NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Deadly school fire: Seven girls died Saturday when a fire gutted their dormitory at a high school in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, the country’s education minister said. The cause of the fire at the Moi Girls High School was not immediately known. “At 2 a.m. our matron came telling us to get out of the hostel because there was fire in one of the hostels,” said student Warda Sadique. “So most of the people were panicking, some were jumping through the windows.”
2 Refugee crisis: An international medical aid group has called on Libyan authorities to end arbitrary detention of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, slamming conditions inside detention facilities in the country as “dire,” “unhealthy” and “abusive.” Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, said in a statement that medical conditions in detention centers in Tripoli, where the United Nations-backed government is based, are marked by “squalid detention conditions and ill treatment.” The European Union earmarked tens of millions of euros to improve conditions for migrants inside Libyan detention centers.
3 Bomb disposals: Residents in two German cities were evacuated as authorities prepared Saturday to dispose of World War II-era bombs found during recent construction work. About 21,000 people were ordered to leave their homes and workplaces in Koblenz as a precaution. And officials in the financial capital Frankfurt said more than 60,000 people were ordered to leave a radius of nearly a mile around the site where a 1.8-ton British bomb was found.
4 Iraq violence: At least three attackers entered a power station in Samarra on Saturday and blew themselves up, killing seven workers and wounding eight security forces, authorities said. Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said two attackers disguised themselves as workers and a third wore a security forces uniform. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the dawn attack at the site 78 miles north of Baghdad in an online statement.
5 Brexit talks: The European Union’s budget chief says there can be no negotiations with Britain about a post-Brexit trade deal unless the two sides make progress on “fundamental questions” including future payments to Brussels. Guenther Oettinger says the rights of EU citizens in Britain and the status of the United Kingdom-Ireland border also need to advance before trade talks can begin. Oettinger told German weekly Welt am Sonntag that Britain agreed in 2013 to contribute to the EU budget until the end of 2020. In an interview published Saturday, he was quoted as saying that London is due to make further payments until 2023. Britain’s government said last week that it wouldn’t pay into the EU’s budget after Brexit, slated for March 2019.
6 Cambodia politics: Police in Cambodia arrested the leader of the country’s main opposition party in a surprise raid on his home early Sunday, and the government issued a statement shortly afterward accusing him of treason. Opposition leader Kem Sokha was taken away in handcuffs after more than 100 officers arrived at his home around midnight in the capital, Phnom Penh, according to his daughter, Monovithya Kem. Monovithya, who is also a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, said on Twitter that police did not have a warrant for her father’s arrest. The government said in a statement that it had evidence indicating Kem Sokha had conspired with foreign powers against Cambodia and called the actions “treason.”