Israel
9 teenagers die in flash floods; 1 still missing
JERUSALEM — Flash floods killed nine Israeli teenagers who were hiking south of the Dead Sea on Thursday, Israel’s rescue service said.
The casualties were all 18 years old. Israeli media said eight of the fatalities were female and one was male. Police said another hiker is still missing.
Earlier, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 25 students in a pre-army course were “caught off guard” and some were “washed away” by heavy rains while they were hiking in the area. Rosenfeld said 15 hikers were rescued.
Rwanda
Genocide-era mass graves discovered
KIGALI — Mass graves that authorities say could contain more than 2,000 bodies have been discovered in Rwanda nearly a quarter-century after the country’s genocide, and further graves are being sought nearby.
The new discovery is being called the most significant in a long time in this East African nation that is still recovering from the 1994 killings of more than 800,000 people.
Some Rwandans are shocked and dismayed that residents of the community outside the capital, Kigali, where the mass graves were found, kept quiet about them for so many years.
“Those who participated in the killing of our relatives don’t want to tell us where they buried them. How can you reconcile with such people?” asked a tearful France Mukantagazwa. She told The Associated Press she lost her father and other relatives in the genocide and believes their bodies are in the newly found graves.
Poland
Officials deny Polish law glorifies Nazism
WARSAW, Poland — Polish officials on Thursday criticized the claim of a U.S. congressman that a new Polish law glorifies Nazi collaborators and denies the Holocaust.
The charge was made by Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, one of two congressmen leading a bipartisan effort urging the U.S. State Department to pressure Poland and Ukraine to combat state-sponsored anti-Semitism.
“Our government should be concerned with the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Ukraine and Poland. Both countries recently passed laws glorifying Nazi collaborators and denying the Holocaust,” Khanna wrote Wednesday.
In the Polish case, Khanna referred to a new law that makes it a crime to blame Poland for the Holocaust crimes of Nazi Germany. The law has sparked criticism in the U.S. and particularly in Israel.
Belgium
NATO agenda: Afghan peace hopes, Russia
BRUSSELS — NATO will hold its last major meeting in its old headquarters on Friday, with talks focused on strained ties with Russia, a fresh peace effort in Afghanistan and a new training mission for Iraq.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the allies are trying to arrange a meeting with Moscow’s envoy before U.S. President Trump’s summit in July.
The NATO-Russia Council has not convened this year, and the March 4 poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain plus the chemical attack in Syria that has been blamed on Moscow ally Syrian President Bashar Assad underline the need for more talks, he said.
Wire reports
