NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Russian missile defense: The Russian military has indicated it will supply the Syrian government with a sophisticated air defense system, after condemning a missile attack launched by the U.S., Britain and France earlier this month. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said in a statement Wednesday that Russia will supply Syria with “new missile defense systems soon.” Rudskoi did not specify the type of weapons, but his remarks follow reports in the Russian media that Moscow is considering selling its S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Syria. Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
2 Armenia protests: Several thousand protesters took to the streets of the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Wednesday after talks between the opposition and the acting prime minister were called off. Protest leader Nikol Pashinian had been expected to sit down with the acting prime minister to discuss political transition after Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan abruptly stepped down on Monday amid massive antigovernment protests. Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian is an ally of Sargsyan, who ruled Armenia for 10 years. The opposition insists that he step down soon to make way for a new premier appointed by a new parliament. The talks on Wednesday were supposed to discuss that transition.
3 Diplomatic dispute: Kuwait on Wednesday expelled the Philippines ambassador and recalled its own from Manila over a growing diplomatic dispute regarding the abuse of Filipina housemaids and workers in the country. The highly unusual move came as a surprise in the typically sedate and oil-rich Gulf Arab nation, whose homes rely on Filipina nannies and maids. The two nations had been negotiating an end to the Philippines’ ban on workers from heading there following the shocking discovery in February of a Filipina stuffed into a freezer in Kuwait City for over a year.
4 Guru guilty: An Indian court on Wednesday found a high-profile spiritual guru guilty of raping a teenage female devotee in 2013 and sentenced him to life in prison. The verdict against 77-year-old Asaram Bapu was read inside the prison where he is being held in Jodhpur in Rajasthan state because of fears that his followers might resort to violence. The trial was the latest in a series of high-profile rape cases in India that have fueled public protests and raised questions about how police handle the attacks and treat the victims. Responding to widespread outrage over the recent rape and killings of young girls and other attacks on children, India’s government last week approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12.
5 Star chart: The Paris-based European Space Agency released the most accurate census yet of stars in the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies Wednesday, providing astronomers with a wealth of new data for further research. The high-precision measurements about the distance, motion, brightness and color of almost 1.7 billion stars were collected by the space agency’s Gaia probe between July 2014 and May 2016. Hundreds of scientists and software engineers took years to process the data and create a catalog of stars from which they were able to generate maps, including of the asteroids in our solar system and even a three-dimensional chart of some nearby stars. Antonella Vallenari, one of the lead scientists involved in the project, said astronomers have gained new insights into the life cycle of stars and how the Milky Way was formed.