NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Slovakia killings: A total of 70,000 euros ($81,000) was paid for the contract slayings of a Slovak investigative journalist and his fiancee, authorities said Monday. Four suspects have been charged by police with murder in the case. Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in their home on Feb. 21. Authorities said they believed it was a contract killing linked to Kuciak’s work — he was investigating possible government corruption and ties between Slovak politicians and Italian mobsters. The killings triggered a political crisis that resulted in major protests, the dismissal of the national police chief and the government’s collapse. The person who paid for the killing as well as the one who they believed committed the crime are among the four suspects.
2 Korea relations: North and South Korean troops began removing some of the land mines planted at their heavily fortified border on Monday, Seoul officials said, in the first implementation of recent agreements aimed at easing their decadeslong military standoff. The demining comes amid resumed diplomacy over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program after weeks of stalemated negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, this month to try to set up a second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
3 South Pacific crash: Air Niugini announced Monday that a passenger died when one of its planes crashed into a lagoon in Micronesia last week. The airline had initially said all 47 passengers and crew survived when a Boeing 737 crashed near the Chuuk island runway on Friday. But Air Niugini chief executive Tahawar Durrani said a man’s body was found by divers in the lagoon on Monday. The airline did not identify the man or release his nationality. What caused the crash remains unclear.
4 Rape sentence: The man at the center of a sex abuse and financial scandal in Sweden that led to the cancellation of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature was convicted of rape and sentenced Monday to two years in prison. Jean-Claude Arnault, 72, a major cultural figure in Sweden, had faced two counts of rape. He was found guilty of one but was acquitted of the other. He had denied the charges. Stockholm District Court said the ruling by the judge and three jurors was unanimous. In Sweden, rape is punishable by a minimum of two years and a maximum of six years in prison. Arnault is married to a Swedish Academy member and poet, Katarina Frostenson. Torn apart by an acrimonious fight over its affiliation with Arnault, the academy announced in May that it would instead name two literature winners in 2019.
5 Ocean access: The United Nations’ highest court on Monday rejected landlocked Bolivia’s bid to force Chile to the negotiating table over granting access to the Pacific Ocean. The International Court of Justice ruled that a string of agreements over decades of talks hadn’t created a legal obligation on Chile to enter negotiations. Bolivia lost its only coast to neighboring Chile during an 18791883 war and the nation has demanded ocean access for generations. At hearings in March, former Bolivian President Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze told judges: “Restoring Bolivia’s sovereign access to the sea would make a small difference to Chile, but it would transform the destiny of Bolivia.” But Chile argued that its border with Bolivia was settled in a 1904 treaty. The ruling was broadcast on giant screens in public squares in the Bolivian capital, La Paz.