Around the world

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Venezuela drone attack — President Nicolas Maduro went on television Tuesday night to accuse one of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders of being linked to a weekend attack with drones that the government called an attempt to assassinate Maduro. Maduro said statements from some of the six suspects already arrested pointed to involvement by Julio Borges, an opposition leader living in exile in Colombia. “Several of the declarations indicated Julio Borges. The investigations point to him,” Maduro said, though he provided no details on Borges’ alleged role. Borges did not immediately comment on Maduro’s accusation. Critics of Maduro’s socialist government had said immediately following Saturday evening’s attack that they feared the unpopular leader would use the incident as an excuse to round up opposition politicians as he seeks to dampen spreading discontent over Venezuela’s devastating economic collapse.

Boy’s remains found in New Mexico compound — The investigation into a group of starving children found in a desert compound in New Mexico took another dark turn Tuesday, when authorities said they found the remains of a young boy at the squalid property. It’s not yet certain the remains are of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, who would have turned 4 on Monday. But Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe indicated the body appeared to be that of a boy similar in age to Abdul-ghani, who suffers from seizures and was reported missing in December after his father said he was taking him to a park in Jonesboro, Georgia, south of Atlanta. The father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, had told his wife he wanted to perform an exorcism on the child, authorities said. “We discovered the remains yesterday on Abdul’s fourth birthday,” Hogrefe said, appearing to fight back tears.

Turks rally behind Erdogan — In their recent encounter at the NATO summit meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Donald Trump gave each other a fist-bump, as Trump declared, “I like him, I like him.” The love fest was short-lived. Days later, the Trump administration imposed financial sanctions against two ministers of Erdogan’s Cabinet, sending the Turkish lira plummeting and a stream of nationalist invective pouring forth from the Turkish media. Erdogan retaliated last weekend with sanctions of his own. The tit-for-tat exchange has led many to fear that the longtime allies were headed toward an irreparable rift.

Experimental Ebola Vaccine — The effort to contain the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo received a boost Tuesday with news that an experimental vaccine can be used to combat the deadly virus. Dr. Peter Salama, the World Health Organization’s deputy director-general for emergencies, said the latest outbreak, in North Kivu province, involves the Zaire strain of the virus. That is the same strain as in the previous outbreak, 1,500 miles away in Équateur province, which was officially declared over July 24. The experimental vaccine helped to contain that outbreak. There had been some concern that the vaccine might not work.

U.S. Airstrike kills Afghan forces — A U.S. airstrike killed at least a dozen Afghan security forces during intense fighting with the Taliban near the Afghan capital, officials said Tuesday. Hundreds of armed Taliban militants made a run for the Azra district center in Logar province, about 50 miles south of Kabul, late Monday, and the fighting continued overnight, officials said. Shamshad Larawi, a spokesman for the governor, said that American airstrikes had been called in for support, but that because of a misunderstanding, the planes mistakenly targeted an Afghan police outpost. Larawi played down the number of casualties, which remained unclear.

Domestic abuse shocks Brazil — The scenes, captured by security cameras, are gruesome: A man pummels and kicks his wife in the garage of their building. She tries to flee, but he forces her into the elevator. Less than 20 minutes later, he takes the elevator back down — to fetch her lifeless body, which had plummeted to the sidewalk. The footage from the night of July 22, first broadcast Sunday on the Brazilian TV program “Fantástico,” has been playing repeatedly on national television. The graphic view into what domestic violence really looks like is challenging the widespread notion about staying out of marital disputes.

North Korea Releases South Korean — North Korea released a South Korean citizen Tuesday who was detained in the North last month, a rare humanitarian gesture welcomed by the South Korean government. The returnee was handed over to South Korean authorities through Panmunjom, a contact point on the border between the two countries, the South’s Unification Ministry said in a statement. The 34-year-old man, who was identified only by his last name, Seo, was arrested for illegal entry July 22. The man will probably face criminal charges in South Korea because of a national law that bars citizens from visiting the North without government permission.

German mother sells child to pedophiles — The case would have stoked public outrage if the mother had known her son was being raped and did nothing to stop it. But when Germans heard that she and her boyfriend had raped the boy themselves and served him up to pedophiles on the darknet, the fury only grew. The mother and her companion — identified only as Berrin T., 48, and Christian L., 39 — were convicted Tuesday of abusing her son over two years, beginning when he was about 7. Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, Germany’s independent commissioner for questions pertaining to sexual abuse of children, called for an inquiry.

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