Daily News Briefs: Missouri missionaries murdered in Haiti

Here’s your daily news briefs for Saturday, May 25.

Murdered missionaries from Missouri

Condolences are pouring in for the daughter and son-in-law of Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker who were murdered while serving as missionaries in Haiti. According Missions in Haiti, Inc, Natalie Baker and Davy Lloyd were shot dead after being “ambushed” by gangsters. “This evening when Davy, Natalie and the kids were coming out of Youth at the church they were ambushed by a gang of 3 trucks full of guys,” the organization wrote in a post on Facebook. “Davy was taken to the house tied up and beat. The gang then took our trucks and loaded everything up they wanted and left … No one understood what they were doing, not sure what took place but one was shot and killed and now this gang went into full attack mode.”

Rep. Baker wrote his own post on Facebook after hearing the news. “My heart is broken in a thousand pieces,” he said. “I’ve never felt this kind of pain. Most of you know my daughter and son-in-law Davy and Natalie Lloyd are full time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by gangs this evening and were both killed. They went to Heaven together. Please pray for my family we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well. I have no other words for now.”

Egypt restores aid to Gaza

Humanitarian aid into Gaza will once again flow from Egypt after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi agreed to restore it during a telephone call with U.S. President Joe Biden late Friday. Egypt halted U.N. aid deliveries into the southern city of Rafah after the Israeli military took control of the Gazan side of the Egypt-Gaza border. In Friday’s call, el-Sisi agreed to let the aid flow through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.

Supreme Court Justice cries after rulings

Supreme Cour Justice Sonia Sotomayor, says she sometimes cries after the court hands down its decisions. The court’s most senior liberal justice is one of three liberals on the court of nine. “There are days that I’ve come to my office after an announcement of a case and closed my door and cried,” Sotomayor told the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, where she received an award Friday. “There have been those days. And there are likely to be more.” The court has ruled several times this year against the Biden adminsitration.

Rescue is on for mudslide survivors

Rescuers are having difficulty searching villages hit by a huge landslide in Papua New Guinea. Hundreds of residents are feared to have died. Medics and military personnel finally reached the isolated landslide site, according humanitarian agency Care Australia. Most highways and roads are blocked by debris. The landslide buried hundreds of homes and, according to rescuers, “at present, all the members of these households remain unaccounted for”.

–Dwight Widaman and wire services