NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Globe
1 Syria fighting: Hardline rebel groups entered a strategic town Saturday in northwestern Syria, sending government troops fleeing after intense clashes that have seen them take nearly all of a crucial province. If they can hold the town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province, rebel fighters from Islamic factions — including the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front — likely have cut government supply lines by land leading to the Mediterranean coast and a refuge of embattled President Bashar Assad. The town is one of the last bastions of the Assad government in the area and fighting around it continued Saturday.
2 Japan drone: Japanese police have arrested a man who admitted to landing a drone with low-level radioactive sand on the roof of the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, officials said Saturday. Yasuo Yamamoto, 40, turned himself in to authorities Friday in western Japan. The small drone found Wednesday had traces of radiation and triggered fears of potential terrorist attacks. No one was injured and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was traveling at the time. Public broadcaster NHK reported the unemployed man told police he landed the drone to protest the government’s policy of restarting idled nuclear power plants.
3 Burundi politics: Burundi’s ruling party on Saturday nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza as its candidate to run for a third term in elections on June 26. The constitution allows only two presidential terms, but Nkurunziza’s supporters say he is eligible for another term as popularly elected president because he was elected by lawmakers for his first term, not by a popular vote. The decision is likely to stoke tensions in the central African country. More than 10,000 Burundians have fled to Rwanda amid fears of election violence.
4 Liberation Day: Italy on Saturday celebrated the 70th anniversary of a partisan uprising against the Nazis and their Fascist allies near the end of World War II. President Sergio Mattarella marked Liberation Day by laying a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. The anniversary marks the day in 1945 when the Italian resistance movement proclaimed an insurgency as the Allies were pushing German forces out of the peninsula. Within days, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was captured, shot and hung by his feet in a Milan square, along with his mistress.