NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1. Prison riot: State officials say inmates rioted at a psychiatric block in a prison in northern Mexico, broke into a prison pharmacy and took drugs that caused the deaths of two of them. Thirteen more were injured in Tuesday’s riot, including one guard. The complex chain of events at the prison in Cadereyta, in Nuevo Leon state, started earlier this week when inmates protested a new program to inspect visitors with a type of X-ray machine to prevent contraband being smuggled into the facility.
2. Malaria outbreak: The United Nations says a malaria outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people in Burundi so far this year. The figure is a significant rise over the 700 victims cited on March 13 by the country’s health minister. The U.N. humanitarian office said Wednesday that there have been more than 9 million cases of malaria in the East African nation since January 2016. Burundi has a population of about 11 million. The outbreak is the latest crisis for Burundi, which has been racked by deadly political violence since 2015 and food shortages.
3. Knife attack: Israeli police say officers shot and killed a Palestinian woman who attacked them with a knife in Jerusalem. Spokeswoman Luba Samri says the woman tried to stab officers on duty near the Old City on Wednesday. It was the latest incident in a wave of Palestinian attacks on civilians and security forces that erupted in September 2015. Since then, Palestinians have killed 41 Israelis and two visiting Americans, mainly in stabbing, shootings and assaults using cars. Israeli forces have killed at least 240 Palestinians during the same period. Most of the slain Palestinians have been identified as attackers by Israeli authorities. Israel says the violence is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. Palestinians say it stems from anger over Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.
4. Arab summit: Arab leaders on Wednesday relaunched a peace plan that offers Israel full ties in exchange for Palestinian statehood, signaling to President Trump that they are ready to engage if he tries to broker a broader Mideast peace. Host Jordan said the one-day Arab summit held on the shores of the Dead Sea sent a “message of peace” — though one that could put new pressure on Israel to withdraw from lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. The gathering came ahead of White House meetings in coming weeks between Trump and three Arab leaders — Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The three met on the sidelines of the summit to consolidate positions ahead of the White House meetings, officials said. Trump hasn’t yet formulated a policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but has said he is eager to broker a deal. 5. Swallowed whole: A 25-year-old Indonesian man was swallowed whole by a python on the island of Sulawesi, villagers said. A six-minute video on the website of the Tribun Timur publication shows villagers slicing open the python’s carcass to reveal the legs and torso of the dead victim, named Akbar. Reticulated pythons grab onto their prey with dozens of sharp curved teeth and then squeeze it to death before swallowing it whole. They are widespread in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. Reports of humans being killed by pythons are extremely rare. They are known to eat monkeys, pigs and other mammals.