CIA agent gets 20-yr sentence for spying for China
AFP, Washington
An ex-CIA officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for spying for China in a case called part of an “alarming trend” in the US intelligence community.
Kevin Mallory, 62, was convicted under the Espionage Act for selling classified US “defense information” to a Chinese intelligence agent for $25,000 during trips to Shanghai in March and April 2017.
Austrian VC resigns amid video scandal
AP, Vienna
Austrian vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned Saturday after two German newspapers published footage of him apparently offering lucrative government contracts to a potential Russian benefactor.
Standing before assembled journalists and cameras, Strache said he was illegally set up in a “political assassination” but added his behavior in the video was “stupid, irresponsible and a mistake.”
Iraqi Airways flights to Damascus postponed indefinitely
AP, Damascus
Syria’s transport ministry says Iraqi Airways flights to Damascus expected for the first time since the war erupted in 2011 have been postponed indefinitely.
The ministry says the two flights scheduled for Saturday were postponed because of administrative issues between the Syrian Civil Aviation and Iraqi Airways.
Missouri, latest US state to restrict abortion
AFP, Washington
The Missouri House passed a bill on Friday banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, making it the latest US state to pass restrictions on ending a pregnancy.
The bill, overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-led legislature and expected to be signed by the Midwestern state’s Republican governor, would ban abortions from about eight weeks of pregnancy.
Bomb blast kills 2 in Afghanistan
AP, Kabul
An Afghan official says that a bomb blast in the western province of Herat has killed at least two people, including a child.
Gelani Farhad, a spokesman for the province’s governor, says that 14 people were wounded in Saturday morning’s attack in the Obe area, including the district administrative chief.
