NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Deadly fire: Authorities in Azerbaijan say at least 25 people have been killed in a fire at a residential drug treatment center in the country’s capital. Police said the fire broke out at 6 a.m. local time Friday in Baku and took three hours to extinguish. An electrical short circuit is believed to have sparked the blaze at the clinic, which occupies an old, one-story wooden building. Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry says 34 people have been rescued from the building and 200 patients and staff members were evacuated. Three people were hospitalized.
2 Russia military presence: Pro-EU leaders from Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia said Friday that the continued presence of Russian military in their countries was destabilizing. The parliamentary speakers from the three countries issued a joint statement at the end of a one-day security conference in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, voicing their worries about the Russian military presence in the three ex-Soviet republics. Russia has 1,000 troops and 500 peacekeepers in the pro-Russian breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester, a sliver of land in in eastern Moldova. Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008, which led to two breakaway Georgian regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, declaring independence. Russia has since been supporting the regions financially and militarily. Ukraine has been in a simmering conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 since April 2014.
3 Hate attack: A British man was convicted of attempted murder Friday for running over a Muslim woman in a hate crime he saw as revenge for Islamic extremist attacks. A jury at Nottingham Crown Court in central England found Paul Moore guilty Friday of the Sept. 20, 2017, attack, which left 47-year-old Zaynab Hussein with lifechanging injuries. Prosecutors said 21-year-old Moore drove his Volkswagen into Hussein in the central England city of Leicester, then ran her over as she lay on the ground. Hussein suffered fractures to her pelvis, her spine and leg and spent almost three months in a hospital. Moore will be sentenced March 27.
4 U.N. workers killed: Three workers for U.N. agencies were among 11 people killed in an attack by armed Boko Haram militants on a military base in northeastern Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon, U.N. officials said Friday. The International Organization for Migration said “a large number” of Boko Haram members attacked the base in Rann, in Borno state, a day earlier with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and gun trucks. U.N. officials say the humanitarian crisis in northeastern Nigeria is one of the worst in the world, with more than 7.5 million people in need of assistance. Some 3,000 aid workers with the world body, its agencies and nongovernmental organizations are providing aid to some 6.1 million people in the region.
5 ‘Health attacks’: Citing mysterious “health attacks” in Havana, the U.S. said Friday it is making permanent its withdrawal of 60 percent of its diplomats from Cuba as investigations continue. In October, the State Department ordered nonessential embassy personnel and the families of all staff to leave Havana, arguing the U.S. could not protect them from unexplained illnesses that have harmed at least 24 Americans. Cuba has repeatedly denied either involvement in or knowledge of any attacks.