A 53-year-old man convicted of the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl is to be executed by lethal injection in the US state of Indiana on Friday.

Roy Lee Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne at her home in the town of Dale.

Payne was repeatedly stabbed and died of her injuries several hours after the attack.

Ward was arrested at the scene while still holding a knife.

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The execution is to be carried out between midnight and sunrise on Friday morning at a state prison in Michigan City.

Ward will be the third person put to death in Indiana since the state resumed executions last year after a 15-year hiatus because of difficulties obtaining the lethal drugs used in them.

There have been 34 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2014, when 35 inmates were put to death.

Florida has carried out the most executions — 13 — followed by Texas with five and South Carolina and Alabama with four.

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Twenty-eight of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and four by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

AFP

Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he may go to the Middle East at the end of this week as a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is “very close.”

Trump said during an event at the White House that he would “go to Egypt most likely” but that he would also consider going to war-torn Gaza.

“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually. And we’ll see, but there is a very good chance. Negotiations are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the event.

“Our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas, and it seems to be going well. So we’ll let you know, if that’s the case, we’ll be leaving probably on Sunday, maybe on Saturday.”

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Near the end of the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio unexpectedly entered the room and handed Trump a note.

The US president told reporters the note said that “we’re very close to a deal” and that his presence was needed. “I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East,” he added.

Hamas and Israeli officials are having indirect talks in Egypt on a 20-point peace proposal unveiled by Trump to end the two-year-old war.

– ‘Very close’ –

Trump said as he began the event that he had come off the phone with officials in the Middle East, where his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had just joined discussions in Egypt.

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“‘Peace for the Middle East,’ that’s a beautiful phrase, and we hope it’s going to come true, but it’s very close, and they’re doing very well,” Trump added.

“We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they’re, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it’s something I think that will happen.”

Asked if he would consider going to Gaza if a deal happens, Trump replied: “I would, yeah. I would. I might do that. I may do that. We haven’t decided exactly.”

Trump said he would insist on the release of hostages held by Hamas before traveling to the region.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had received “encouraging” signs and hailed the support of Trump.

Hamas too expressed “optimism” over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel.

Trump’s plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
AFP

A Nigerian national identified as Ikechukwu N. has been arrested in Argentina for allegedly orchestrating multiple online romance scams targeting thousands of victims across several countries, according to a statement released by INTERPOL on Tuesday.

The arrest was made under Operation Jackal, an INTERPOL-led operation focusing on West African organised criminal groups involved in cyber fraud, money laundering, and related transnational crimes.

INTERPOL announced via its official X handle that Ikechukwu’s arrest marked Argentina’s first arrest of a fugitive under a Red Notice who was simultaneously listed in the organisation’s Silver Notice database — a new project aimed at tracing and recovering criminal assets worldwide.

The statement read: “Argentine authorities have captured Nigerian national Ikechukwu N., marking the country’s first arrest of a #RedNotice fugitive who was also the subject of an INTERPOL Silver Notice. The suspect is accused of orchestrating multiple romance scams involving thousands of women, and leading an international cybercrime network.”

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INTERPOL added that the arrest was jointly carried out by the Argentine Federal Police and the Airport Security Police, with assistance from the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC), the Federal Intelligence Secretariat (FIS), and INTERPOL Brazil.

The Silver Notice project, piloted in January 2025, enables member countries to share intelligence on the location and recovery of illicitly acquired assets linked to transnational crime.

Although details of the victims and total financial losses remain undisclosed, the operation is part of a broader international crackdown on cyber-enabled fraud schemes traced to West African syndicates.

Nigeria has been a focal point of similar investigations. In December 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced the arrest of 792 suspects — including foreign nationals — linked to a crypto-romance fraud ring operating from Lagos.

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The syndicate reportedly targeted victims in the Americas and Europe through social media and messaging platforms, promising relationships and fake investment opportunities before defrauding them.

INTERPOL said further investigations into Ikechukwu’s activities are ongoing, with cooperation expected between Argentine authorities, Nigerian law enforcement, and other international partners involved in Operation Jackal.

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