NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Election violence: At least five people have been killed in Ghana and a dozen injured in violence related to the presidential and legislative elections held on Monday, police said. The election has tested the West African nation’s credentials as one of the continent’s most politically stable countries. Twentyone violent outbreaks have been identified as electionrelated across the West African country, Ghana’s Police Service said Wednesday. Hundreds of opposition supporters demonstrated Wednesday at the Electoral Commission buildings in the capital, Accra, demanding that the election results be announced quickly. Opposition supporters accused the commission of delaying the results in order to alter the figures.
2 Nuclear forces: The Russian military on Wednesday conducted sweeping drills of its strategic nuclear forces that featured several practice missile launches. The Defense Ministry said the maneuvers included the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Karelia nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea. As part of the drills, a groundbased intercontinental ballistic missile was also launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and Tu160 and Tu95 strategic bombers fired cruise missiles at test targets.
3 Reporters killed: Fortytwo journalists and media workers have been killed while doing their jobs this year, according to the International Federation of Journalists’ annual tally released Wednesday. At least 235 are currently in prison in cases related to their work. The death toll is around the same level as when the global journalists’ union began its grim annual count of deaths 30 years ago and is part of a recent downward trend. The release also coincides with an online conference on press freedom organized by the Dutch government and the U. N.’ s cultural agency, UNESCO, that opened Wednesday. The Brusselsbased union is the world’s largest organization of journalists, representing 600,000 media professionals in 187 unions and associations in more than 140 countries.
4 War crimes probe: The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said Wednesday she is closing a probe into allegations of killings and torture of Iraqi prisoners by British troops from 20032008 since British authorities have investigated the allegations. The Haguebased global court only takes on cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious international offenses if a member state is unwilling or unable to investigate them. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there is “a reasonable basis to believe that members of the British armed forces committed the war crimes of willful killing, torture, inhuman/ cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape and/ or other forms of sexual violence.” But two British probes meant her office could not conclude that “U. K. authorities had remained inactive.”
5 Slave trader statue: Four people were charged with criminal damage on Wednesday over the toppling of a statue of a 17thcentury slave trader and public benefactor in the city of Bristol. Prosecutors said Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 32, and 21yearold Sage Willoughby are due to appear in court Jan. 25 for an initial hearing. The statue of Edward Colston was pulled from its plinth in the southwestern city during an antiracism demonstration in June and dumped in Bristol harbor. Colston made a fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas on Bristolbased ships. He was a major benefactor to Bristol, with streets and institutions named for him, and the statue-felling sparked a debate about racism and historical commemoration.