NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Dengue outbreak: Sri Lanka is suffering its worst-ever dengue outbreak, with the mosquito-borne virus killing 225 people and infecting more than 76,000 this year. Alarmed by the magnitude of the crisis, the government deployed 400 soldiers and police officers on Tuesday to clear away rotting garbage, stagnant water pools and other potential mosquito-breeding grounds. There is no cure for any of the four strains of the virus, which causes a high fever, weeks of exhaustion and in some cases a vicious skin rash. Patients most at risk of dying are the elderly, children or those with other medical complications.
2 Nazi case: Poland’s special prosecutors say they have taken steps toward seeking the extradition from the U.S. of a Minnesota man they accuse of participating in a World War II massacre. Michael Karkoc, 98, is accused of being the ex-commander of an SS-led Nazi unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians —including women and children— during the war. The National Remembrance Institute said Tuesday the request was forwarded to Poland’s Embassy in Washington last month for handing over to U.S. justice authorities.
3 Space setback: The failure of China’s Long March 5 rocket deals a rare setback to China’s highly successful space program that could delay plans to bring back moon samples and offer rival India a chance to move ahead in the space rankings. Experts say the still unexplained mishap Sunday shows that for all its triumphs, China’s space program is not immune to the tremendous difficulties and risks involved in working with such cutting-edge technology. Since the first launch in 1970, China’s Long March series of rockets have achieved a success rate of around 95 percent. That’s helped facilitate a program that conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, making China only the third country after Russia and the U.S. to do so, put a pair of space stations into orbit, and landed its “Jade Rabbit” rover on the moon.
4 Factory explosion: A boiler explosion at a garment factory in Bangladesh owned by export-oriented Multifabs Ltd. killed 10 people and injured 50, officials said Tuesday. Local police chief Aminul Islam said the explosion occurred at Kashimpur outside the capital, Dhaka. Relatives said about six people remained missing. Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories and is the world’s second-largest producer after China. The country has improved its factory safety standards after the collapse of a complex housing five factories killed more than 1,100 people in 2013. But experts say many factories still need to upgrade their machinery and increase building safety.
5 Cartoon contest: Iranian artist Hadi Asadi has beaten hundreds of other contestants to win first place in a “Trumpism” cartoon contest held in Tehran — his winning caricature depicting President Trump as a flame-haired man wearing a suit made of dollar bills, drooling onto a pile of books. The competition, called the International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest, was organized by a group that has also organized cartoon contests on themes such as the Islamic State and the Holocaust (the group says the latter was designed to highlight double standards on free speech). Organizers claim that artists from 75 countries took part in the contest, where 1,600 artworks were considered —including four from the United States. Asadi received $1,500 in prize money.