Midday Roundup: Pakistani family stones daughter in front of court
Honor killing. The family of a Pakistani woman stoned her to death in public after she defied them to marry the man she loved. Nearly 20 members of the woman’s family, including her father and brothers, attacked her and her husband with batons and bricks in broad daylight before a crowd of onlookers in front of the high court of Lahore, a police official said. Farzana Parveen, 25, and Mohammad Iqbal went to the court to register their marriage. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a private organization, said in a report last month that some 869 Pakistani women were murdered in so-called honor killings in 2013.
File sharing. The Malaysian government released reams of raw data about the path of the missing Flight 370 today to appease the families of passengers. The families, frustrated by the months-long, unproductive search for the jet, want a third party to review the data. The 45 pages of information may help satisfy a desire for more transparency in a much criticized investigation, but experts say it probably won’t solve the mystery of the missing plane or give much comfort to relatives stuck between grieving and the faintest hope, no matter how unlikely, their loved ones might still be alive.
Shaky ground. Three men from Collbran, Colo., went missing Sunday after a mudslide that was a half-mile wide and three miles long. The men were investigating a smaller mudslide that blocked a rancher’s irrigation ditch when the larger one occurred. People in the close-knit town of Collbran are holding out hope the men will be found alive. The instability of the mud field is hampering the search, and it’s unclear whether it will be able to resume today, said Heather Benjamin, a spokeswoman for the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
Victims speak. Pope Francis announced yesterday he plans to meet with a group of victims of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic church. “On this issue we must go forward, forward. Zero tolerance,” Francis said, talking to reporters en route back to Rome from Jerusalem. “There are no privileges.” Observers are debating whether the meeting signifies real change or simply a public relations stunt. David Clohessy, executive director of the main U.S. victims’ group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the meeting was a meaningless gesture. But a lawyer who represents clergy abuse victims said he hoped the meeting would help the pope understand the best way to address the issue.
Outed. The Obama administration accidentally blew the cover of the CIA’s top official in Afghanistan in an email to thousands of journalists during the president’s surprise Memorial Day weekend trip to Bagram Air Field. The officer’s name was included by U.S. embassy staff on a list of 15 senior American officials who met with President Barack Obama during the Saturday visit. The list was sent to a Washington Post reporter who was representing the news media, who then sent it out to the White House press pool list, which contains as many as 6,000 recipients. News organizations have withheld the officer’s name to protect his safety. The reporter who distributes the pool report sends it to the White House to be double-checked. That means the White House failed on at least two occasions to remove the CIA official’s name from the list.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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