NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Dog attacks: Packs of feral dogs have killed six children in the last week in northern India, terrifying villagers who have begun keeping their children home from school and killing any dogs they encounter. At least two dozen more children have been injured. The killings have occurred in and around the town of Sitapur, police said. Twelve children have been killed in dog attacks in the area since November. India has millions of strays that wander the streets in even the most exclusive neighborhoods. While injuries from dog attacks are fairly common, a string of fatalities in one area is rare. Some believe the attacks began after a nearby slaughterhouse closed, making the dogs more aggressive after they were left without a major source of food.
2 Yemen bombing: Air strikes by the Saudiled coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels targeted the presidency building in the heart of the capital on Monday, leaving at least six people dead and 30 wounded, health officials said. The officials said the six killed were all civilians. It was not known if there were any Houthi rebel leaders present at the time of the strikes in Sanaa. The three-floor presidency building was completely flattened, while surrounding buildings were heavily damaged. The Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid group operating in Yemen, said it was “appalled by Saudi-led coalition strikes on a highly populated business district.” The coalition has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, hoping to restore the country’s internationally recognized government.
3 Political prisoners: Egypt is holding political prisoners in “prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement” that amounts to “torture,” an international rights group said Monday. Amnesty International said dozens of detained human rights activists, journalists and members of the opposition held in solitary confinement face “horrendous physical abuse.” Egypt has detained thousands of people, mainly Islamists but also several prominent secular activists, since the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013. The prolonged confinement is usually aimed at extracting confessions and punishing prisoners for protesting ill-treatment, but some are held in solitary confinement purely because of their past political activism, Amnesty said. Egypt denied that the use of prolonged, solitary confinement is widespread.
4 Military exercises: U.S. and Philippine forces on Monday began their largest military exercises since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power and vowed to scale down America’s military presence in the country as he sought closer ties with China and Russia. The Balikatan exercises opened with a ceremony at the main military camp in Manila and are to include about 8,000 American and Filipino personnel and small contingents from Japan and Australia.
5 Pakistan violence: The country’s interior minister underwent two surgeries and was in stable condition Monday in Lahore after being shot the previous day by a gunman whose motive remains unclear, officials said. The bullet fractured Ahsan Iqbal’s right arm, then ricocheted and lodged in his abdomen. The gunman, who police identified as Abid Hussain, shot Iqbal as the minister was returning to his car after meeting with constituents, and was immediately arrested. It’s not clear what motivated the attack, but the gunman has been linked to a group of religious hard-liners who rallied in Islamabad earlier this year.