NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Abuse allegations: Prosecutors in Poland are suing a private firm accused of tricking homeless people into unwitting participation in bird flu vaccine tests in 2007. Prosecution spokesman Andrzej Kukawski said Wednesday that dozens of participants, including a pregnant woman, were denied information about potential health hazards in what he called a medical experiment. Last year, three doctors and six nurses were given suspended prison terms for misleading about 200 people, mostly homeless, in the town of Grudziadz, into taking part in the new vaccine tests. They had described the shots as free vaccination against regular flu, and falsified documents to conceal some facts about the test’s participants. Acting for almost 40 participants, prosecutors are now suing the private firm that commissioned the medics to carry out the vaccine tests.
_2 Toxic landfill: A gas poisoning linked to a toxic landfill in a town outside Moscow left dozens hospitalized Wednesday, prompting the regional governor to promise to evacuate local children from the area. Health officials in the town of Volokolamsk, 62 miles west of Moscow, said that 57 children have been hospitalized with symptoms of gas poisoning, including nausea and fainting. Moscow region Gov. Andrei Vorobyev said in remarks carried by his office that he will draw up plans to take “as many children as possible” on vacation trips. His office emphasized that Vorobyov wasn’t talking about a total evacuation. Local residents held a protest rally earlier this month, demanding that authorities close down a local landfill as a health hazard. Authorities in Volokolamsk in early March called a temporary state of emergency after high levels of hydrogen sulfide were recorded around the landfill.
_3 Soldiers killed: Ecuadoran authorities say a guerrilla faction that was once linked to Colombia’s largest rebel group is responsible for an attack that left three soldiers dead. Gov. Pablo Hadathy Rodas of the northwestern Esmeraldas province where Tuesday’s attack took place told a Colombian radio station that the rebels are now involved in drug trafficking and were behind a recent spate of violence along the border. He told BLU Radio the guerrilla faction operates in a remote part of Colombia where the state has little or no presence. President Lenin Moreno said he is sending 12,000 troops to boost security along the border.
_4 Space mission: Two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut are on their way to the International Space Station. A Soyuz rocket carrying the three men blasted off Wednesday from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan. On board the capsule were NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, and Roscosmos’ cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. The spacecraft is set to dock at the orbiting outpost on Friday. _5 Prisoners freed: Zimbabwe’s new president is commuting death sentences for some prisoners and releasing thousands of people from prison, including most women and everyone under age 18. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s announcement Wednesday is an effort to ease overcrowded prisons. He has said he is against the death penalty because he once survived hanging when the southern African nation was still colonial Rhodesia. Nearly 100 people are on death row in the country of 13 million.