Pakistan Frees Mumbai Attack Mastermind Suspect

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 11 April 2015 | 12.15

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The man accused of being the mastermind of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai has been released on bail by a Pakistan court.

The assault on India's financial capital resulted in the deaths of 166 people and seriously increased tensions between the two nuclear powers.

The lawyer for Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi revealed the Lahore High Court move, saying: "Lakhvi has been released and he is out of the jail now. I don't know where he will go now."

Lakhvi's release comes despite furious earlier protests from New Delhi which complained bitterly when a judge first granted him bail in December.

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Gallery: 2008: Mumbai Terror Attacks

From 2008: Scores of people have died and hundreds more have been injured in a series of terror attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai. Guests had to be rescued from the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel after teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed the building.

Another guest is helped down from the fourth floor.

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An Indian National security guard runs for cover opposite the hotel.

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People duck as gunshots are fired from inside the building.

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A fireman speaks with foreign tourists who were rescued from the Taj.

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The Pakistan government subsequently issued a series of detention orders which judges then cancelled.

The latest bail order is conditional on a $20,000 (£14,000) bond.

India has called the decision to release him "an insult".

"This is a very disappointing announcement. An insult to the victims of 26/11 Mumbai attack.

"The global community should take serious note of Pakistan's double-speak on terrorism," said a government official.

India blames the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attack in which 10 gunmen crept into the city by boat and took part in a terror and killing spree over a three-day period.

India says Lakhvi - who was arrested in 2009 over the tragedy - was the organisation's boss and has accused Pakistan of prevaricating over trials in connection with Lakhvi and six other suspects.

The suspects were charged in Pakistan but no-one has been brought to trial in more than five years.

India, which has urged Pakistan to either hand the suspects over or put them on trial, accuses its neighbour of playing a "double game" over terrorism, suggesting the country is supporting groups that may be useful for its own political gains.

Relations between the two countries - which have had three wars over a bitter dispute over Kashmir since independence in 1947 - are at an all-time low.

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Written By Unknown on Jumat, 10 April 2015 | 12.14

A man has been arrested after a judge and lawyer were among three people shot dead in a court in Milan, the Italian Interior Minister has confirmed.

The man was found by police in the town of Vimercate, 25km (15 miles) from Milan, after fleeing on a motorbike and is being held in a military police barracks, Angelino Alfano said.

He was named in reports as Claudio Giardiello, a defendant in a bankruptcy case at the Palace of Justice, which is in the historic centre of the city, a few streets from its cathedral and main shops.

The gunman shot dead his lawyer and one of his co-defendants first, before walking through the building, going down one floor and killing the judge, prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati said.

The president of Milan's appeals court, Giovanni Canzio, named bankruptcy judge Fernando Ciampi as the one who had been killed.

The ANSA news agency identified the lawyer as Lorenzo Alberto Claris Appiani.

A second co-defendant was seriously injured, Mr Bruti Liberati said.

A fourth person was found dead in the court buildings with no apparent sign of injury, emergency services said.

The area around the court was cordoned off after the shooting and people were initially told to remain inside.

Court employees barricaded themselves inside their offices and took cover under their desks while police searched for the gunman.

A person speaking from inside the president's office at the court told Sky News shortly after the shooting that they had been locked in a room and instructed not to leave.

Women were later seen leaving the building first followed by men, after having their identification checked.

The gunman fired "at least three or four shots", according to lawyer Marcello Ilia.

"We tried to find out what was going on. There were suddenly lots of police officers who told us not to leave the room, they shut us in," he said.

"After a few minutes we came out. They told us someone in a suit and tie was armed and at large in the court."

It was unclear how an armed man gained access to the building as visitors must pass through metal detectors.

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Voice Of Cricket' Richie Benaud Dies

Tributes have poured in for former Australian cricketer and commentator Richie Benaud who has died in a Sydney hospice, aged 84.

Benaud, widely regarded as one of the most influential people in the game's history, had been receiving radiation treatment for skin cancer since November.

Channel Nine, the Australian network where he took the lead commentator's position in 1977, said he had died in his sleep on Thursday night local time.

Nine's head of sport, Steve Crawley said: "You didn't have to know Richie to love him - everything about him.

"Best in the business bar none.

"We will miss him the way you miss loved ones. And at the same time we will thank our lucky stars he came our way at all."

Nine Entertainment Co's chief executive David Gyngell said Benaud's death had "robbed" the world of "not only a national treasure but a lovely man".

Australia's prime minister Tony Abbott, who has offered Benaud's family a state funeral, tweeted: "A sad day for Australia. We have lost a cricketing champion and Australian icon. What an innings. RIP Richie Benaud."

Hollywood actor Russell Crowe tweeted: "RIP Richie Benaud. My deep gratitude for all you gave to the sport of cricket as a player and as a broadcaster. Sad, sad day."

And Piers Morgan wrote: "RIP Richie Benaud. The greatest cricket commentator of them all & a wonderful man. Mourning Everyone."

Benaud played 64 test matches as an all-rounder between 1952 and 1964, taking 945 wickets in 259 first-class matches and making 11,719 first-class runs, scoring 23 centuries at an average of 36.50.

He was the first man to achieve 2,000 runs and 200 wickets at test level.

Benaud will be remembered by millions for his measured, laconic brand of commentary and he was as popular in England, where he worked on television from 1963 to 2005, as he was in his homeland.

Speaking about his commentary work, he once said: "My mantra is: put your brain into gear and if you can add to what's on the screen then do it, otherwise shut up.

"What I want most from being a television commentator is to be able to feel that, when I say something, I am talking to friends."

The news arm of Cricket Australia, www.cricket.com.au, described him as "an Australian test great who nurtured a generation's love for the game with his commentary".

They added: "After Don Bradman, there has been no Australian player more famous than Richie Benaud."

He became one of the greatest commentators in world cricket before a car crash outside his Coogee home in 2013 left him with two fractured vertebrae.

The injuries and cancer combined to keep him away from the job he loved in his final years, but he made occasional pre-recorded appearances on Channel Nine and he rallied to record a moving tribute to Phillip Hughes when the Australia batsman died last year after being struck by a bouncer.

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Soldier Killed In Afghan Insider Attack

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 09 April 2015 | 12.14

An Afghan soldier was shot dead after opening fire on American troops - killing one and wounding several other people.

The attack was believed to be an attempt to assassinate a senior US diplomat, sources told Sky News.

The Afghan soldier opened fire after a meeting between Afghan provincial leaders and Donald Yamamoto, a former ambassador to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, in the compound of the provincial governor in Jalalabad.

According to sources, a convoy was leaving the compound when the Afghan soldier shot at the last car using a vehicle-mounted machine gun.

Mr Yamamoto, who was recently appointed as special advisor to Afghanistan, had already left the compound by this stage and was unharmed.

The American soldier, who has not been named, was part of a unit training and advising Afghan forces

General Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, police chief for eastern Nangarhar province, said American troops immediately returned fire, killing the Afghan soldier.

An Afghan interpreter working with the US troops had previously said no American soldiers had died in the incident.

It is the second insider attack in the country this year, after an Afghan soldier killed three American contractors on 29 January.

The Western-backed Afghan government's 13-year war against the insurgents has intensified as both sides seek to strengthen their positions ahead of possible peace talks.

However, the Taliban did not immediately claim responsibility for the latest attack and many such attacks are believed to stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings.

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EU Was 'Looking Into German Air Safety Issues'

European Union authorities began looking into German airline safety procedures regarding "a number of issues" long before the Germanwings crash, it has been reported.

An EU official, who asked not be named, said the issues included health checks on pilots, although he did not elaborate further.

It has emerged Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately flew his Airbus A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, had suffered depression.

Investigators have also said they found a sick note for the day of the crash at Lubitz's home, but it was never given to the airline.

He was reportedly being treated by psychologists and neurologists, buy authorities believe he was trying to hid this from his employers.

Doctors working for the German aviation industry have suggested that pilots should undergo more extensive medical checks after the tragedy.

"We are calling for more frequent and comprehensive laboratory tests for pilots," Hans-Werner Teichmueller of the German Pilots' Doctors Association told Welt newspaper.

"We need to see results that can also show traces of psychotropic drugs and narcotics."

The annual physical taken by pilots only includes tests of urine, haemoglobin levels and in some cases blood sugar.

The EU official told the Associated Press that the examination of German procedures followed a routine inspection by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

He said that last November EU authorities "had asked for clarification to make sure all airlines actively observe rules".

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Gallery: Tributes Laid Near Crash Site

A memorial, carved in French, German, Spanish and English, in memory of the victims of the Germanwings Airbus A320 crash, in the small village of Le Vernet, French Alps

The chapel prepared for the families of the victims and the medico-legal tents for investigators at Seyne les Alpes near the crash site

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Iraqi Forensic Teams Exhume Mass Graves

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 08 April 2015 | 12.14

A survivor of a massacre of some 1,700 troops by IS forces in Tikrit last June has been talking of his escape as forensic teams begin exhuming the graves.

Iraqi soldier Ali explained how IS lulled him and fellow troops into believing they would be well treated.

"They told us they had no problem with us and promised us we would be sent to our families, they brought us cars and even gave us water to make us feel secure," he said.

"Once they put us in large cars, they managed to control us and brought us here and tied us up, and I still have a mark from my cuffs here."

He went on: "The fourth bullet was meant to kill me, but I was not hit.

"The fifth bullet was fired, killing the one who was next to me. Playing dead, I fell to the ground. I was covered by the blood of my colleagues and I rolled down into the valley."

Up to 12 suspected mass graves are now being exhumed.

"We dug up the first mass grave site today," said an Iraqi health official working with a forensic team sent in to Tikrit, outside the former US base camp of Camp Speicher.

"Until now we found at least 20 bodies. Initial indications show indisputably that they were from the Speicher victims.

"It was a heartbreaking scene. We couldn't prevent ourselves from breaking down in tears. What savage barbarian could kill 1,700 persons in cold blood?" he asked.

The mass killing of the Shi'ite troops took place as the fighters fought their way across northern Iraq.

Their deaths came to symbolise early on the brutality of IS, as well as the group's hatred of the country's Shi'ite majority.

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Gallery: Iraq's Battle For Tikrit

Smoke billows during Iraqi military operation to retake Tikrit from Islamic State militants

Iraqi flags fly on outskirts of Tikrit as government forces move into the city

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Russian Nuclear Sub Catches Fire In Dry Dock

Emergency crews have put out a fire on a giant Russian nuclear submarine which had been undergoing repairs in dry dock.

Firefighters had been struggling to extinguish the blaze for several hours before deciding to flood the dock and submerge the vessel.

"At this moment, the fire on submarine Orel has been completely put out," said Yevgeni Gladychev, spokesman for the Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk, in the northern province of Arkhangelsk.

In a statement, the shipyard said the fire started at 2.00pm (12pm UK time) in the stern when welding work impacted rubber-based insulation.

Televised footage from the dock showed black smoke rising above the 155 metre-long (508ft) sub.

However, a representative of the local fire service said: "You can't smell the smoke in the city." He added that they were not called in to help the shipyard's own firefighters.

The state news agency Tass said the Orel is an Oscar II-class sub capable of carrying nuclear-tipped cruise and anti-submarine missiles.

Ilya Zhitomirsky, a spokesman for the United Shipbuilding Corporation which runs the shipyard, said the Orel's weapons and critical elements of its nuclear reactor had been removed before the repairs started.

"The nuclear fuel had been unloaded from the Orel before it was put up on dry dock. The reactor is turned off," he told RIA Novosti agency.

He said no one had been injured in the blaze.

The shipyard's website said the Orel - part of Russia's Northern fleet based in the port of Murmansk in the Barents Sea - has been under repair since November 2013 and that the work will take two years.

In 2011, the rubberised coating on another nuclear sub called the Yekaterinburg caught fire while it was under repair in Murmansk. Nine people needed medical treatment after inhaling noxious fumes.

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Death-Row Australians Lose Clemency Appeal

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 07 April 2015 | 12.15

Two Australians facing a firing squad for drug smuggling have had their appeal for clemency rejected by an Indonesian court.

Andrew Chan, 31, was found guilty in 2006 along with Myuran Sukumaran, 33, of being the ringleaders of a gang which plotted to smuggle heroin out of the country.

The pair had challenged the court's decision not to hear an appeal against an earlier decision by Indonesia's President Joko Widodo's to refuse them clemency.

The attorney general's office said that the ruling handed down by a court in Jakarta left him with no further legal avenues to avoid the death penalty.

Australia has been pursuing a campaign to save the men from a firing squad, stressing they have been rehabilitated while in prison.

The pair are among 10 drug convicts due to be executed at the prison island of Nusakambangan. Others in the group include citizens of France, Brazil, the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia.

The case has heightened diplomatic tensions between Australia and Indonesia with Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying he was "revolted" by the planned executions.

But President Widodo has previously warned foreign governments seeking clemency against interfering in his country's affairs.

The pair lost an appeal in February, though Indonesia's attorney general is awaiting the outcome of appeals by three remaining death-row inmates before setting a date for the executions.

A spokesman has previously said the executions will be carried out together, but they could be conducted in batches.

Indonesia has harsh penalties for drug trafficking and resumed executions in 2013 after a five-year gap.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kenya Bombs Al Shabaab Camps After Massacre

Two al Shabaab camps in Somalia have been bombed by the Kenyan air force in partial retaliation for last week's massacre at a university.

Jets targeted the camps in Gondodowe and Ismail in the Gedo region which borders Kenya, according to a military source.

He said: "We targeted the two areas because, according to information we have, those (al Shabaab) fellows are coming from there to attack Kenya."

Kenya is battling to stop the flow of al Shabaab militants and weapons across the 450-mile border with Somalia.

Al Shabaab militants have killed more than 400 people in Kenya since April 2013, including 148 people on campus at Garissa University College last week.

The militants said it was a reprisal for Kenya sending troops into Somalia.

An African Union peacekeeping force including Kenyan troops, and which is fighting the group in Somalia, carried out arrests and seized ammunitions in an al Shabaab camp in Gondodowe last August.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told the Reuters news agency that none of its camps were damaged in Sunday's raid, and that the fighter jets had instead struck farmland.

More follows...

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yemen Set For Vital Aid Amid Ceasefire Calls

Written By Unknown on Senin, 06 April 2015 | 12.14

Aid workers are set to take vital medical supplies into conflict-hit Yemen after the Saudi-led military coalition approved the move, the International Red Cross says.

Russia and the agency have called for an urgent pause in airstrikes to allow in aid, replenish struggling hospitals and evacuate foreigners.

The coalition has been launching aerial raids in the country to repel advances by Houthi forces who have taken over large areas of Yemen over the last six months, including the capital Sana'a.

But the Red Cross says a 24-hour ceasefire is needed to deliver aid and address "dire" conditions.

The agency has been negotiating with the military for nearly a week about allowing in aid.

Spokeswoman for the charity, Sitara Jabeen, said: "We have received permission from the coalition for two planes now, one carrying supplies and one with staff."

She hoped the aircraft could land on Monday in Sana'a.

However, the agency was still awaiting approval for a Red Cross surgical team that it plans to bring by boat into the southern city of Aden, where fighting remains intense.

The coalition says it has set up a special co-ordination body for aid deliveries and asked NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and governments to work with it to ensure humanitarian aid can be brought into Yemen and foreign nationals can be evacuated safely.

Hospitals are said to be low on medicine, with the streets of the southern port city of Aden reportedly littered with bodies.

Food and water supplies are also dwindling, according to the aid agency.

A Russian draft resolution to the United Nations demanded "regular and obligatory humanitarian pauses in the air strikes by the coalition to allow all concerned states and international organisations to evacuate their citizens and personnel".

The UN has so far not agreed on the resolution, but officials said they hoped to have something in place by Monday.

Houthi rebels have gained ground in Aden after fierce street fighting against forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi - who has fled the country.

Witnesses said the Houthis had bombarded residential areas in Aden and set buildings on fire.

"Snipers, who took position on the roofs of provincial government buildings, targeted passers by and members of the popular committees," one pro-Hadi fighter told the AFP news agency.

Saudi planes parachuted in weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, on Friday, but the Houthis still gained ground.

The 11-day campaign has also involved forces from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.

Adel al Jubeir, Saudi ambassador to the US, said sending ground troops remained "on the table", but would not comment on claims that special forces were already in Yemen.

The conflict has pitted Shia Iran, which backs the Houthis, against Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia, its regional rival.

There are fears the fighting could escalate into a full-on sectarian civil war.

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Official's Son Among Kenya Massacre Gunmen

Kenya has begun three days of mourning for the 148 people killed in the university massacre as one of the four gunmen is identified.

The Islamist militants, who were strapped with explosives, stormed the campus and singled out non-Muslim students to be murdered.

The interior ministry said one of the extremists was Abdirahim Abdullahi, the son of a Kenyan government official.

"The father had reported to security agents that his son had disappeared from home ... and was helping the police try to trace his son by the time the Garissa terror attack happened," spokesman Mwenda Njoka said.

Abdullahi graduated from the University of Nairobi with a law degree in 2013 and was seen as a "brilliant upcoming lawyer," added the spokesman.

Students who survived the attack by militant group al Shabaab have been reunited with their families.

One survivor, Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, told how she hid from gunmen by covering herself with clothes in a wardrobe.

She was found by security forces two days after the attack at Garissa University College, as medical staff carried out the grim task of dealing with victims' bodies.

Another 19-year-old student, Daniel Machache, smeared blood over his body and pretended he was dead to survive the slaughter.

Survivors were taken on government buses to the Nyayo National Stadium, which has been turned into a disaster centre.

Many relatives at the stadium desperately tried to trace their loved ones and find out if they were dead, injured or simply missing.

Thursday's attack, in the northeastern town of Garissa, close to the Somalia border, left 142 students, three police officers and three soldiers dead.

The government has defended its response to the one-day siege as it emerged Kenyan special forces were not deployed to the university for at least seven hours.

"This is negligence on a scale that borders on the criminal," Kenya's popular Nation newspaper wrote in its editorial on Sunday.

It emphasised how survivors said "the gunmen, who killed scores of students with obvious relish, took their time".

Some journalists based in Nairobi drove 225 miles to Garissa and arrived before special forces, who flew there.

Kenyans dedicated Easter Sunday prayer services to the victims, marking the first of three days of national mourning.

Pope Francis has called for peace in conflict-hit countries across the world, sending his prayers in particular to those killed in the university massacre.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said the militants would face justice for the "mindless slaughter" and vowed to retaliate in the "severest way".

On Saturday, Somalia-based terror group al Shabaab warned of a "long, gruesome war" unless Kenya withdraws its troops from Somalia.

Five people have been arrested over the attack, including three "coordinators" captured as they fled towards Somalia.

The suspected mastermind, Mohamed Mohamud, a former teacher in Garissa, is still on the run.

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Teen Girl Hid In Wardrobe To Survive Massacre

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 05 April 2015 | 12.14

A survivor of the Kenya university massacre in which 148 people were killed has told how she hid from gunmen by covering herself with clothes in a wardrobe.

Cynthia Cheroitich was found by security forces two days after the attack, as medical staff carried out the grim task of dealing with the victims' bodies.

The atrocity was carried out by four gunmen from the al Qaeda-linked Somalia-based terror group al Shabaab, who were killed at the end of the day-long siege.

Ms Cheroitich, 19, said from her hospital bed that she had hid in a large cupboard, refusing to emerge when some of her classmates came out of hiding at the demands of the extremists.

She said the Islamist militants separated the group into those who could read Arabic and who could not.

Ms Cheroitich, a Christian, said: "I was just praying to my God."

She also said she drank lotion to stave off thirst and hunger.

She said she did not believe that rescuers urging her to come out of her hiding place were there to help, suspecting at first that they were militants.

It was only when security forces had one of her teachers appeal to her that she did she come out, she said.

Fellow student Cheruiot Tiebafy told how he used the blood of his colleagues to survive Thursday's massacre at Garissa University College.

He said: "Actually I am the only man who survived from all the boys who were held hostage.

"I just smeared the blood of my colleagues, I ate the blood to be my lunch and I go to sleep there for around 13 good hours when we got to be hostage and I pretended to be dead.

"They turned me around, they kicked me but I'm alive."

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Gallery: Graphic Images From Kenya Massacre

This man was captured at the scene by Kenyan authorities

Mohamed Mohamud has been named as the mastermind behind the attack

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Gunshots Fired At Fenerbahce Football Team Bus

Shots have been fired at a bus carrying Turkey's Fenerbahce soccer team, injuring at least one person, according to the club.

Reports on Fenerbahce TV said the driver had been injured after the bus came under repeated attack from a shotgun.

The driver was hit in the face and taken to hospital, the club's vice president Mahmut Uslu, who was on the bus at the time, said.

He accused the attackers of trying to "crash the bus and kill the players".

The vehicle was hit as it drove to the airport following the team's 5-1 away win at the Black Sea side Caykur Rizespor in Turkey's Super Lig.

There was no mention of any injuries to anyone else but the driver.

Several pictures of the bus were posted on the club website, revealing a shattered side window and damage to the front windscreen.

The pictures also showed blood on the driver's seat and the steering wheel.

The bus was going over a viaduct on its way from the city of Rize to the airport in Trabzon to return to Istanbul.

Trabzon governor Abdil Celil Oz confirmed the gun attack on the bus and said the driver's life was not in danger.

"At first we thought stones had been thrown at the bus but forensic investigators at the scene have concluded it was an armed attack," he said.

The governor said he had received a phone call from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of the Istanbul club, asking him about the investigation.

The Turkish Football Federation released a statement condemning the attack.

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

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