From Venezuela to age records: The non-coronavirus news you may have missed

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds the passports of two US citizens arrested by security forces. AFP

Venezuela charges Americans with terrorism and conspiracy

Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with terrorism and conspiracy for allegedly taking part in a failed bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said on Friday.

Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were among 17 people captured by the Venezuelan military, which said it had thwarted an attempted invasion by mercenaries in the early hours of Sunday.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said they had been charged with “terrorism, conspiracy, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and (criminal) association,” and could face 25 to 30 years in prison.

Eight attackers were reportedly killed in the incident.

Mr Saab said Venezuela had requested arrest warrants – as well as inclusion in the Interpol system – for the capture of former US army medic Jordan Goudreau, who allegedly organised and trained the mercenary force.

One of world’s oldest men marks 116th birthday in South Africa

South African Fredie Blom celebrated his 116th birthday on Friday unfazed by the coronavirus crisis, more than 100 years since the Spanish flu pandemic killed his sister.

“I have lived this long because of God’s grace,” said Mr Blom, possibly one of the oldest men in the world.

Lighting a cigarette, he recalled the 1918 pandemic that left tens of millions dead worldwide including his sister.

Mr Blom was born in 1904 in the rural town of Adelaide, tucked near the Great Winterberg mountain range of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

He is older than a 112-year-old British resident named the world’s oldest living man by the Guinness World Records in March. Mr Blom’s age has not yet been verified by the body.

With attention on virus, Amazon deforestation surges

It has not received much attention with the world focused on the pandemic, but deforestation has surged in the Amazon rainforest this year, raising fears of a repeat of last year’s record-breaking devastation – or worse.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of the year, according to data released on Friday by Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE), which uses satellite images to track the destruction.

A total of 1,202 square kilometres of forest – an area more than 20 times the size of Manhattan – was wiped out in the Brazilian Amazon from January to April, it found.

That was a 55 per cent increase from the same period last year, and the highest figure for the first four months of the year since monthly records began in August 2015.

Family members and visitors gather outside patient Isaias Perez Yanez's room at Sharp Coronado Hospital, California. Covid-19 patients are not allowed to have visitors for safety reasons but family members and visitors are able to view and communicate with Yanez from outside the window. Getty Images/AFP

A vendor checks his mobile phone as he sells balloons along a street during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown in Quetta, Pakistan. AFP

Workers sew disposable surgical gowns for health workers at a garment factory in Yangon. The factory produces 1,000 medical gowns per day to address the shortage of protective personal equipment as Myanmar battles the coronavirus pandemic. AFP

Indian citizens arriving from Dubai by an Air India flight, arrive at the Anna International Airport as part of a massive repatriation effort, in Chennai on May 9, 2020. AFP

Indian citizens evacuated from Dubai by Air India flight, arrive at the Anna International Airport as part of a massive repatriation effort, in Chennai on May 9, 2020. AFP

A worker sews disposable surgical gowns for health workers at a garment factory in Yangon. AFP

Family members watch from outside COVID-19 patient Isaias Perez Yanez's room, as he is assessed by occupational therapist Jaclyn Lien in the Progressive Care Unit (PCU) at Sharp Coronado Hospital, California. Getty Images/AFP

Malian migrant worker Tidjane attends a teleconsultation at a special medical unit set up outside a building housing migrant workers as part of a private initiative supported by the Paris city hall, in Paris. AFP

Stylists wear protective masks and gloves while working on customer's hair at a Belazza salon in Tucson, Arizona, US. Bloomberg

Isaias Perez Yanez, 59, in wheelchair, is hugged and applauded by family and hospital staff as he is released from Sharp Coronado Hospital in Coronado, California. Getty Images/AFP

Muslim students wearing face masks practice social distancing while reading Quran at Daarul Qur'an Al Kautsar boarding school mosque in Bogor, West Java province, Indonesia. Reuters

A general view of Tranzit Bus Depot in Wellington, New Zealand. Getty Images

Senior Yard Supervisor Lipi Vitolio the windows of a bus at Tranzit Bus Depot in Wellington, New Zealand. The New Zealand government will decide whether to move to Covid-19 Alert Level 2 and ease further restrictions on Monday, 11 May. Getty Images

An aerial photo made with a drone shows a sold out McHenry Outdoor Theater as a movie starts in McHenry, Illinois, USA. EPA

Members of the Mothers of False Positives (Mafapo) civil organization wear face masks reading “Who gave the order?” against the spread of the novel coronavirus in Soacha, Colombia. Thousands of extrajudicial executions known as "false positives" were carried out in the biggest scandal of the Colombian military forces in their struggle of more than half a century against rebel groups. The mothers of the victims found in the making of face masks a way to make their cause visible. AFP

People walk on a road decorated with lights and lanterns on the Vesak Day, which is celebrated in Sri Lanka on May 7th and 8th to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Reuters

Muslims attend Friday prayer at the Baitul Mokarram National Mosque after the government eased the restrictions amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reuters

In Russian, from left, English, French and German, the Brandenburg Gate is illuminated with the word "Thank you," in Berlin, Germany. May 8th marked the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. AP

Mozambique reporter still missing as authorities offer no help

Media rights groups have been pressuring the Maputo government to help locate a Mozambique journalist who went missing one month ago in militant-hit Cabo Delgado province, as friends and relatives begin to fear the worst.

Community radio journalist Ibraimo Abu Mbaruco disappeared on April 7, in the northern district of Palma – the epicentre of attacks by militant Islamists seeking to establish a caliphate.

The journalist, who is in his thirties, reported on daily life in Palma, including the insurgency – which the government had denied until late last month.

“It has been a very long time since he has disappeared,” said one of Mbaruco’s colleagues, who did not want to be named.

“We are beginning to fear that something worse has happened to him.”

US awards border wall contract in Texas to begin in 2021

The US government has awarded a $275 million (Dh1bn) border wall contract for construction that would begin in South Texas in January, at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term if he is re-elected.

Caddell Construction, based in Montgomery, Alabama, won the contract to build 22.5 kilometres of barriers in and around Laredo, Texas, a city of 260,000 people on the Rio Grande, the river that runs between Texas and Mexico.

There is little existing wall separating Laredo and its sister city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Much of the planned construction would cut through private land in districts close to the edge of the Rio Grande, requiring the government to take property through its power of eminent domain.