WARPLANES KILL 10 IN SYRIAN HOSPITAL STRIKE
Warplanes struck a town in a rebel-held enclave in northwestern Syria, killing at least 10 people, including some who were fleeing the bombs, opposition activists and a rescue service said Thursday.
The attack, believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes backing a Syrian government offensive, put a hospital out of service, they said.
The late Wednesday night assault on Ariha, a town in the province of Idlib, came as the rebel-held enclave is under intense fire amid Syrian government advances on the area. The area had been controlled by the opposition for nearly eight years.
The Russian Defense Ministry rejected claims it was behind the attack, calling them a “provocation.” The ministry said Russian warplanes did not fly any combat missions in the area.
Lawsuit claims EPA dragged its feet on oil spill dispersant rules. ORLEANS» Environmental
NEW groups and women from Alaska and Louisiana are asking a federal court to make the Environmental Protection Agency set new rules for the use of oil spill dispersants, citing worries about the chemicals’ health and environmental effects.
“We want our foods to come to us. What’s going to happen to them if they come through these areas where dispersants are used?” Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, who lives in a village near the Arctic Ocean, said in a telephone interview.
She is a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Ahtuangaruak said people in her indigenous community depend on oily fish and fatty marine mammals for the energy they need to survive in an area where temperatures are often far below zero degrees Fahrenheit.
French cardinal acquitted of abuse coverup on appeal. PARIS» A French appeals court Thursday overturned a ruling against a cardinal who had been found guilty of covering up sexual abuse by a priest in his diocese, the latest twist in the most high-profile legal case against a clergyman in France.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 69, the archbishop of Lyon, had been found guilty last year of failing to report allegations of child abuse by the Rev. Bernard Preynat to authorities.
Preynat, 74, went on trial this month and admitted to systematically abusing dozens of Boy Scouts in the Lyon region from the1970stothe1990s.
A verdict in that case is expected in March.
Barbarin argued in court — and the appeals court agreed — that he wasn’t obligated legally to report the allegations to authorities because Preynat’s victims were adults when they alerted the cardinal about the abuse and because he did nothing intentionally to discourage them from going to authorities themselves.
Dating apps face U.S. inquiry over underage use, sex offenders. FRANCISCO» A House
SAN subcommittee is investigating dating services such as Tinder and Bumble for allegedly allowing minors and sex offenders to use their services.
Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group and the Match Group, which owns such popular services as Tinder, Match.com and OkCupid, are the current targets of the investigation by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy.
In separate letters Thursday to the companies, the subcommittee is seeking information on users’ ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors. It is also asking for the services’ privacy policies and details on what users see when they review and agree to the policies. It also seeks information on what data is collected on people, including sexual orientation, drug use and political views.
Although the minimum age for using internet services is typically 13 in the U.S., dating services generally require users to be at least 18. —