NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 _ Auschwitz survivors: Three Holocaust survivors testified Friday about the horrors they experienced at the Auschwitz death camp, on the second day of the trial of a former SS sergeant on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder. Reinhold Hanning, 94, sat only a few yards from the witnesses, but showed no emotion as they told of crematoria chimneys belching flames, naked prisoners being taken to the gas chambers, and seeing people being shot. German prosecutors in Detmold argue that he is guilty of accessory to murder because he helped the complex function, even though there is no evidence of him committing a specific crime.
2 _ Suit against Putin: A Moscow court on Friday refused to consider a lawsuit filed by a prominent Russian opposition figure, who accused President Vladimir Putin of breaking the nation’s anticorruption law. Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny accused Putin of failing to declare a conflict of interest regarding a low- interest, $ 1.75 billion loan granted to the petrochemical production company Sibur where Putin’s son- in- law, Kirill Shamalov, is a shareholder.
3 _ Out of print: The Independent, a newspaper that shook up Britain’s journalism establishment in the 1980s before falling on hard times, will stop printing after nearly 30 years and instead publish only online, its owner said Friday. The demise of the print editions of The Independent — and its weekly counterpart, The Independent on Sunday — is a blow to Britain’s vibrant and fiercely competitive media scene, where the newspaper’s swashbuckling spirit made it an editorial force even as it struggled with losses. At its heyday in the late 1980s, it had a weekday circulation of 400,000 copies; today, it is just over 40,000.
4 _ Nigeria frees detainees: Nigeria’s army is freeing 267 detainees found to have no links to the Boko Haram Islamic extremists including 72 minors, some looking no more than 3 years old. Maj. Gen. Haruna Umaru said at a military barracks in northeastern Maiduguri city Friday that investigations found those released had no links with terrorism. One freed woman said she was detained for six months on suspicion of being the girlfriend of a Boko Haram fighter. Amnesty International holds Nigeria’s military responsible for the deaths of 8,000 detainees since 2011 — some shot outright, others dying of torture and starvation.
_ 5 Doctors protest: Thousands of Egypt’s doctors staged a rare protest against police abuses after accusations two doctors were beaten up by policemen in a Cairo hospital. The doctors union also voted to offer free services in public hospitals and to call a partial strike in two weeks time unless the officers involved are held accountable, measures are taken to protect medics from police intimidation and the health minister submits his resignation. Such public protests rare under Egypt’s President Abdel- Fattah el- Sissi. Following the ouster of his Islamist predecessor, voices of dissent were silenced and thousands of Islamists and activists were jailed.
6 _ Cuba flights: U. S. officials say the United States and Cuba will sign an agreement next week to restart commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades. U. S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx flies to Havana on Tuesday to cement the deal. It will let U. S. airlines bid on routes for dozens of U. S.- Cuba flights per day. There has been no commercial air traffic between the nations since shortly after Cuba’s 1959 revolution.