U.S. begins flying deportees to Mexico
MEXICO CITY – U.S. immigration authorities began flying deportees deep into Mexico on Thursday in an effort to discourage them from trying to return, U.S. and Mexican officials said.
The first of twice-weekly flights from El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City left with 133 deportees aboard, all men.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute said the flights will last six months, taking place every Tuesday and Thursday, and the Mexican government will pay for returnees’ travel from the Mexico City airport to their hometowns. A total of 6,800 people are expected to be returned under the program.
Bosnians rebury 409 massacre victims
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Tens of thousands gathered in Bosnia to rebury 409 newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre on the 18th anniversary of the worst slaughter on European soil since the Nazi era.
Among the victims were 43 teenage boys and a baby who was born during the ordeal. They were laid to rest at a special cemetery near Srebrenica, where victims are buried as their remains are gradually found in mass graves. As of Thursday, there were 6,066; a further 2,306 still are missing.
In July 1995, Serb forces overran the U.N.-protected Muslim town in eastern Bosnia and executed more than 8,000 men and boys within days. U.N. troops on the ground did nothing to stop them.
Buddhists sentenced in Myanmar riot
YANGON, Myanmar – Twenty-five Buddhists were sentenced to as many as 15 years in prison for murder and other crimes during a night of rioting, burning and killing in central Myanmar, after weeks in which it seemed only Muslims were being punished for sectarian violence aimed primarily at members of their own religion.
But the sentences issued Wednesday and Thursday did not erase a sense of unequal justice: A day earlier, a Muslim received a life sentence for murdering one of the 43 people killed March 20 and 21 in the central Myanmar town of Meikhtila.
A wave of violence over the last year in this predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian country has left more than 250 people dead and 140,000 others fleeing their homes, most of them Muslim.
24 bodies now found in Quebec train crash
LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec – The first victim of a runaway oil train’s explosive derailment in a Quebec town was identified Thursday, more than five days since the disaster, which left behind a scorched scene so dangerous that it slowed the search for 50 people presumed dead.
Police said four more bodies had been found, bringing the total found to 24.
The first victim to be identified by the coroner’s office was 93-year-old Eliane Parenteau, who lived in the disaster zone in downtown Lac-Megantic.
The devastated downtown remained dangerous for days after the crash as responders put out fires and struggled to keep the remaining oil tankers cool so they wouldn’t explode.
Associated Press
