NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Parents speak out: The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student detained by North Korea who died shortly after he had been flown home comatose in June, said Tuesday that he had been tortured, describing his captors as “terrorists.” In an interview on the “Fox & Friends” morning news program, their first since Warmbier died three months ago, Fred and Cindy Warmbier of Cincinnati provided previously undisclosed details on the injuries to their son, 22, a University of Virginia undergraduate. The Warmbiers said they had decided to speak out now partly because they were aghast at efforts by the North Korean government to portray itself as the victim of U.S. aggression in the unfolding crisis over the North’s nuclear weapons and missile testing. Warmbier was seized from a tour group while visiting North Korea in January 2016, convicted of trying to steal a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
2 Crackdown on gays: Seven Egyptians were arrested on charges of promoting homosexuality after concertgoers waved rainbow-colored flags at a rock concert in Cairo last week, Egyptian officials said. The arrests were the latest assault on social freedoms in Egypt under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, whose government has imposed harsh restrictions on free speech and led an aggressive campaign against gays. Photos and video clips of audience members waving rainbow flags during a performance Friday by Mashrou’ Leila, a popular Lebanese band whose lead singer is openly gay, were shared widely on social media over the weekend. On its Facebook page, the band called the concert “one of the best shows we’ve ever played!” But the images provoked a backlash from conservative Egyptian politicians and television hosts, as well as a heated debate on social media that featured virulently homophobic comments.
3 Angola election: After 38 years as president of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos left the nation’s highest office in Luanda on Tuesday, but not without making sure he and his family continue to maintain control. Following an election last month, former defense minister Joao Lourenco was sworn into power, but only after dos Santos passed decrees shoring up his power and leaving doubts on how much room to maneuver the new president will have. He also remains head of the ruling Movement for the Popular Liberation, retaining the power to control the direction of the government.
4 Myanmar refugees: Bangladesh is planning to build separate shelters for 6,000 Rohingya Muslim children who entered the country without parents to escape violence in neighboring Myanmar, a government official in Dhaka said Tuesday. Children make up about 60 percent of the estimated 480,000 Rohingya Muslims who have poured into Bangladesh over the last four weeks to flee persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
5 Suspected cannibals: Investigators believe a couple in Krasnodar, Russia, knocked their victims out with sedatives, then skinned them alive. Afterward, police say, they ate parts of their victims, froze the remains or packed them in jars filled with saline solution. At times, the couple tried to turn soldiers at the military academy where they worked into unwitting cannibals, slipping “canned human meat” into their food. Police have arrested the couple — Natalia Baksheeva and her husband, 35-year-0ld Dmitry Baksheev — who authorities say may be responsible for the death or disappearance of as many as 30 people in the city of 750,000.
Chronicle News Services