NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Swine fever: The death toll from a disease outbreak in China’s pig herds that has pushed up global pork prices has risen to 1.2 million animals, but its spread has “significantly slowed,” a deputy agriculture minister in Beijing said Thursday. Authorities are stepping up efforts to contain African swine fever but the situation is “complicated and grim,” said Yu Kangzhen. He said the government is developing a vaccine but that work has “a long way to go.” Pork is China’s staple meat and the country produces and consumes twothirds of the world’s pigs. The virus doesn’t harm humans but is fatal and spreads quickly among pigs.
2 Venezuela killings: Venezuela’s government registered nearly 5,300 killings during security operations last year linked to cases of “resistance to authority,” the U.N. human rights chief reported Thursday, denouncing a “shockingly high” number of extrajudicial killings. Michelle Bachelet’s report focusing on the last 18 months follows her trip to the troubled South American country last month and draws upon over 550 interviews conducted by her office with rights defenders, victims, witnesses of rights violations and other sources. Bachelet, a former Socialist president of Chile, herself met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last month.
_3 Death sentences: A court in Bangladesh has sentenced nine opposition activists to death and 25 others to life in prison for an attack on a train carrying political leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed 24 years ago. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Sheikh Hasina’s archrival and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, rejected Wednesday’s verdict, calling it politically motivated. The current prime minister and thenopposition leader, Sheikh Hasina was riding a passenger train attacked at Pakshi Rail Station on Sept. 23, 1994. The attackers fired shots and hurled bombs at the train, injuring scores of people, though Sheikh Hasina was unhurt. The Paban district trial court also sentenced 13 other people to 10 years in jail in a case filed under the Explosives Substances Act of 1908.
4 China tornado: A tornado blew through a city in northeast China, damaging factories and buildings, killing six people and injuring another 190, state media reported Thursday. The tornado hit Kaiyuan, a countylevel city in Liaoning province, late Wednesday. Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed a stretch of collapsed lowrise buildings where firefighters were working through the debris. Tornadoes are rare in China. In 2016, a tornado and accompanying hailstorm killed 98 people in eastern Jiangsu province.
5 Sicily eruption: Firefighters using helicopters and motorboats doused fires ignited by a volcanic eruption on the Sicilian island of Stromboli that killed a hiker. Mayor Marco Giorgianni told the news agency ANSA on Thursday that about 100 people evacuated the island after a violent eruption sent glowing lapilli and lava spewing into the air, setting off a series of blazes. The Stromboli volcano is one of three active in Italy.
6 Singer deported: British soul singer Joss Stone says she was deported from Iran after arriving in the Islamic Republic as part of a worldwide concert tour, even though she didn’t plan to perform there. She wrote that authorities put her on a “black list” because they believed she might try to perform a public show. Under Iranian law, women cannot perform solo concerts.