Top News Stories –

Hitler house: Austria moves to stop Neo-Nazi ‘cult site’ –
Austria’s government is to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 to prevent it becoming a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis. The owner, a retired local woman, has refused repeated offers to buy the house in Braunau am Inn in the past. However, there is disagreement over what to do with the house next. The interior minister wants it demolished but others say a museum or even a supermarket would more effectively “depoliticise” it. [BBC]

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Vorticity (4K) from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• South Sudanese Civil War
  • After five days of fighting that left 272 people dead and thousands more displaced in the capital, Juba, President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebel leader and Vice-President Riek Machar declare a ceasefire.(Al Jazeera)
• Iraqi Civil War
  • A car bomb explodes at an outdoor market in Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and injuring 20 more. Bombings elsewhere in Iraq kill five more people. (Al Jazeera) (AP)

Arts and culture

• Restoration work at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine reveals a hidden angel mosaic. (Wafa) (Daily Mail)

Business and economics

• AMC Theatres is purchasing London-based Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group in a deal valued at about £921 million ($1.21 billion). AMC has 385 theaters with 5,380 screens, most in the United States. Odeon & UCI has 242 theaters and 2,236 screens in the U.K. and Ireland. AMC noted its $1.1 billion (£835 million) acquisition of Columbus, Georgia’s Carmike Cinemas (276 thrs/2,954 scrs) is still in the works. (AP)(USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

• Andria train collision
  • 23 people are killed and 50 others are injured after two trains collide head-on near Andria in the province of Puglia, southern Italy. (BBC)

International relations

• Philippines v. China
  • The Permanent Court of Arbitration rules in favor of the Philippines against China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. (The New York Times), (The Guardian)
  • The court unanimously says that China has “no historical rights” based on the so-called “nine-dash line” map. (CNN), (BBC)
  • China rejects the tribunal’s ruling, declaring it null and void. Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterates the South China Sea has been Chinese territory since “ancient times.” (AP)

Law and crime

• In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan revokes Azimzhan Askarov‘s life sentence and sends the case to a lower court to be reviewed. A prominent Kyrgyz political activist and recognizedprisoner of conscience of Uzbek ethnicity, Askarov was convicted in 2011 of stirring up ethnic violence in 2010 between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in southern Kyrgyzstan and sentenced to life in prison. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• 2016 Zimbabwe protests
  • Evan Mawarire, the most visible leader of the protests in Zimbabwe, is arrested and charged with “inciting public violence and disturbing peace.” (BBC)

Politics and elections

• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorses Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton for president at a rally in New Hampshire, effectively suspending his presidential campaign. (NBC News)
• 2016 state of emergency in Venezuela
  • Citibank notifies the Venezuelan government it will close the accounts of the Venezuelan Central Bank and the Bank of Venezuela in 30 days after conducting a “periodic risk management review.” Venezuela relies on Citibank to conduct foreign currency transactions due to the country’s strict currency controls. (UPI)

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