NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Refugee tragedy: The Libyan navy said on Thursday that at least 90 refugees are believed to have perished when their rickety boat started to fall apart in the Mediterranean Sea, after leaving the Libyan coast. The boat, which was made of rubber, tore and began filling with water about 26 miles off the Libyan coast, an area considered to be international waters, said a navy spokesman. The Libyan coast guard rescued 29 survivors, who recounted that there were 129 of them in all on the boat, mostly African nationals.
2 WWII mass grave: Slovenia on Thursday reburied the remains of some 800 people found in a mass grave containing the bodies of thousands believed killed in the aftermath of World War II by the communist authorities. The remains were laid to rest in a memorial park in Maribor, northeastern Slovenia, alongside other victims of post-World War II summary executions. The victims are believed to be mostly Croats and Slovenes from World War II pro-Nazi groups killed by the victorious communists. The Huda Jama mass grave was discovered in 2009 in an abandoned mine east of Ljubljana. Experts say it contains the remains of up to 5,000 people.
3 Protest ban: The Pakistani government on Thursday banned all political meetings, rallies and protests in the capital, Islamabad, ahead of a planned opposition march against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday. The ban, which also applies to the adjacent garrison city of Rawalpindi, will remain in force for two months, the government said. The party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has threatened to lockdown the capital to force Sharif to step down. Sharif faces mounting public pressure after his family members were named as holders of offshore bank accounts in leaked financial documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
4 Embassy shooting: A man was shot dead after stabbing a policeman guarding the perimeter wall of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and trying to take his gun, police said Thursday. The policeman opened fire in self-defense and killed the man, said authorities, who identified the attacker as a Kenyan from the volatile region of Wajir near Somalia. Wajir county has been cited as a hot spot for recruitment by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab from neighboring Somalia.
5 Reporter on trial: A Kurdish journalist charged with engaging in terrorist propaganda for a series of Twitter posts has gone on trial in Turkey. Hamza Aktan, former news director for pro-Kurdish IMC-T, faces up to five years in prison for posting 17 tweets or retweets that Turkish prosecutors deemed to be propaganda on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Aktan joins a long list of journalists and human rights defenders who have been prosecuted under Turkey’s broad antiterrorism laws.
6 Hitler’s bunker: A private Berlin museum unveiled a replica of part of the bunker where Adolf Hitler spent the final phase of World War II, a project that hasn’t been universally welcomed. The replica of Hitler’s office went on display Thursday in a former airraid shelter some 1¼ miles from the site of the real bunker demolished long ago. Curator Wieland Giebel said the replica only can be seen on a guided tour beginning in a shelter that was meant for 3,500 people and by the war’s end housed 12,000, a contrast with the comparatively spacious Fuehrer bunker.