Briefly

UNITED STATES

Pair wrongfully put on death row get $75m

A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case on Friday awarded $75 million to two black, intellectually disabled half brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1983. The pair, Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, have pursued the civil case against law enforcement members since 2015, arguing that their civil rights were violated during the interrogations that led to their convictions. The two were released from prison in 2014 after DNA evidence that pointed to a convicted murderer exonerated them.

EGYPT

Dredging work on Suez to extend double lane

The Suez Canal Authority has started dredging work to extend a second lane that allows for two-way traffic in a southern section of the canal near where a giant container ship got stuck for six days in March, it said on Saturday. The authority announced last week that it planned to extend a second canal lane that opened in 2015 by 10 kilometers to make it 82 km long, and would widen and deepen a single lane stretch at the southern end of the canal. The grounding of the 440-meter container ship Ever Given in a southern section of the canal from March 23 to 29 delayed the passage of vessels, disrupting global trade.

SRI LANKA

Four die in strong winds and heavy rains

At least four people had died and more than 42,000 others had been affected by days of strong winds and heavy rains that lashed the country because of the formation of a super cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Center said on Saturday. More than 200 houses had been fully or partially damaged, and 175 people belonging to 42 affected families were housed in temporary shelters. The army had dispatched rescue teams in several districts affected by the floods and had rescued several trapped by rising water.

Agencies - Xinhua