ISLAMIST GROUP KILLS 106 IN NIGERIA
Fighters with the Islamist group Boko Haram killed 106 people over the weekend in a small Christian village in northeastern Nigeria, bringing the death toll over the last few weeks close to 300, newspaper Punch reports. According to witnesses, the gunmen gathered a group of men and shot them before going after the rest of the villagers.
VENEZUELA EXPELS THREE U.S. OFFICIALS
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro has expelled three officials from the U.S. embassy, accusing them of conspiring with opponents against his government, ahead of new announced protests tomorrow in Venezuela. In a televised address, Maduro reiterated in strong terms his country’s independence from Washington. Read what he said.
GERMANY TO RESUME COUNTER-ESPIONAGE AGAINST U.S.
Germany is considering resuming its counter-espionage program against Western allies, including the United States, according to a report by magazine Der Spiegel. The measures being debated are said to include a “basic observation” of the U.S. and British embassies. Read more in English from Deutsche Welle.
NEPAL PLANE CRASH LEAVES NO SURVIVORS
All 18 people aboard a small plane that crashed yesterday amid bad weather conditions in central Nepal were found dead, website eKantipur reports officials as saying. According to The Himalayan newspaper, the bodies of the victims have been taken to the capital of Kathmandu to be identified.
FOTO
French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, who broke Sergey Bubka’s 1993 world record Saturday, got an early start in the sport with a curtain rod. A family photo of a then-4-year-old Lavillenie has been making rounds on the Internet.
COPILOT HIJACKS ETHIOPIAN PLANE
The copilot of an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Rome hijacked the plane this morning and landed in Geneva in order to seek asylum, euronews reports. After landing, the man reportedly left the aircraft through a cockpit window using a rope and was arrested. None of the passengers were hurt.
RENZI TO BE SWORN IN AS NEW ITALIAN PM
Italy’s Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi received a mandate this morning from President Giorgio Napolitano to form a new government, following Enrico Letta’s resignation, news agency ANSA reports. But according to an Ipsos poll, only 31% of those surveyed believe Renzi is a good replacement to Letta. For more about the man who forced out his PM, we offer this La Stampa/Worldcrunch piece: How Matteo Renzi Broke Every Rule Of Italian Politics.
BY THE NUMBERS
Just two weeks after the first “baby hatch” was established in the south China city of Guangzhou, nearly 80 abandoned infants have been collected from the safe place.
CRIME INT’L
An Estonian truck driver in Sweden was cited twice in the same day for drunk driving.
