FRANCE
Judicial body officially recognizes government role in Holocaust
The Vichy government helped deport some 76,000 people from Nazi-occupied France
PARIS — France’s top judicial body on Monday formally recognized the nation’s role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
Jewish groups welcomed the ruling by the Council of State, the clearest legal acknowledgment to date of France’s role in the Holocaust.
Nearly 70 years ago, the Vichy government helped deport some 76,000 people — including 11,000 children — from Nazi-occupied France to concentration camps during the war. Fewer than 3,000 returned alive.
The council said the French government of the time “allowed or facilitated the deportation from France of victims of anti-Semitic persecution.”
“In an absolute rupture with the values and principles notably of the dignity of the human person … these anti-Semitic persecutions provoked exceptional damage of extreme gravity,” it said.
The statement legally formalized a historic gesture by then-President Jacques Chirac in 1995, when he became the first French leader to say the nation bore responsibility for the deportation of Jews in wartime France. Chirac broke with the official position that France’s Vichy regime was not synonymous with the French state.
ENGLAND
Snapping back against anti-terrorism law
A police officer watches as protesters take photographs Monday in front of police headquarters at New Scotland Yard in London during a demonstration against a new anti-terrorism law that forbids people from taking pictures of police or military personnel. Authorities say the law is meant to prevent terrorists from taking reconnaissance photos.
MISSOURI
Soldier dies of meningitis
One soldier is dead of meningitis at Ft. Leonard Wood and a second is “very seriously ill,” according to officials at the Army base in southern Missouri.
Base officials announced the cases in a news release Sunday but released few details and did not identify either infected soldier. A media spokesman at the base Monday said there was no additional information other than what was in the release.
Meningitis, an infection of the fluid of the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain, kills about 300 people in the U.S. each year. Authorities said the cases involved non-contagious forms of meningitis.
CAMBODIA
Khmer Rouge trial begins
PHNOM PENH — A notorious torture center boss went before Cambodia’s genocide tribunal Tuesday for its first trial over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.
Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — is charged with crimes against humanity, and is this first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the UN-assisted tribunal. The hearing Tuesday was for procedural matters.
Duch, 66, is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison where up to 16,000 men, women and children were put to death.
KANSAS
Standoff stalls funds
— State tax refunds, employee paychecks and money for schools are all on hold after a showdown erupted Monday between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
The game of political chicken places state taxpayers, workers and schoolchildren squarely in the middle of a battle over massive budget cuts.
CONNECTICUT
Cops kill chimp in mauling
— A 200-pound chimpanzee kept as a pet and once used in commercials was shot and killed by police Monday after it mauled a woman visiting its owner and later cornered an officer in his cruiser, authorities said.
Stamford police Lt. Richard Conklin said the injured woman was hospitalized late Monday in “very serious” condition; her identity was not released. The 15-year-old chimpanzee’s owner and two officers also were hurt.
AUSTRALIA
Fire suspect seen as loner
CHURCHILL — The only person accused of lighting one of Australia’s deadly wildfires was a lonely Web surfer who liked dogs, always said “G’day” to neighbors, and was trying to find love online. Brendan Sokaluk, 39, was held at a secret location to keep him safe from reprisals. More at chicagotribune.com/firesuspect
