3 Spanish reporters are missing in Syria

MADRID – Three Spanish freelance journalists who traveled to Syria to report amid the country’s long-running civil war have gone missing around the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a Spanish journalism association said Tuesday, the latest ensnared in the world’s most dangerous assignment for reporters.

The disappearance of Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre, presumed to be working together, comes as most media organizations have pulled out of Syria, especially with the rise of the extremist Islamic State group. At least 84 journalists have been killed since 2011 in Syria, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, while others remain missing or have been released for ransom.

Elsa Gonzalez, the president of the association, told Spanish National Television in a telephone interview that the three disappeared while working in the Aleppo area. She said they entered Syria from Turkey on July 10.

A statement from their families said the men had been missing since July 13.

Nazi hunter seeks investigation of Dane

HELSINKI – A leading Nazi hunter has asked Denmark to investigate a 90-year-old Dane suspected of being involved in the mass murder of Jews in Belarus during World War II.

Ephraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center says he filed the request with the Copenhagen police Tuesday after the Justice Ministry turned down a similar request last year saying it was not their matter.

Zuroff told the AP they had a strong case against Helmuth Leif Rasmussen because of documents found by Danish historians published in a book last year.

The book claims that 1,400 Jews died in Belarus when Rasmussen, now known by the name Rasboel, was in the “inner circle” of the camp run by the SS.

Rasboel, who lives in Copenhagen, has acknowledged being a guard but denies killings.

Associated Press