Ukraine and Russia trade accusations over fatal plane crash

(AP) — Russia and Ukraine are trading accusations over the crash of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Kyiv’s forces. It was another heated episode in the information war that has been a feature of the conflict. Though investigators reportedly found the flight recorders a day after Wednesday’s crash, there was little hope that the circumstances would be clarified in a war where both sides have often used accusations in a bid to sway opinion at home and abroad. The Il-76 crashed in a huge ball of fire in a rural area of Russia, and authorities there said all 74 people on board, including 65 POWs, six crew and three Russian servicemen, were killed.

Killer of 3 in English city of Nottingham sentenced to high-security hospital

LONDON (AP) — A 32-year-old man who fatally stabbed two college students and a man months from retirement in the British city of Nottingham has been told he would “most probably” spend the rest of his life in a high-security medical facility. The judge told Valdo Calocane that he committed “a series of atrocities” in June last year. Calocane repeatedly stabbed Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, who were both 19, as they walked home around dawn. A short while later, Calocane stabbed 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates and stole his van, running down three pedestrians.

Official: Mass graves are still being found, almost 30 years after Rwanda’s genocide

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — A Rwandan official says the remains of 119 people believed to be victims of genocide have been discovered in the country’s south as authorities continue to find mass graves nearly three decades after the killings. The remains of more victims continue to be found because perpetrators of the genocide try their best to hide possibly incriminating information. That’s according to Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of the genocide survivors’ organization Ibuka, who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday. In October, authorities first found six bodies under a house that was being built in Huye district.

At least 50 villagers shot dead in northern Nigerian state of Plateau

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Survivors say gunmen killed at least 50 villagers over two days in Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state. The attacks prompted a 24-hour curfew and calls for authorities to end violence between nomadic cattle herders and farming communities. No group took responsibility Thursday for the killings over a two-day period, the second such attack in less than a month in the restive state where more than 140 people were killed in December. Gunmen stormed villages in Plateau’s Mangu district on Monday and Tuesday firing on residents and setting fire to houses, the Mwaghavul Development Association community association said.