NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Chechnya attacks: Islamic militants launched a series of attacks Monday in Russia’s southern province of Chechnya, leaving five militants dead and several police officers wounded, officials said. The violence indicated the insurgency remains active in the mostly Muslim province despite authorities’ claims that it has been eradicated. Chechnya’s regional leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, sought to downplay the attacks, saying they were quickly fended off by police. Dzhambulat Umarov, the information minister, said the attackers were aged between 11 and 16. He said the Islamic state has increasingly focused on teenagers in its efforts to recruit supporters in the region. The Kremlin has relied on the strongman Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two separatist wars in the 1990s.
2 South Africa probe: A commission charged with investigating allegations of corruption under the government of former President Jacob Zuma started its first public hearings Monday in Johannesburg. The commission will investigate whether Zuma, his allies, and a wealthy business family, the Guptas, tried to influence the hiring and firing of government officials, among other allegations. The panel, which does not have prosecutorial powers but can recommend legal action, was established in January by Zuma, just weeks before he was forced to resign in disgrace by his own party, the African National Congress. Zuma and members of the Gupta family have denied any wrongdoing.
3 Pakistan hate crime: Dozens of transgender people rallied Monday to demand more protection after a transgender woman was shot dead and dismembered last week. The protesters gathered outside the Peshawar Press Club, chanting “We want protection, we want respect and rights.” Farzana Jan, president of Transgender Association, said the woman, who went by the name Nazo, was killed in the suburbs of Peshawar on Friday. Two men have been arrested. Jan’s group says 62 transgender people have been killed since 2015 in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone, and that 478 attacks have been reported this year.
4 Press freedom: A judge in Myanmar said he will issue a verdict next Monday in the trial of two Reuters journalists accused of possessing secret state information, a case that has become a key test of media freedom in the former military dictatorship. Closing arguments were heard Monday in the trial of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who face possible jail terms of up to 14 years. The defendants say they were framed by police. The reporters had been working on a story about a massacre of Muslim Rohingya men by security forces in a village in Rakhine state during a counterinsurgency operation that critics say involved massive human rights violations.
5 Measles risk: The World Health Organization in Geneva said Monday that the number of measles cases in Europe jumped sharply during the first six months of 2018 and at least 37 people have died. The U.N. agency’s European office said more than 41,000 measles cases were reported in the region during the first half of the year — more than in all 12-month periods so far this decade. The previous highest annual total was 23,927 cases in 2017. A year earlier, only 5,273 cases were reported. The agency said half — some 23,000 cases — this year occurred in Ukraine. France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Russia and Serbia also had more than 1,000 infections each. The agency called for better surveillance and increased immunization rates to prevent the disease from becoming endemic.