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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Police officers accused of role in deadly soccer riot

From Wire Reports

Cairo – Egypt’s top prosecutor charged nine senior police officers Thursday with assisting a murderous mob of soccer fans who killed 74 rival supporters last month after a match in the Mediterranean city of Port Said.

Many Egyptians accuse police of looking the other way while violent crime has spiked in the year since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in an uprising. But the charges in the Port Said riot went a step further, alleging the police actually aided the perpetrators of the world’s worst soccer-related disaster in 15 years.

Monarch butterfly numbers down sharply, report says

Mexico City – The number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped 28.1 percent this year, according to a report released Thursday.

The report carried out by the World Wildlife Fund, private donors and Mexico’s National Commission on Protected Areas said the monarchs covered 7.14 acres of forest this year, compared to 9.9 acres last year and 4.7 acres two years ago.

The drop is due in part to droughts in areas of the United States and Canada where the butterflies breed and migrate.

Concern rose two years ago, when the butterflies’ numbers dropped by 75 percent in the wintering grounds.