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Long-awaited Mladic war crimes trial opens in The Hague

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, goes on trial at a UN tribunal on 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes stemming from some of the bloodiest events of the Bosnian war in the 1990s.

(NEW YORK TIMES) THE HAGUE - The court heard a prosecutor's recital of atrocities said to have been committed by soldiers directly under Mr. Mladic's command as Bosnian Serb units carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing and, in Sarajevo, directed a "spigot of terror" that could be opened or closed at will against the civilian population.

Twenty years after the war started as the former Yugoslavia fragmented, the 11-count indictment against him laid out details of the worst killings of the conflict, when the capital, Sarajevo, was subjected to a 44-month campaign of sniping and shelling in which more than 10,000 people died. He is the last of the major players in the Bosnian conflict to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia here.

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Ideas

A Brazilian Plea For Science, Religious Freedom And The Right To Samba As You Wish

An evangelic group has threatened to take legal action against a samba school because of its mix of religious iconography at the 2023 Carnival festivities. A Brazilian secular institute has a response.

Photo of Rio's carnival 2015

Rio carnival in full swing

Daniel Gontijo E Pirula

-OpEd-

SÃO PAULO — To celebrate religious diversity at 2023 carnival, the samba school Gaviões da Fiel in São Paolo combined Christian symbols with imagery from African religions — for example, Christ with Oxalá (a deity from Candomblé, an African diasporic religion).

Gaviões received a disclaimer note from the country's conservative Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE). In these politicians’ view, "one cannot compare Christ and Oxalá … under no circumstances", and there would only be one god, one Son, and one Holy Spirit.

Having interpreted this artistic syncretism as an immoral, vile act, the FPE is now threatening to take legal action against the samba school.

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