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STARYI SALTIV, Ukraine — The families milled about, greeting one another and exchanging news, or sitting at picnic tables laid with candy, Easter eggs and freshly baked bread, reviving village life in an improbable place: the cemetery. Outside the cemetery’s checkerboard of graves, which were festooned on Sunday with fresh flowers and where children ran about collecting candy, the village of Staryi Saltiv is a grim tableau of ruins. “You can see people are returning to clean the cemetery, and the village is coming back to life,” said Natalia Borysovska, a seamstress whose house was destroyed last year. She had no home to return to after fleeing — but still a family plot to tend. Families spend time in cemeteries each year on the first Sunday after the Orthodox Easter, tidying up graves and leaving food and flowers for their dead loved ones.

☆ Kenya: Death toll in starvation cult rises to 58, police say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Reuters —Kenyan police have recovered 58 bodies from mass graves in the Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya, thought to be followers of a Christian cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves, the country’s police chief said on Monday. Police near the coastal town of Malindi started exhuming bodies on Friday from the Shakahola forest. Earlier this month, police rescued 15 members of the group – worshippers at the church – who they said had been told to starve themselves to death. Local media, citing police sources, reported that Mackenzie has refused to eat or drink while in police custody. Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said the entire 800 acre forest had been sealed off and declared a scene of crime.

☆ Number of bodies exhumed from suspected Kenyan cult graves jumps to 47
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Humphrey Malalo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/StringerNAIROBI, April 23 (Reuters) - Kenyan police have now exhumed the bodies of 47 people thought to be followers of a Christian cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death. Police near the coastal town of Malindi started exhuming bodies on Friday from the Shakahola forest. "In total, 47 people have died at the Shakahola forest," detective Charles Kamau told Reuters on Sunday. The leader of the church, Paul Mackenzie, was arrested following a tip-off that suggested the existence of shallow graves belonging to at least 31 of Mackenzie's followers. Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said the entire 800 acre forest had been sealed off and declared a scene of crime.

☆ Opinion | A Gun in the Home Makes Murder More Likely, Not Less
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But in the United States it is, because we’re awash in an estimated 450 million guns and suffer from a mass delusion that a gun in the home makes us safer. — In upstate New York, a 20-year-old woman was killed when she and several friends drove to the wrong address. As their car was turning around to leave, the homeowner allegedly fired his gun and struck her. — In Texas, two cheerleaders were shot after one of them mistakenly got into the wrong car in a parking lot. Foreigners admire our popular culture, our technology, our lifestyle, but are bewildered by our refusal to rein in guns.

☆ SpaceX Starship’s explosion is not the failure it appears to be, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Rocket launches are like opening a box of chocolates, only riskier — you never know what you’re going to get. When a rocket is set to leap off the launchpad, there’s a good chance of seeing a stunning liftoff or a spectacular failure. The lead-up to this week’s launch of SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, was a dramatic roller coaster. The rocket blasted off from the launchpad in South Texas and roared 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) over the Gulf of Mexico. Now, researchers have a new theory about why the Vikings abruptly departed in the mid-15th century: rising sea levels.

☆ Kenya police begin exhuming remains from suspected Christian cult graves
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Humphrey Malalo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Police began exhuming bodies on Friday, said Charles Kamau, a detective in the nearby town of Malindi, without giving further details. The leader of the church, Paul Mackenzie, was arrested following a tip-off that also suggested the existence of shallow graves belonging to at least 31 of Mackenzie's followers. Police said the 15 rescued worshippers had been told to starve themselves to death so they could meet their creator. Matthew Shipeta from Haki Africa, a human rights group, said he had seen at least 15 shallow graves in the forest. "Personally I have visited about 18 children's graves," Mikali told Citizen TV.

☆ Ukrainian woman said her Russian captors mocked her execution and forced her to dig her own grave
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Ukrainian woman recounted her harrowing experience of Russian captivity to US lawmakers. She told lawmakers that she was beaten, forced to undress, cut with knives, and threatened to be raped and killed by Russian soldiers. Russian soldiers have been accused of this before, sometimes even forcing local Ukrainians in occupied cities to dig mass graves in exchange for food and water. Photo by Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Global Images Ukraine via Getty ImagesHer harrowing experience was not isolated. It was not clear where, exactly, the woman was held captive by the Russian soldiers.

☆ Kansas City homeowner charged in shooting of Black teenager surrenders to police
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

April 18 (Reuters) - An 84-year-old white man charged in the shooting and wounding of a Black teenager who mistakenly walked up to the suspect's house in Kansas City has surrendered to police, the Clay County Sheriff's Office said on Tuesday. Lester was also charged with armed criminal action, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. "Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has surrendered at our Detention Center. Prosecutors have not filed hate crime charges, which carry lesser penalties in Missouri than the two counts which Lester faces, Thompson added. "In this country, from decades - hundreds of years - of conditioning, we've decided that Black and criminal is almost synonymous."

☆ White Kansas City man, 84, charged for shooting Black teen who went to wrong house
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Jasper Ward | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

April 17 (Reuters) - Prosecutors charged an 84-year-old white Kansas City man with two felonies on Monday in the shooting of a Black teenager who was wounded after walking up to the wrong house when going to pick up his younger twin brothers. "I can tell you there was a racial component to the case," Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson told a news conference, without providing further details. But Yarl told police in an interview at the hospital where he was treated that the man told him, "Don't come around here," local media reported, citing court documents. "No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell," Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted in response to the shooting. Reporting By Brendan O'Brien and Andrew Hay; Editing by Donna Bryson and Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ancient DNA reveals secrets of empire that pushed China to build its Great Wall
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Known as the Xiongnu, the empire saw conflict with great rival imperial China that resulted in the construction of the Great Wall, parts of which still stand today. Now, ancient DNA evidence, combined with the fruits of recent archaeological digs, is spilling the secrets of one of the era’s most powerful political forces. Excavation of the Xiongnu Elite Tomb 64 contains a high-status aristocratic woman at the site of a cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor in Mongolia's Altai Mountains. Golden icons of the sun and moon, symbols of the Xiongnu, decorate a coffin found in Elite Tomb 64 at the Takhiltyn Khotgor site. “And it was this potent legacy…that the Mongols took up when they created their own empire many more centuries later.”

☆ Missouri teen shot by homeowner after going to wrong house
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 17 (Reuters) - A Missouri teenager was shot and wounded by a homeowner after the boy mistakenly went to the wrong house to pick up his siblings, police said. Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, was recovering in hospital on Monday with gunshot wounds to the head and arm after he knocked on the door of the wrong house just before 10 pm on Thursday, according to his family's lawyers and police. Hundreds of protesters on Sunday marched to the house where Yarl was shot chanting "Black Lives Matter" in the state where a "stand-your-ground law" allows homeowners to use physical force to defend themselves against suspected intruders. Missouri's stand-your-ground law says a person cannot use deadly force unless they reasonably believe that deadly force is necessary to protect themselves or another person against death or serious physical injury or a forcible felony. Reporting By Brendan O'Brien and Andrew Hay; Editing by Donna Bryson and Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ House Republicans chart new strategy to pressure Biden, Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Any proposal Republicans introduce would need to be negotiated with Biden's Democrats, who control the Senate, before it could become law. The White House, which is leading the Democrats' approach to the debt ceiling, has dismissed the Republican proposals as unrealistic. That would set the stage for another debt ceiling debate in the closing months of the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden and McCarthy met at the White House in February to discuss the standoff, but they have not held further talks as the administration has called on House Republicans to release a budget proposal. Some Republicans also favor the clean debt ceiling increase that Biden has demanded.

☆ U.S. House Republicans chart new strategy to pressure Biden, Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

☆ Opinion: How the battle for Bakhmut exposed Russia’s ‘meat-grinder’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Michael Bociurkiw | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

It will also be recorded in history as a battle that exposed more than anywhere the meat-grinder approach of Russian fighting. Taking Bakhmut would be the first Russian gain since it captured (and later lost) the key southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in November. That Ukrainian forces have demonstrated such endurance in the battle for Bakhmut should come as little surprise. Like the current battle for Bakhmut, it too became emblematic of Ukraine’s tenaciousness to defend itself against Russia’s aggression – particularly considering the Ukrainian Armed Forces were far less prepared and equipped. “The battle for Bakhmut in winter-spring 2023 will surely enter the history books as the bloodiest battle in Europe since World War II,” said Masliychuk.

☆ US imposes export controls on companies assisting Russia's military
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday it is imposing export controls on more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and other countries for supporting Russia’s military and defense industries. Five Chinese entities, two Russian and two Turkish companies were named for attempting to evade export controls and acquiring, or attempting to acquire, U.S.-origin items in support of Russia’s military. The Chinese companies named include STK Electronics, Wynn Electronics Co, ETC Electronics Ltd, Avtex Semiconductor Limited, Yongli Electronic Components and Newsuntech Electronics Limited. "Export controls have hampered Russia’s ability to sustain, repair, and resupply its weaponry," the department said in February. Other companies named are based in Singapore, Spain, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

☆ More than twice as many Russian troops as Ukrainians have been killed in Putin's war, leaked estimates show
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Leaked estimates show more than twice as many Russians and Ukrainians have been killed in the war. The documents, which were recently leaked on social media and are currently the focus of a federal investigation, offer estimates for Russian and Ukrainian casualties. The Center for Strategic & International Studies, meanwhile, assessed that same month that between 60,000 and 70,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine. Ukrainian soldiers of the Aidar battalion training at an undetermined location in Donetsk oblast on April 4, 2023. For example, in some cases, information about Russian casualties appears to have been altered to show a much lower killed in action figure for the Russian forces.

☆ The Masters were caddied by only Black men for nearly 50 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Located just three miles from The Masters venue, the historically Black district lay adjacent to Augusta Country Club. Eventually, many would hop across Rae’s Creek to begin work at Augusta National. A “good bag” at Augusta National would pay up to $5, Maben said, offering $20 for a particularly lucrative day’s labor. The 1983 Masters saw the first White caddies walk the greens at the major, with just 19 Black caddies on the bag, Clayton said. This year, the Lucy Craft Laney Museum will put the legacy of Augusta’s Black caddies – quite literally – center stage.

Persons: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Willie Peterson caddied Nicklaus ’, Nathaniel “, ” Avery, Peterson –, –, Augusta, Nicklaus, Peterson, Augusta caddies, Leon Maben, Lucy, Lucy Craft Laney, Ward Clayton, “, ” Palmer, ” Clayton, …, Maben, Jerry ” Beard, caddie, Fuzzy Zoeller, John P, caddying, Willie “ Pappy ” Stokes, Stokes, Henry Picard, Ben Hogan, Hogan, Beard, Zoeller, Augusta “, Clayton, ” Maben, ” Beard, Heinz Kluetmeier, Tommy “, ” Bennett, Woods, scalding, John H, Stovepipe ” Gordon, Frank “, ” Stokes, Matthew “ Shorty Mac ” Palmer, Avery’s, Gordon, Gene Sarazen, Sarazen, Willie “, Perteet, Dwight D, Eisenhower, ”, ’, ‘, We’re, caddies, Jim Crow, Ron Townsend, Lee Elder, Elder, Andy Lyons, Townsend, ” Carl Jackson, Ben Crenshaw, Jackson, Crenshaw, “ Gentle Ben ”, Watson, Jamie Squire, Harvey Penick, ” Jackson, you’re, Andrew Redington, Avery, Palmer, Augusta caddies – Stokes, It’s Organizations: CNN, Augusta National, Bettmann, Getty, Augusta Country, Lucy Craft, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of, . Augusta National, ”, Augusta, ESPN, National, PGA, Augusta Country Club Locations: Georgia, Cedar Grove, Sand, Black, Augusta, caddies, Clayton, America, ”, Perteet

☆ NHL roundup: Carter Verhaeghe nets career-best 4 goals in Panthers' win
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Sabers 6, Flyers 3Alex Tuch scored his second career hat trick to help Buffalo to a win against host Philadelphia. Morgan Frost scored twice and Felix Sandstrom made 23 saves for the Flyers, who had their seven-game point streak snapped. Avalanche 5, Stars 2Nathan MacKinnon had two goals, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists, and host Colorado beat Dallas. Ben Hutton, Zach Whitecloud and Brett Howden also notched goals for Vegas, which is 5-1-1 in its past seven games. J.J. Moser and Milos Kelemen scored for the Coyotes (27-37-13, 67 points), who have dropped seven straight games (0-5-2).

Humanity will prevail," Zelenskiy said, leading a ceremony at which the Ukrainian flag was raised in Bucha. Zelenskiy described Bucha as a "symbol of the atrocities" of Russian occupying forces. Fighting rages on in the east and south of Ukraine, where Russian forces hold swathes of territory captured after they invaded on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian forces have dug in and held out for now in the city of Bakhmut and are expected to launch a counteroffensive soon. This is part of Russia's planned strategy to destroy Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation," he said.

☆ In Ukraine's Bucha, a 'wounded soul' aches one year after liberation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Dan Peleschuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Graves of unidentified people killed by Russian soldiers during occupation of the Bucha town, are seen at the town's cemetery, before the first anniversary of its liberation, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine March 30, 2023. Among the victims in Bucha was her 47-year-old son-in-law - a wound that festers despite the relative rejuvenation of the town since its liberation one year ago on Friday. Ukrainian authorities put the civilian death toll in areas of the Kyiv region liberated from Russian forces at 1,137, including 461 killed in Bucha alone. Russia's forces abandoned their assault on Kyiv a month into the war, withdrawing from Bucha in the north and other areas. "We should understand that it's easy to rebuild walls, but it's much harder to rebuild a wounded soul," he said.

☆ Russian who served in Ukraine says female medics from her unit were used as sex slaves for high-ranking officers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian officers expected female medics to sexually please them, according to a new report. She said she was made to sleep outside for a month after she refused to sleep with a colonel. Other female service members were forced to sleep with multiple men, she said. Punishments were part of military life in Ukraine, Margarita said. Russian soldiers have been accused of sexual assault and rape against Ukrainians during the conflict.

[1/5] Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou speaks to the media at the airport before departing on a visit to China, as for the first time a former or current Taiwanese leader will be visiting since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island in 1949, in Taoyuan, Taiwan March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Ann WangTAOYUAN, Taiwan, March 27 (Reuters) - Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou left for China on Monday on a landmark trip, saying he hoped to bring about peace and improve relations through the interactions of young people. Ma, in office from 2008-2016, will be the first former or current Taiwanese president to visit China since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war with the Communists, where it remains to this day. Ma met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in late 2015 shortly before the current Taiwan president, Tsai Ing-wen, won an election. The KMT says outreach to China is needed now more than ever given the tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

☆ How an elite brigade of Russian marines was repeatedly mauled in Ukraine and became an emblem of the invasion's failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

An elite brigade within Russia's military is a shadow of itself after taking huge losses in Ukraine. In many ways, the journey of the 155th reflects the larger struggles of the Russian military, which entered Ukraine expecting a quick victory but has instead suffered embarrassing setbacks. Baev said that its members are supposed to be better trained and more professional than other parts of the Russian military, which can rely on conscripts. And, as the fighting dragged and more marines died, the Russian military kept reinforcing the 155th with fresh recruits, which brought its own problems. Yet earlier this month Ukraine claimed that commanders in the brigade were refusing to fight near the city of Vuhledar.

☆ A Million Bodies Are Buried Here. Now It’s Becoming a Park.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Corey Kilgannon | More About Corey Kilgannon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The morgue trucks, loaded with plain, unmarked pine boxes, still arrive regularly by ferry to Hart Island, a potter’s field where the city has long buried its unclaimed dead. The island was once a penal colony, and it has been run since the 19th century by New York’s jail system, which used inmate gravediggers and kept it off limits until 2021, when the city transferred the island over to its parks department. Now, in a remarkable break with the decades-old policy of keeping Hart Island burials secretive and its graves unseen, the department is opening New York’s most forbidden place for public access.

Persons: gravediggers Locations: Hart, York’s

☆ Biden administration adds 14 Chinese firms to unverified list
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Being added to the list can potentially start a 60-day clock that could trigger much tougher penalties. ECOM International and HK P&W Industry Co Ltd were among those added to the list. They and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “Enforcing our export controls is a crucial part of protecting American national security,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said in a statement following the announcement. Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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