In brief: Six migrants drown off Turkish coast on way to Greece

BODRUM, Turkey – Six Syrian migrants, including an infant, drowned off the Turkish coast Tuesday as they tried to reach a Greek island, a rescuer said, underscoring the deadly risks taken by migrants making even short crossings to Europe in overcrowded smugglers’ boats.

Three more migrants survived for hours in the motorboat’s overturned hull, breathing air trapped in a pocket, before being rescued by divers, the emergency worker said.

Those who drowned were attempting perhaps the safest, shortest sea crossing in the risky journey to Europe, for the Greek island of Kos is only 2.5 miles from Turkey at its closest point.

Turkish coast guards unloaded five body bags at the harbor in the western tourist town of Bodrum as the rescued migrants, one man clutching his head in his hands, sat on the wharf. A rescue team later found the drowned infant’s body, said a member of the Bodrum Sea Rescue Association, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the rescue.

About 20 other migrants were picked up by Turkish authorities and taken to the nearby town of Turgutreis. It was not clear what boat they had been on.

Man charged in lion’s killing

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe has charged a man on whose land the well-known Cecil the lion was shot by American dentist Walter James Palmer in July.

Charges have not been filed against Palmer, according to prosecutors, while in Minnesota the dentist has reopened his practice.

Prosecutors on Tuesday accused Honest Ndlovu, whose property is near the vast Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe, of allowing an illegal hunt on his land.

Ndlovu allowed Palmer to hunt and kill Cecil with a bow and arrow without a quota for a lion hunt on his farm, said prosecutors.

Ndlovu is free on $200 bail and the case has been postponed to Sept. 18. The charge carries a one year jail term or $400 fine, Ndlovu’s lawyer Tonderai Mukuku told the Associated Press by phone. Palmer was named in court as the hunting client but there was no mention of charges against him, said Mukuku.

Zimbabwe tightened regulations for lion, elephant and leopard hunting after the killing of Cecil, a lion well known by tourists and who was being studied by scientists.