International
Anne Frank betrayal suspect identified after decades: book

AFP
A cold case investigation led by an ex-FBI agent has identified a Jewish notary as the prime suspect in the mystery of who betrayed teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis, a new book claims.
Arnold van den Bergh may have revealed the Franks’ hiding place in Amsterdam in order to save his own family, according to a six-year probe detailed in “The Betrayal of Anne Frank” by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, which is published on Tuesday.
The case against Van den Bergh, who died in 1950, is supported by evidence including an anonymous note sent to Anne’s father Otto after World War II naming him as the betrayer, according to elements published in Dutch media Monday.
The Anne Frank House museum told AFP that the results of the probe, led by retired Federal Bureau of Investigation detective Vincent Pankoke, were a “fascinating hypothesis” but needed further investigation.
Theories have long swirled about the Nazi raid on August 4, 1944, that uncovered the secret annexe where Anne and her family hid from the Holocaust for two years.
Van den Bergh’s name had previously received little attention, but came to the fore during the investigation using modern techniques including artificial intelligence to sort through huge amounts of data.
It narrowed the list of suspects to four, including Van den Bergh, who was a founding member of the Jewish Council, an administrative body the Nazis forced Jews to establish to organise deportations.
Investigators found he had managed to get his family exempted from being transported, but that this was revoked around the time of the betrayal of the Franks.
“We do not have a smoking gun, but we do have a hot weapon with empty casings next to it,” Pankoke was quoted as saying by Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
After the raid on the Franks’ house, the family were deported and Anne and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp the following year.
Her father later published her “Diary of a Young Girl” which has since sold more than 30 million copies.
Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House, said questions remained about the anonymous note in particular.
“You have to be very careful about sending someone down in history as a traitor to Anne Frank if you are not 100 or 200 percent sure about that,” he added.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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