Man held over 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda

Ermelo: A Rwandan man has been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion he was involved in genocide in his homeland, Dutch prosecutors said.

The 65-year-old was held in the town of Ermelo, after an extradition request from the African country.

Prosecutors said: “In 1994, the man was an officer of the gendarmerie in Rwanda. According to the Rwandan authorities, he played a prominent role in the massacres committed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali and the municipality of Mugina.”

The man, who has not been identified, has been living in the Netherlands since being granted asylum there in 1999.

The mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi population was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down in Kigali, killing the leader who, like most Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.

The Tutsis were blamed and, although they denied it, bands of Hutu extremists began killing them, including children, with support from the army, police and militias.

An estimated 30,000 civilians are said to have been killed during the Mugina parish massacre.

Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates’ long-ailing ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has died. He was 73.

The UAE’S ministry of presidential affairs announced a 40-day period of mourning and a three-day suspension of work in all ministries and the private sector beginning yesterday.

Sheikh Khalifa had long ceased being involved in the day-to-day running of the country, with his brother, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, seen as the de facto ruler.

Sheikh Khalifa succeeded his father and the UAE’S founder Sheikh Zayed in 2004. He suffered a stroke a decade later, keeping him largely out of public sight.

Alaska: The US army has identified the soldier who died this week of injuries sustained during a bear attack in a military training area in Alaska.

The Army said Staff Sgt Seth Michael Plant, 30, was pronounced dead at a hospital on Joint Base Elmendorf-richardson in Anchorage following the mauling on Tuesday.

Another soldier received minor injuries in the attack in a training area west of the Anchorage landfill.

Staff Sgt Plant was from Saint Augustine, Florida, and had been at Joint Base Elmendorf-richardson since July 2021, the army said. He was an infantryman from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

San Diego: A newborn giraffe has been fitted with orthotic braces on its front legs at a zoo in the US.

The calf was born on February 1 at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, north of San Diego, with her front limbs bending the wrong way.

Safari park staff feared she could die if they did not immediately correct the condition, which could prevent her from nursing and walking around the habitat.

The staff contacted experts in orthotics at the Hanger Clinic, where Ara Mirzaian – who has fitted braces for everyone from Paralympians to children with scoliosis over three decades – landed his very first animal patient.

The experts made a series of special braces and after 39 days in the custom braces, the problem was corrected and the giraffe is now fine.