NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
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Israel accused: A report published by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia that concludes that Israel has established an “apartheid regime” drew swift criticism from the United Nations and Israeli officials on Wednesday. The report titled “Israeli Practices Toward the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid” was released by the commission at a news conference in Beirut. Its authors conclude that “Israel has established an apartheid regime that systematically institutionalizes racial oppression and domination of the Palestinian people as a whole.” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon issued a statement condemning the report. “The attempt to smear and falsely label the only true democracy in the Middle East by creating a false analogy is despicable and constitutes a blatant lie,” he said. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the report’s views do not reflect those of the secretary-general.
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Abuse alleged: A group of Cuban migrants detained in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula have accused authorities of beating and mistreating them after they staged a hunger strike — some by sewing their lips together — to demand their release. The Quadratin news agency reported that the Cubans filed a formal complaint against officials of the state of Chiapas’ Public Security Department and the National Migration Institute following the alleged incidents last week at the Siglo XXI immigrant detention center. According to several reports, the Cubans refused to return to their cells during a hunger strike to demand their release. They also called for an end to their harassment and the extortions of their relatives. Mexican journalists reported that some of the Cubans sewed their lips together as part of the protest. In a separate incident last month, Mexican press reported that some of the Cubans at the detention center were beaten when they shouted “freedom.”
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Coral reefs dead: Huge sections of the Great Barrier Reef, stretching across hundreds of miles of its most pristine northern sector, were recently found to be dead, killed last year by overheated seawater. More southerly sections around the middle of the reef that barely escaped then are bleaching now, a potential precursor to another die-off that could rob some of the reef ’s most visited areas of color and life. “We didn’t expect to see this level of destruction to the Great Barrier Reef for another 30 years,” said Terry Hughes, director of a government-funded center for coral reef studies at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.
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Nazi massacre: A court in Warsaw has issued an arrest warrant for a Minnesota man sought in a Nazi massacre, opening the way for Poland to seek his extradition from the United States on war crimes charges. The Associated Press had previously identified the man as 98-year-old Michael Karkoc, an ex-commander in an SS-led unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians in World War II.
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Assassination probe: Malaysian authorities sought Wednesday to definitively put to rest a nagging question about the brazen assassination of a man in Kuala Lumpur’s international airport last month: They said he was indeed Kim Jong Nam, estranged half brother of Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, because they had DNA confirmation from a relative. Police compared the DNA of Kim Jong Nam with a sample provided by one of his children, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters at a news conference.