Broadcaster files defamation suit
BERLIN -- Austria's public broadcaster is suing the country's vice chancellor for claiming it spreads fake news.
ORF said it was moved to take legal action after nationalist politician Heinz-Christian Strache shared a post on Facebook earlier this month that defamed and discredited the work of 800 journalists, the broadcaster said in a statement sent Tuesday to The Associated Press.
The Freedom Party politician had shared a post accusing ORF of spreading "fake news, lies and propaganda" on all of its channels. It also directly targeted one of the country's most prominent journalists, Armin Wolf, who has regularly probed the party's ties to far-right groups.
The post has since disappeared from Strache's Facebook page, and he has offered to apologize to Wolf.
ORF chief Alexander Wrabetz said the broadcaster wants Strache to desist from his claims and reserves the right to seek damages.
The broadcaster is also suing Facebook for refusing to remove the original post that Strache shared, Wrabetz said.
Turkey riled after Czechs free Syrian
PRAGUE -- A Czech court ordered the release of a Syrian Kurdish politician Tuesday, angering Turkey, which had requested his extradition.
Salih Muslim, former co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party, was detained Saturday in the Czech capital based on a Turkish request for his arrest.
Municipal Court spokesman Marketa Puci said the court found no reason to keep Muslim in detention. She said he promised to remain within European Union territory and to be available for any further hearings in the extradition case.
No date for the extradition hearing was set.
Turkey considers the Democratic Union Party a terrorist group because of its links to outlawed Kurdish insurgents fighting within its own borders. Muslim was put on Turkey's most-wanted list earlier this month, with a $1 million reward for his capture.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described Tuesday's ruling as a "scandal."
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the court ruling would have a negative effect on ties between Turkey and the Czech Republic.
"This decision very clearly amounts to support for terrorist groups," Bozdag said.
Nigeria military: Abductees found
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Nigeria's military said Tuesday that it has rescued more than 1,100 people, including women and children, who had been held by Boko Haram extremists in different parts of the Lake Chad region near Cameroon.
The announcement came more than a week after Boko Haram abducted 110 girls from their school in Dapchi in Yobe state. The extremist group has abducted thousands of people over the years.
Operation spokesman Col. Onyema Nwachukwu said soldiers killed at least 35 Boko Haram fighters during the raids Monday in the northern fringes of the Lake Chad islands and the Sambisa region.
Nigeria's government is under growing public pressure to respond to the Dapchi mass abduction and to prove its repeated claims that Boko Haram has been defeated.
A Section on 02/28/2018