NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Journalist killed: A reporter was shot dead in the southern state of Tabasco, her newspaper said Wednesday, the latest in a string of journalist killings in one of the world’s most lethal countries for the profession. Another reporter was kidnapped by a pair of armed men in the nearby state of Veracruz. Norma Sarabia, who covered crime and police for Tabasco Hoy, was talking to a family member in front of her home in the municipality of Huimanguillo when a car pulled up with at least three masked assailants inside, the newspaper reported. One got out and opened fire at close range, striking her with at least four bullets. Municipal police confirmed the killing but did not immediately provide further details. Tabasco state prosecutors said an investigation was under way. The New Yorkbased Committee to Protect Journalists said Sarabia is the seventh journalist killed in Mexico since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office Dec. 1.
2 Russia protest: Hundreds of people were detained Wednesday as they marched in Moscow to protest what they called police fabrications in the wake of the arrest of an investigative journalist on drug charges that later were dropped when the government admitted there was no evidence he committed a crime. The mass arrests provided a harsh coda to the elation of journalists and other supporters of Ivan Golunov a day after Russia’s interior minister announced the unprecedented move to drop the charges and seek punishment for the police officers involved. Police said more than 200 were detained in the Moscow demonstration, but the OVDInfo organization that monitors political arrests put the figure at more than 400. Golunov, a reporter for the website Meduza, was arrested June 6 for allegedly dealing synthetic stimulants. Many believed he was set up as retaliation for his reporting on Moscow City Hall and the city’s crime-ridden funeral industry.
3 Same-sex marriage: Ecuador’s highest court on constitutional norms has granted two gay couples the right to marry in a landmark case seeking to expand LGBT rights in the small South American nation. Wednesday’s decision by the Constitutional Court in Quito comes after a lengthy legal battle by several couples and gay rights advocates. It is not immediately clear how far-reaching the ruling will be. About a half dozen Latin American nations have approved same-sex marriage.
4 Venezuelan turmoil: Venezuela is planning to introduce banknotes with larger denominations to cope with hyperinflation, which shows no signs of slowing. The central bank says the new bolivar bills of 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 will gradually start to circulate on Thursday as a way to make payments and transactions “more efficient.” The biggest new bill is about the equivalent of $10, which is more than the monthly minimum wage in a country whose economy has been shrinking drastically for years. Until now, the biggest denomination was the 500-bolivar note. 5 Sudan unrest: Activists called off a general strike and civil disobedience campaign as more businesses reopened and traffic returned to its normal bustle on Wednesday in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, as the U.S. and Ethiopia stepped up efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis — following last week’s deadly clampdown by security forces on pro-democracy demonstrators. Security forces violently dispersed the main protest on June 3, killing over 100 people in the capital and across Sudan in a sweeping crackdown, protest organizers said.