Over 2,000 fetal remains found at ex-abortion doctor’s home Zimbabwe: Doctors protest against union leader’s abduction Indonesia:‘dangerous’ air pollution in Borneo leads to school closures

JOLIET (Illinois, US): More than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains have been found at the Illinois home of a former Indiana abortion clinic doctor who died last week, authorities said.

The Will County Sheriff ’s Office said in a news release late Friday that an attorney for Dr Ulrich Klopfer’s family contacted the coroner’s office Thursday about possible fetal remains being found at the home in an unincorporated part of Will County in northeastern Illinois.

The sheriff’s office said authorities found 2,246 preserved fetal remains but there’s no evidence medical procedures were performed at the home.

The coroner’s office took possession of the remains. An investigation is underway.

A message left Saturday seeking additional comment on the discovery was not returned by the Will County Sheriff ’s Office investigations department.

Klopfer, who died September 3, was a longtime doctor at an abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana. It closed after the state revoked the clinic’s license in 2015.

The Indiana State Department of Health had previously issued complaints against the clinic, accusing it of lacking a registry of patients, policies regarding medical abortion, and a governing body to determine policies.

The state agency also accused the clinic of failing to document that patients get statemandated education at least 18 hours before an abortion.

Klopfer was believed to be Indiana’s most prolific abortion doctor, with thousands of procedures performed in multiple Indiana counties over several decades, the South Bend Tribune reported.

Mike Fichter, the president of Indiana Right to Life, said in a statement sent Friday night that “we are horrified” by the discovery of the fetal remains at Klopfer’s Illinois residence.

He called for Indiana authorities to help determine whether those remains have any connection to abortion operations in Indiana.

“These sickening reports underscore why the abortion industry must be held to the highest scrutiny,” Fichter said in the statement.

A message left Saturday by The Associated Press for a spokesman for Gov. Eric Holcomb asking if Indiana officials would investigate was not immediately returned.

Klopfer’s license was suspended by Indiana’s Medical Licensing Board in November 2016 after the panel found a number of violations, including a failure to ensure that qualified staff was present when patients received or recovered from medications given before and during abortion procedures.

Klopfer was no longer practicing by that time, but he told the panel he had never lost a patient in 43 years of doing abortions and that he hoped to eventually re-open his clinics.

In June 2014, Klopfer was charged in St. Joseph County, Indiana, with a misdemeanor for failure to file a timely public report. HARARE: A group of Zimbabwean doctors marched at the country’s biggest hospital Sunday, demanding the release of one of their leaders who they say was abducted after calling for a pay strike.

Several government critics, including a comedian and a teachers’ union leader, have in recent weeks been abducted from their homes, tortured and warned by suspected state security agents to back off from antigovernment actions.

The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association said its president Peter Magombeyi was abducted Saturday, days after receiving threats on his phone.

It was reported as the world’s attention is on the southern African nation and the upcoming burial of former leader Robert Mugabe.

Magombeyi sent a message Saturday night alerting colleagues that three unidentified men were forcibly taking him away, said Masimba Ndoro, vice president of the association, which represents hundreds of newly qualified doctors who are doing their residencies.

“Efforts to locate him have been unsuccessful since then. We demand to know his whereabouts, we demand his release,” Ndoro said. Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said he was yet to receive details of the case.

Magombeyi had complained of the poor state of Zimbabwe’s hospitals and staffers’ low salaries in interviews with several foreign journalists. The doctors, who earn less than USD 40 a month, are demanding a review of their salaries and allowances.

About two dozen doctors gathered at Parirenyatwa Hospital in the capital, Harare, where they sang and chanted slogans denouncing Magombeyi’s abduction and demanding his release.

“Abductions will not work,” read one placard. “Free Dr Magombeyi unharmed now,” demanded another and a third said “No Peter, No Negotiation.” PALANGKA RAYA: Schools in two cities in the Indonesian part of Borneo island will be closed for a week after smoke from forest fires caused air quality to hit “dangerous” levels, a local government official said on Sunday.

Indonesia and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia are regularly hit by smoke from slash-and-burn clearances of forests for farms and palm oil plantations, but conditions this year have been the worst since 2015 due to an El Nino weather pattern causing an extended dry spell.

The air pollution index in Palangka Raya, the capital of Borneo’s Central Kalimantan province, hit 500, or “dangerous”, on Sunday, data from Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry showed. Any reading above 100 is considered “unhealthy”. An official said on Sunday that schools in Palangka Raya and another city, Sampit, would be shut next week, in line with instructions circulated by Central Kalimantan’s governor on Friday.

“From our observation, the smoke is very thick in Palangka Raya and Sampit,” Slamet Winaryo, the head of Central Kalimantan’s education agency, said by telephone.

“We have decided to give one week off from Monday to Saturday for the students in both

locations,” he said. He did not say how many pupils or schools would be affected. Winaryo said other schools in Central Kalimantan would start half an hour

later, at 0730 local time. Schools have also been advised to cut the duration for each class into 30-minute periods.

Indonesia’s environment minister said on Friday some forest fires in its territory had started on land used by subsidiaries of Malaysian companies, as the neighbors traded blame for blazes that have spread haze across the region.

A Reuters photographer in Palangka Raya said visibility was down to around 50 meters.

Air Visual - an independent online air quality index (AQI) monitor - showed the city’s air quality has been “hazardous” since Friday.

Indonesian authorities have urged Central Kalimantan residents to refrain from outdoor activities or to wear a mask due to the severe pollution.