Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Nigerian President's Brother Dies
The Nigerian presidency says President Goodluck Jonathan's younger brother has died.
Spokesman Reuben Abati said in a statement that Meni Innocent Jonathan died Tuesday at the National
Hospital in Nigeria's capital of Abuja following a brief illness.
The hospital is considered one of most modern hospitals in a country where the political class typically seeks
medical treatment abroad.
President Jonathan's brother died on the president's 55th birthday.
INDIA HANGS HUNMAN FROM 2008 MUMBAI ATTACK
MUMBAI, India (AP) — India executed the lone surviving Pakistani gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, providing Indians much-needed closure over the three-day rampage that shook the nation's core and deepened enmity with neighbor Pakistan.
India blames a Pakistan-based militant organization for the attacks carried out by Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and his comrades that killed 166 people at a train station, a Jewish center and two luxury hotels in its financial capital. India accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of training, arming and sponsoring the attackers, allegations Pakistan denies.
Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was hanged in secrecy at 7.30 a.m. at a jail in Pune, a city near Mumbai, after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his plea for mercy.
Indian authorities faced public pressure to quickly execute Kasab, and the government fast-tracked the appeal and execution process, which often can take years, or in some cases, decades.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the home ministry sent Kasab's mercy plea to Mukherjee on Oct. 16 and Mukherjee rejected it on Nov. 5.
"It was decided then that on 21st November at 7:30 in the morning he would be hanged. That procedure has been completed today," Shinde said.
R.R. Patil, the home minister for the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, called the execution a tribute to "all innocent people and police officers who lost their lives in this heinous attack on our nation."
India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said the Indian government had attempted to inform Pakistani officials of the impending execution, but a fax sent to Pakistan's foreign office went unanswered. He said the government had also informed Kasab's next of kin.
"We did what we were obliged to do," Khurshid told reporters in New Delhi.
Kasab and nine other gunmen entered Mumbai by boat on Nov. 26, 2008. Carrying mobile phones, grenades and automatic weapons, the gunmen fanned out across the city, targeting multiple sites. The three-day attack was broadcast live on television, transfixing the nation and world.
A photo of the baby-faced Kasab striding through Mumbai's main train station, an assault rifle in hand, quickly became the iconic image of the siege.
An Indian judge sentenced Kasab to death in May 2010 for waging war against India, murder and terrorism, among other charges. Kasab cried that day as he heard the sentence.
In his confession, Kasab said he was recruited by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Pakistani organization, after he left a low-paying job as a shop assistant in search of greater fortune as a bandit. The attackers were in regular phone contact with handlers in Pakistan during the siege.
India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba for orchestrating the attacks, and alleges that Pakistan's intelligence service was involved. The incident inflamed relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors, and India complains that Pakistan has failed to bring the masterminds of the attack to justice.
While news of the execution was widely cheered in India, the hanging offered only a partial catharsis for some of those scarred by the events of 26/11, as the attack is known here.
Some felt Kasab should have been hanged publicly. Others complained that India had spent too much time and money on the care and feeding of a vilified criminal.
Some in India said that for justice to be done the attack's masterminds — not just its foot soldier — must be punished.
"This is an incomplete justice as the masterminds and main handlers of 26/11 are still absconding," said Kavita Karkare, the widow of Hemant Karkare, the chief of Mumbai's anti-terrorism squad who was killed while pursuing Kasab. "They should also be hanged."
Mukesh Agarwal, who was shot in his right arm during the attack, called Kasab's execution "the best possible gift" from the Indian government. But he said "instead of secretly hanging him, they government should have hanged him publicly."
"I am sad and happy both," said Sonu, an office clerk in New Delhi, who goes by one name. "Sad because I wonder what forced him do such things and happy because this will be a good example to all the terrorists in the future."
___
Associated Press writer Aijaz Ansari in Mumbai and Chon Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
We are very scared': Egyptians fear being mired in Gaza- Isreal crisis
Magdi Youssef
Dalia
al Sayed, host of a cooking show on Egypt TV, told NBC News that she
was afraid that the conflict between Egypt and Gaza would hurt Egypt.
The country, which is led by Hamas' parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been spearheading efforts to forge a ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. President Mohammed Morsi has hosted leaders from Hamas and two key allies, Qatar and Turkey, to seek a way to end the fighting.
Morsi, who came to power earlier this year after a popular revolt ousted longtime American ally President Hosni Mubarak, also recalled Cairo's ambassador from Israel to protest the offensive.
But while the government’s stance reflects the will of many regular Egyptians who support the Palestinian struggle against what is widely viewed here as Israeli aggression, those who spoke to NBC News in the capital, Cairo, also worry that Morsi will drag them into conflict with their powerful neighbor.
EXCLUSIVE: NEWS
KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A video obtained by Reuters shows Nigerian troops shooting unarmed captives in broad daylight by the roadside in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the bastion of an Islamist insurgency.
Nigeria's military has long been accused of human rights abuses, including summary executions, in the troubled north but there has been no video proof since the first crackdown on the Islamist sect Boko Haram in 2009.A spokesman for the army said it was "impossible" for Nigerian troops to do such a thing.
Boko Haram is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks, many of them from the security forces, since beginning the uprising three years ago.
The video was taken by a soldier who said he was present while the shootings took place two weeks ago. The soldier, who requested anonymity, passed it to Reuters on Sunday.
In the grainy footage, a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd looks on a few meters away. "Please don't fire," the man says in pidgin English.
He tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pick up truck to the left. A Nigerian soldier shouts "come out", and drags him off it, shoving him on the ground.
One of them kicks him in the head. Then he and another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and the man lies still next to the others.
Nigerian army spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerima said he had not seen the video but that the events must have been staged.
"How can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics," He said. "They will do the killing, say it's the military and then Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It's not possible for Nigerian troops to act in this way."
Nigerian forces have repeatedly denied accusations of such abuses, saying the only times they kill suspected militants is during combat. Those captured are questioned or freed, they say.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Michael Posner said on Friday that the United States was seriously concerned by reported abuses committed by Nigerian security forces in their efforts to quell the insurgency.
Such alleged abuses usually occur shortly after members of the security forces have been killed or wounded in an attack by the sect. The killings in this video happened after a bomb attack on a military patrol further up the road, the soldier who provided the footage said.
Another video from the same source, which he said was taken after the executions, shows soldiers piling up about two dozen bodies in two bloody heaps on the ground from the back of a military truck.
The videos could spur renewed calls for Nigeria's security forces to change their approach to the insurgency, which critics say is prompting desperate, angry youths to join Boko Haram and encouraging the northern population to shelter them.
That uprising was sparked by a military crackdown on the sect in which hundreds were killed, including its founder and spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf, who died in police custody.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been accused of treating the conflict as a security problem that can be solved with force alone, rather than addressing the root causes of the insurgency.
Amnesty International issued a report this month in which it said human rights abuses committed by security forces were fuelling the conflict they were meant to end.
The report said a "significant number" of people accused of links with Boko Haram had been executed after arrest without due process, while hundreds were detained without charge or trial and many of those arrested disappeared or were later found dead.
The Nigerian military rejected that report, including accusations that they execute suspects, as "biased and mischievous."
Monday, 19 November 2012
Halle Berry Loses Custody Motion
CELEBRITY GOSSIP
Halle
Berry is well known for her acting skills and beautiful face. However,
there is something else that Halle Berry has been making news for since
her split with long-time boyfriend Gabriel Aubry in 2010: a nasty
custody battle. Berry and Aubry are parents of 4-year-old daughter
Nahla. The battle has included allegations of abuse, custody disputes,
child support orders, and more.
The
latest challenge has to do with Berry wanting to move their daughter to
France to start a new life with her fiancé, Olivier Martinez. Berry
petitioned the court to allow her and Nahla to move to France. Halle’s
main reason, she says, is to protect her daughter from paparazzi. France
has stricter privacy laws and she claims Nahla would be able to stay
out of the public eye there.
She told In Style, “Because
we are followed all the time, she is starting to feel like she is
somehow special, and of course she is. But I want her to understand that
she’s special because of who she is, not because she was born into this
celebrity blender.” Aubry has been fighting the request since Berry
petitioned the court. This week a judge ruled that Berry and Nahla would
not be granted permission to reside in France.
I
wholeheartedly agree with the judge. Removing a child from any parent
by moving the child thousands of miles away will in at least some way
alienate the child from the parent left behind. While I understand
Berry’s desire to protect her daughter, it is possible to do so while
still in the United States. Regardless of if she wants to start a new
life with another man, her daughter should come first and fostering a
relationship with both parents is important to protecting her daughter.
It certainly is not as though she cannot afford to fly her fiancé here
or go visit him when she does not have Nahla.
Do you agree? Or do you think she should be allowed to move to France?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)