1. Human Rights Violations Discovered

2. A human rights group says it has recently uncovered evidence that South Sudanese government forces deliberately suffocated more than 60 men and boys in a shipping container. Witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International reported that government soldiers arbitrarily arrested dozens of men and boys in October of last year. They then forced them into unventilated shipping containers with their hands tied behind their backs. Witnesses also told researchers they heard the detainees crying, screaming in distress and banging on the walls of the container while officials watched. The organization interviewed more than 40 people, one of whom said she watched soldiers open the container to remove four bodies, and then close it again on those who remained inside alive. By the following morning all but one of the group had died. The bodies were then loaded on to a truck and dumped in an open field. Witnesses said that the men rounded up were students, traders and cattle keepers rather than fighters. The South Sudanese government denies the accusations leveled against it. After decades of war, South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011. But in 2013 President Salva Kiir accused his fired deputy, Riek Machar, of trying to oust him in a coup, and the world's youngest nation became embroiled in a violent conflict. The country divided along tribal lines. Since then, militias loyal to both men have battled against each other in a bitter and bloody civil war that has cost thousands of lives and displaced millions.

3. In Other News The U.S. Air Force has sent three of its B-2 stealth bombers on a deployment to Asia and Pacific. The $1.15 billion bombers, which operate out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, "will integrate and conduct training with ally and partner air forces, and conduct a radio communications check with a U.S. air operations center." The deployment comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea, which tested two short-range missiles on Thursday and earlier this week claimed it has miniaturized nuclear warheads to fit on ballistic missiles. Scientists in Japan have discovered a strain of bacteria that can eat plastic, a finding that might help solve the world's fast-growing plastic pollution problem. The species fully breaks down one of the most common kinds of plastic called Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). It's the type often used to package bottled drinks. Almost a third of all plastic packaging escapes collection systems and ends up in nature or clogging up infrastructure, the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF report, based on analysis of 20 studies and interviews with 180 experts, also said only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling and that there will be more plastic than fish calculated by weight in the world's oceans by 2050. Back in September, researchers also found that mealworms can live on a diet of styrofoam and other types of plastic.

4. Friday Photos