Mass grave discovered in Ireland
DUBLIN— A mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children has been discovered at a former Catholic orphanage in Ireland, government-appointed investigators announced Friday in a finding that offered the first conclusive proof following a historian’s efforts to trace the fates of nearly 800 children who perished there.
The judge-led Mother and Baby Homes Commission said excavations since November at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, had found an underground structure divided into 20 chambers containing “significant quantities of human remains.”
The commission said DNA analysis of selected remains confirmed the ages of the dead ranged from 35 weeks to 3 years old and were buried chiefly in the 1950s, when the overcrowded facility was one of more than a dozen in Ireland offering shelter to orphans, unwed mothers and their children. The Tuam home closed in 1961.
Friday’s findings provided the first proof after decades of suspicions that the vast majority of children who died at the home had been interred on the site in unmarked graves. That was a common, but ill-documented practice at such Catholic-run facilities amid high child mortality rates in early 20th century Ireland.
Haiti ex-president dies
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Former Haitian President Rene Preval died Friday, his wife Elisabeth Delatour Preval confirmed to the Miami Herald. He was 74. Mr. Preval, who was president during Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, died at home in Laboule, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. The cause of death has not been confirmed, but it was likely the result of a heart attack.
Mr. Preval served as president from 1996 to 2001, and again from 2006 to 2011. He is the only president in Haitian history to have served two full presidential terms and not be jailed, exiled or killed.
Man prompts closures
BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities have released a man, previously convicted on terror-related charges, who was stopped while speeding through the center of Brussels with a van loaded with two gas canisters.
The prosecutor’s office said Friday the man, identified only as M.A., was convicted last year and local media said he had sought to fight in Syria. Once his identity became clear to police after he was stopped for running a red light on Thursday, part of the center of Brussels was closed off during the evening rush hour. A bomb squad found no detonator or explosives, and only one of the two gas canisters was full.
Mubarak is acquitted
CAIRO — Former President Hosni Mubarak’s acquittal in the killing of protesters during the 2011 Arab Spring revolts surprised few Egyptians and highlighted how the goals of the revolution remain a distant dream.
The ruling on Thursday by Egypt’s top appeals court means that the ailing former leader could be released from house arrest in a military hospital, where he has spent much of his time since his arrest in 2011.
Also in the world …
Police in Bangladesh’s capital have arrested the spiritual leader of a banned militant group that is responsible for a series of attacks in the South Asian country, an official said Friday.