NEWS OF THE DAY

From Around the World

1. Assange hearing: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in court Monday in London to fight extradition to the United States on espionage charges, but he lost his bid to delay proceedings so that his legal team would have more time to prepare. Assange and his legal team failed to convince District Judge Vanessa Baraitser that a delay in the already slowmoving case was justified. The full extradition hearing is still set for late February. After the judge turned down his bid for a threemonth delay, Assange said the case is not “equitable” because the U.S. government has “unlimited resources” while he doesn’t have easy access to his lawyers while he is confined to prison. U.S. authorities accuse Assange of scheming with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break a password for a classified government computer.

2. Refugee crisis: Authorities in northwestern Bosnia on Monday stopped supplying water to an overcrowded migrant camp criticized as deficient by international organizations in the country. Officials in Bihac announced an emergency meeting to discuss what to do with the Vucjak camp hosting some 1,000 migrants who are trying to reach Western Europe. Both the U.N. and EU missions in Bosnia have urged authorities to relocate the migrants from the camp set on a former landfill and near mine fields left over from the 199295 war. Thousands of migrants have been stuck in northwestern Bosnia, straining the impoverished Balkan country.

3. Elephant deaths: At least 55 elephants have starved to death in the past two months in Zimbabwe’s largest national park as a drought forces animals to stray into nearby communities in search of food and water, authorities said Monday. “The situation is dire,” said National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo. Other animals such as lions at Hwange National Park have been affected. As animals stray from Zimbabwe’s parks they destroy crops and sometimes kill people, Farawo said, adding that more than 20 people have been killed this year alone. Overcrowding in Hwange contributes to the destruction of vegetation. The park can handle 15,000 elephants but currently has about 53,000, Farawo said.

4. Reporter killed: Prosecutors in Slovakia have indicted four suspects in the slaying of an investigative reporter and his fiancee, a case that brought down the government. The four include the alleged mastermind, a businessman who was long suspected of involvement in the crime. The prosecutors previously identified him as Marian K., omitting his full last name as is standard in Slovakia. Reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were fatally shot in their home on Feb. 21, 2018. Slovak authorities believe it was a contract killing linked to Kuciak’s work investigating possible government corruption.

5. Vatican vandalism: Pope Francis’ controversial meeting on the Amazon has taken a criminal twist after thieves stole indigenous fertility statues from a Vaticanarea church and tossed them into the Tiber River. Video of the predawn theft was shared and celebrated on conservative social media Monday. The Vatican’s communications czar, Paolo Ruffini, termed it a “stunt” that violated the idea of dialogue. Even before the threeweek Amazon synod opened, conservative and traditionalist Catholics blasted its agenda as a heretical celebration of paganism, given its deference to indigenous cultures and spirituality.