NEWS OF THE DAY
Cars parked: Paris, its gracious Old World buildings blackened by exhaust fumes, went car-less Sunday. Mayor Anne Hidalgo presided over the day without cars, two months before the city hosts a global summit on climate change. The symbolic initiative is aimed at showing that air pollution from traffic must be reduced worldwide. Mayors from Sao Paulo, Brussels and Bristol, England, were in Paris for the kick-off on the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue. Buses, ambulances, police vehicles, fire trucks and taxis were allowed in the streets.
Officer disciplined: The Israeli military suspended an officer after soldiers were caught on camera assaulting a pair of Agence France-Press journalists in the West Bank. The army said Sunday that it determined the officer in charge “did not conduct himself in accordance with professional expectations.” An investigation is continuing. The Foreign Press Association has said the AFP photographer and cameraman were beaten by Israeli troops Friday in an unprovoked attack.
Sudan violence: Rebels in Sudan’s Darfur region ambushed a South African unit that is part of a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission, killing one soldier and seriously injuring another Sunday, the South African military said. South African troops repelled the ambush, the military said. Darfur has been in turmoil since 2003, when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination. The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in the conflict.
Airport woes: A member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has proposed a radical solution for Berlin’s troubled new airport: tearing it down and starting from scratch. Plagued by construction problems, the Berlin Brandenburg Airport is years behind schedule and billions of euros over budget. Lawmaker Jens Koeppen said in an interview published Sunday in B.Z. am Sonntag that all options should be considered, including building an entirely new airport. Current plans to open the airport in the fall of 2017 are in doubt after authorities recently closed part of the site because of fears a roof could collapse.
Refugees drown: Turkish officials said Sunday that 17 Syrians drowned after their boat sank off the coast on its way to the Greek island of Leros. The Turkish Coast Guard rescued 20 other Syrians early Sunday, Gov. Amir Cicek of Mugla province told the state-run Anadolu Agency. The governor said an investigation had been opened into the incident.
Moldova protest: About 20,000 people protested Sunday against Moldova’s government, days after the International Monetary Fund said it would not negotiate a new loan agreement with the proEuropean leadership who say the money is needed to pay salaries and pensions. An IMF mission began a two-week visit on Tuesday, a day after Moldova central bank governor Dorin Dragutanu resigned amid protests over $1.5 billion that disappeared from three Moldovan banks before parliamentary elections in November last year.