NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Nazi guard: A German court said Thursday it won’t put on trial a former guard at the Nazis’ Majdanek death camp who was charged with being an accessory to murder, arguing that the 97-year-old is too sick to face court proceedings. The Frankfurt state court cited a comprehensive medical assessment that was delayed repeatedly by spells in a hospital. It said an expert determined that the man, who was charged in 2017, wouldn’t be able to follow proceedings. The suspect, whose name hasn’t been released, was charged for allegedly serving at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between August 1943 and January 1944. Prosecutors alleged that the man worked as a guard there as a member of the SS’s Death’s Head division.
2 Tourists killed: Authorities in Morocco said on Thursday that three more suspects have been arrested in the killings of two Scandinavian tourists in what Danish officials suggested was an act of terror linked to the Islamic State. Another suspect arrested on Tuesday was thought to have extremist ties, Moroccan prosecutors said. The bodies of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark and Maren Ueland, 28, of Norway, were found on Monday by other tourists in an isolated area of the High Atlas Mountains, an area popular with hikers. Both women had been studying at the same school in Norway to become tour guides.
3 Migrants’ deaths: Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service on Thursday found 11 dead migrants in a boat off the country’s southern coast near the city of Almeria and rescued 33 other passengers. All of the migrants were from subSaharan Africa, a spokeswoman with the service said. Twenty-nine men and four women were still alive on board, but one of the men later died in a hospital in Almeria. According to the United Nations, more than 61,500 migrants, who often flee violence or poverty, have arrived in Spain since the beginning of 2018, nearly 55,000 of them by sea.
4 Bangladesh fake news: Facebook is shutting down a series of fake news sites spreading false information about the Bangladesh opposition days before national elections, an official from the social media platform said. The sites — nine Facebook pages designed to mimic legitimate news outlets, as well as six fake personal accounts spreading anti-opposition propaganda — were created by Bangladeshis with government ties, said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy.
5 Asylum seekers: Mexico has agreed to a U.S. proposal to let third-country migrants remain in or be returned to Mexico while their claims for asylum in the United States are being processed. The decision was a historic one for Mexico, which has traditionally refused to accept the return of any migrants who aren’t Mexican. Mexico’s Foreign relations Department said Thursday the move is a temporary, humanitarian measure.
6 Brazil corruption charges: Attorney General Raquel Dodge says outgoing President Michel Temer is at the epicenter of ongoing institutionalized corruption and she’s asking the courts to charge him with corruption and money laundering. Dodge’s complaint seeks to make Temer and five alleged co-conspirators pay just under $8.5 million in damages. The president has faced multiple impeachment attempts, charges of corruption and accusations of obstruction of justice since he assumed the office in 2016. Temer denies the allegations, saying he would “establish through the courts that there was no irregularity in my actions.”