Bodies found in Myanmar plane search
SAN HLAN, Myanmar — Fishermen joined military personnel Thursday in recovering bodies and aircraft parts from the sea off Myanmar, where a military plane carrying 122 people including 15 children crashed a day earlier, officials said.
The aircraft had left Myeik heading for Yangon on a route over the Andaman Sea. It was raining at the time contact was lost with it Wednesday.
By nightfall Thursday, the bodies of 31 people had been recovered, said military spokesman Gen. Myat Min Oo.
Troops deployed
NEW DELHI — About 1,000 paramilitary troops were deployed in the Mandsaur region of Madhya Pradesh in central India on Thursday to curb riots after five protesting farmers were killed by police.
Video footage showed crowds chanting “Long live freedom” as the bodies of the farmers were paraded through the streets.
Internet and mobile services were suspended, and a curfew was imposed. Rioters set buses and trucks ablaze as tollbooths along the road were looted. Sixtytwo farmers were arrested. On the front page of the Times of India, a headline read: “War zone Mandsaur.” The protests started after the debt from loans to farmers was waived in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh.
Accused Syrian arrested
LONDON — Authorities in Germany announced Thursday that they had arrested a 23-year-old Syrian who is suspected of working for the Islamic State’s news agency, which claims responsibility for the group’s attacks, including the most recent ones in London and Tehran, Iran. If proved, the presence of a member of Amaq in Western Europe would help answer a riddle: How is it that IS has continued to run a media empire, one that rapidly turns to social media to issue claims of responsibility for attacks, despite its losses of territory in Iraq and Syria?
Venezuela crisis protests
CARACAS — Cracks are beginning to show in Venezuela’s ruling party after a ratcheting up of violence surrounding the deadly street demonstrations demanding President Nicolas Maduro’s ouster.
Public Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz has become one of the most strident critics of a crackdown on dissent that has left more than 65 dead and hundreds behind bars. On Thursday, she lambasted the president and decried a “brutal repression” against dissidents.
Leaders against Trump
MEXICO CITY — In what her government has called “a sign of solidarity,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday.
High on the agenda during her two-day state visit to Mexico will be their mutual political dilemma: President Donald Trump.
From the launch of his presidential campaign two years ago through his early days in the White House, Mr. Trump made Mexico his punching bag. He called Mexican immigrants criminals, pledged to tax imports from Mexico and insisted Mexico would pay for construction of a border wall.
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Germany said Wednesday that it would withdraw its forces from a military base in southern Turkey after the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to guarantee visits to forces there by German lawmakers, deepening a rift between the NATO allies.