BELGIUM
Doctors acquitted of murder
A jury yesterday cleared three doctors accused of murder in a euthanasia case in a landmark trial in a country that legalized assisted dying nearly two decades ago. The prosecution said that the doctors had not respected the conditions for euthanasia in the case of Tine Nys, a 38-year-old woman who asserted her right to die in 2010 because of severe mental suffering. The Belga news agency reported that the jury at the court in Ghent acquitted the doctors of poisoning Nys, prompting members of the public present to burst into sustained applause, drawing a rebuke from the judge. The accused are the doctor who gave Nys the lethal drip, as well as a general practitioner and a psychiatrist whose green light was needed for the assisted suicide. The case followed the complaints of two of Nys’ sisters, who deplored what they said was a hasty decision and who accused the suspects of “poisoning” their sister. The sisters claimed that not all treatments were tried for Nys following her diagnosis for autism two months before her death.
INDIA
Police kill hostage-taker
A man who held nearly two dozen children hostage at his daughter’s birthday party was shot dead by police before locals beat his wife to death as she tried to escape, authorities said yesterday. All 23 children — the youngest was six months old — were rescued as anxious parents gathered outside the house in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh late on Thursday. The man, identified as Subhash Batham, was demanding that murder charges against him be dropped, as well as a ransom of 10 million rupees (US$140,156) per child, police officer Amit Mishra told reporters. “He fired several rounds, injuring a few persons,” Mishra said. “We tried to negotiate with him, but to no avail. Concerned over safety of the children, we eventually broke open the rear door of the house and shot him.” The man, who was apparently celebrating his daughter’s first birthday, was out on bail over the murder charge. The wife was killed as she tried to run away.
JAPAN
One likely dead in avalanche
An avalanche at a ski resort on Hokkaido on Thursday hit a group of eight foreign skiers, likely killing at least one. The avalanche occurred when the group was skiing outside of a designated course near the Tomamu ski resort in central Hokkaido, the nearby Shimukappu village office said. One skier who escaped from the snow called police asking for help, village official Atsushi Tada said. The caller said that one of them, a Frenchman in his 40s, was feared dead, but six others survived, although further details of their conditions were not available. Rescuers from Hokkaido police were expected to head to the site to carry out a rescue operation.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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