NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 “Staged videos”: Britain and France denounced on Thursday as a stunt and an “obscene masquerade” a move by Russia to produce Syrian witnesses who Moscow says were filmed in “staged videos” in the aftermath of a reported chemical weapons attack. Russian officials brought the purported witnesses for a briefing Thursday at The Hague headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The development is seen as an effort by Russia to discredit widespread reports of an April 7 suspected chemical weapon attack in the town of Douma near the Syrian capital, Damascus, that killed more than 40 people. The West has blamed the attack on President Bashar Assad’s government. Syria and Russia deny the claims.
2 Mass graves: Mass graves that authorities say could contain more than 2,000 bodies have been discovered in Rwanda nearly a quarter-century after the country’s genocide, and further graves are being sought nearby. The new discovery is being called the most significant in a long time in this East African nation that is still recovering from the 1994 killings of more than 800,000 people. The discovery of the graves in Gasabo district came just days after Rwanda marked 24 years since the mass killings of ethnic Tutsi and moderate ethnic Hutus.
3 Hunting bears: The government says Romania should reduce the number of brown bears by 2,000 in the next decade to protect the existing bear population. The environment ministry said Thursday that Romania had between 6,050 to 6,640 brown bears in 2016. It said 4,000 bears was an optimum figure from an “ecological, social and economic point of view.” It said the bears were encroaching on areas where people lived. The ministry suggested hunting as one of the ways of getting rid of the bears, prompting criticism from animal rights groups. World Wildlife Fund Romania claimed the proposal contravened European Union rules regarding “strictly protected species.” 4 Missing aid workers: Ten aid workers have gone missing in civil war-torn South Sudan just days after another group of humanitarians was abducted by gunmen, the United Nations said Thursday. The statement said three U.N. staffers and seven aid workers, all of them South Sudanese, went missing Wednesday when their convoy driving from Yei town to Tore in Central Equatoria disappeared. The aid workers are with South Sudanese Development Organization, ACROSS, Plan International and Action Africa Help. South Sudan is one of the world’s most dangerous places for humanitarians. At least 98 have been killed since the civil war began in 2013, most of them local workers. 5 No regrets: An Australian nun whose missionary visa in the Philippines was revoked after the president complained about her joining opposition rallies said Thursday that social advocacy and human rights are part of church teachings. The Immigration Bureau gave Sister Patricia Fox 30 days to leave the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered an investigation into the 71-year-old as an “undesirable” foreigner. Fox is a coordinator of an order of Roman Catholic nuns called Notre Dame de Sion and has been working with the Filipino poor for almost 30 years. She has joined rallies against Duterte and his government, which has been criticized at home and abroad for waging a brutal war on illegal drugs that left thousands of mostly urban poor suspects dead and for stifling dissent.