An Islamist sect that carried out deadly bombings in the northeast of the country could next attack hotels and other targets in the capital Abuja, the US embassy in Nigeria warned Sunday.
"Following the recent Boko Haram, aka Nigerian Taliban, attacks in Borno and Yobe State, the US embassy has received information that Boko Haram may plan to attack several locations and hotels in Abuja," during the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, the embassy said in a statement.
Boko Haram, an Islamist sect based in the north of Africa's most populous country, carried out attacks that claimed 150 lives in the northeastern city Damaturu on Friday, one of the deadliest strikes ever staged by the group. Around 100 other people were injured in the attacks.
The US embassy said potential targets could include the Nicon Luxury, the Sheraton and the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja's premier hotels normally frequented by foreigners, Nigerian politicians and businessmen.
The statement said embassy staff had been told to avoid these hotels
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Tunisia Islamists win vote; clashes in cradle of revolt
TUNIS (Reuters) - The Islamist Ennahda party was officially declared winner of Tunisia's election, setting it up to form an Islamist-led government, as poll violence erupted in the town where the Arab Spring uprisings began.
Ennahda has tried to reassure secularists nervous about the prospect of Islamist rule in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries by saying it will respect women's rights and not try to impose a Muslim moral code on society.
Protesters angry their fourth-placed party had been eliminated from the election set fire to the mayor's office in Sidi Bouzid, where 10 months ago vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in a protest against officialdom.
His act ignited unrest that led to the fall of Tunisia's autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired uprisings in Egypt, Libya and other Arab states.
Ennahda's leader Rachid Ghannouchi paid tribute to the provincial Tunisian town's role in Tunisia's revolution.
"We salute Sidi Bouzid and its sons who launched the spark and we hope that God will have made Mohamed Bouazizi a martyr," said the soft-spoken Islamic scholar, who spent 22 years in exile in Britain.
"We will continue this revolution to realize its aims of a Tunisia that is free, independent, developing and prosperous in which the rights of God, the Prophet, women, men, the religious and the non-religious are assured because Tunisia is for everyone," Ghannouchi told a crowd of cheering supporters.
Announcing the results, election commission members said Ennahda had won 90 seats in the 217-seat assembly, which will draft a new constitution, form an interim government and schedule new elections, probably for early 2013.
The Islamists' nearest rival, the secularist Congress for the Republic, won 30 seats, the commission members told a packed hall in the capital, ending a four-day wait since Sunday's poll for the painstaking count to be completed.
ISLAMIST-LED GOVERNMENT
Ennahda, banned before January's revolution, fell short of an absolute majority in the new assembly. It is expected to broker a coalition with two of the secularist runners-up and, with them, form a government.
The Islamists will get the biggest say on important posts. They have already said they will put forward Hamadi Jbeli, Ghannouchi's deputy and a former political prisoner, for the post of prime minister.
Tunisia's complex election system, which replaced the rigged, one-horse races conducted before the revolution, made it impossible for any one party to win a majority of assembly seats.
Ennahda lies at the moderate and liberal end of the spectrum of Islamist parties in the Middle East. Ghannouchi models his approach on the moderate stance of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Secularists say they fear the Islamists will try to impose an Islamic moral code on society but Ghannouchi has denied this. His officials say there will be no restrictions on foreign tourists -- a big source of revenue -- drinking alcohol or wearing bikinis on the country's Mediterranean beaches.
The party's victory is the first for Islamists since the Hamas faction won an election in the Palestinian Territories seven years ago.
It is a result which will resonate in Egypt, where a party with ideological ties to Ennahda is expected to do well in a multi-stage parliamentary poll that starts in November.
REVOLUTION'S BIRTHPLACE
Protesters in Sidi Bouzid were angered that election officials had canceled seats won by the Popular List, a party led by businessmen Hachmi Hamdi, over alleged campaign finance violations. The party is popular in the town.
"They have set fire to a large part of the mayor's office, and the police are nowhere to be seen," local resident Mehdi Horcheni told Reuters by telephone from the town.
He said elsewhere in the town, protesters set fire to an Ennahda campaign office and a training center, while police used tear gas in a failed attempt to disperse the crowd.
Another witness, Hafed Abdulli, said the crowd was burning tires in the streets. "People are protesting against the cancellation of the Popular List," he said.
The Popular List was running in fourth place in the election, according to preliminary results, before its seats were canceled. The party's leader used to support Ben Ali and during the election ran a populist campaign heavily promoted on the British-based television station he owns.
The violence appeared confined to Hamdi's supporters, as the three main secularist parties have already accepted defeat and there were no reports of clashes in other towns.
There was none of the violence that was predicted involving hardline Islamists who are more radical than Ennahda or the secularists who believe the election result will threaten their liberal lifestyles.
Ghannouchi and his party officials have issued a carefully-choreographed series of announcements designed to reassure skeptics that there is no need to fear an Islamist government.
Defying stereotypes about Islamists keeping women covered up, one of the party's most prominent candidates is a businesswoman who does not wear the Islamic veil, or hijab, and this week sang along to pop songs at a party rally.
Ennahda has also reached out to anxious investors by saying it will not impose Islamic banking rules. It says it is inclined to keep the finance minister and central bank governor in their posts when it forms the new government.
Ennahda has tried to reassure secularists nervous about the prospect of Islamist rule in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries by saying it will respect women's rights and not try to impose a Muslim moral code on society.
Protesters angry their fourth-placed party had been eliminated from the election set fire to the mayor's office in Sidi Bouzid, where 10 months ago vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in a protest against officialdom.
His act ignited unrest that led to the fall of Tunisia's autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired uprisings in Egypt, Libya and other Arab states.
Ennahda's leader Rachid Ghannouchi paid tribute to the provincial Tunisian town's role in Tunisia's revolution.
"We salute Sidi Bouzid and its sons who launched the spark and we hope that God will have made Mohamed Bouazizi a martyr," said the soft-spoken Islamic scholar, who spent 22 years in exile in Britain.
"We will continue this revolution to realize its aims of a Tunisia that is free, independent, developing and prosperous in which the rights of God, the Prophet, women, men, the religious and the non-religious are assured because Tunisia is for everyone," Ghannouchi told a crowd of cheering supporters.
Announcing the results, election commission members said Ennahda had won 90 seats in the 217-seat assembly, which will draft a new constitution, form an interim government and schedule new elections, probably for early 2013.
The Islamists' nearest rival, the secularist Congress for the Republic, won 30 seats, the commission members told a packed hall in the capital, ending a four-day wait since Sunday's poll for the painstaking count to be completed.
ISLAMIST-LED GOVERNMENT
Ennahda, banned before January's revolution, fell short of an absolute majority in the new assembly. It is expected to broker a coalition with two of the secularist runners-up and, with them, form a government.
The Islamists will get the biggest say on important posts. They have already said they will put forward Hamadi Jbeli, Ghannouchi's deputy and a former political prisoner, for the post of prime minister.
Tunisia's complex election system, which replaced the rigged, one-horse races conducted before the revolution, made it impossible for any one party to win a majority of assembly seats.
Ennahda lies at the moderate and liberal end of the spectrum of Islamist parties in the Middle East. Ghannouchi models his approach on the moderate stance of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Secularists say they fear the Islamists will try to impose an Islamic moral code on society but Ghannouchi has denied this. His officials say there will be no restrictions on foreign tourists -- a big source of revenue -- drinking alcohol or wearing bikinis on the country's Mediterranean beaches.
The party's victory is the first for Islamists since the Hamas faction won an election in the Palestinian Territories seven years ago.
It is a result which will resonate in Egypt, where a party with ideological ties to Ennahda is expected to do well in a multi-stage parliamentary poll that starts in November.
REVOLUTION'S BIRTHPLACE
Protesters in Sidi Bouzid were angered that election officials had canceled seats won by the Popular List, a party led by businessmen Hachmi Hamdi, over alleged campaign finance violations. The party is popular in the town.
"They have set fire to a large part of the mayor's office, and the police are nowhere to be seen," local resident Mehdi Horcheni told Reuters by telephone from the town.
He said elsewhere in the town, protesters set fire to an Ennahda campaign office and a training center, while police used tear gas in a failed attempt to disperse the crowd.
Another witness, Hafed Abdulli, said the crowd was burning tires in the streets. "People are protesting against the cancellation of the Popular List," he said.
The Popular List was running in fourth place in the election, according to preliminary results, before its seats were canceled. The party's leader used to support Ben Ali and during the election ran a populist campaign heavily promoted on the British-based television station he owns.
The violence appeared confined to Hamdi's supporters, as the three main secularist parties have already accepted defeat and there were no reports of clashes in other towns.
There was none of the violence that was predicted involving hardline Islamists who are more radical than Ennahda or the secularists who believe the election result will threaten their liberal lifestyles.
Ghannouchi and his party officials have issued a carefully-choreographed series of announcements designed to reassure skeptics that there is no need to fear an Islamist government.
Defying stereotypes about Islamists keeping women covered up, one of the party's most prominent candidates is a businesswoman who does not wear the Islamic veil, or hijab, and this week sang along to pop songs at a party rally.
Ennahda has also reached out to anxious investors by saying it will not impose Islamic banking rules. It says it is inclined to keep the finance minister and central bank governor in their posts when it forms the new government.
Ohio Teacher Guilty of Rape
Stacy Schuler, a former health and physical education teacher at Mason High School, is led out of the Warren County Common Pleas
Courtroom of Judge Robert Peeler Thursday Oct. 27, 2011 in Lebanon, Ohio. Schuler, a high school teacher was convicted Thursday
of having sex with five students, some of them football players, after an Ohio judge rejected an insanity defense that argued the teens
took advantage of her.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Russia denies new facility in Serbia is for spying
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Russia has denied news reports that the emergency relief center it is creating in Serbia will be used to spy on neighboring Romania, where U.S. anti-ballistic missile interceptors are likely to be installed.
Those reports began two years ago when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that Serbia and Russia had agreed to create the joint facility at the airport in Nis, Serbia.
But during a ceremony opening it Monday, Sergey Shoigu, Russia's minister for emergency situations, said such speculation is "a pure fabrication."
Shoigu says the center will house relief experts and their equipment, and is intended to fight major forest fires, flooding, earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Those reports began two years ago when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that Serbia and Russia had agreed to create the joint facility at the airport in Nis, Serbia.
But during a ceremony opening it Monday, Sergey Shoigu, Russia's minister for emergency situations, said such speculation is "a pure fabrication."
Shoigu says the center will house relief experts and their equipment, and is intended to fight major forest fires, flooding, earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Australia police get Sri Lanka war crimes dossier
Australian police were Monday examining a war crimes dossier alleging Sri Lankan authorities bombed and shelled civilians during the country's civil war, which ended in 2009.
Prepared by the International Commission of Jurists' Australian chapter, the brief contains testimony from Sri Lankans now living in Australia that they were attacked by government forces during the conflict.
"The substance... is eyewitness evidence which shows the bombing and shelling of civilians, in particular in the no-fly zones, and a whole series of attacks on civilians, contrary to the stance taken by the Sri Lankan government that, in effect, they were not targeted," said ICJ Australia president John Dowd.
"Initially they said there was no loss of civilian life in the last few months (of the conflict), which is clearly nonsense," he added.
The evidence was initially collected for an independent war crimes tribunal but because one had not been established Dowd said the ICJ decided to pass it to Australian police "who have the power to investigate such matters".
Police confirmed they had received the submission and were reviewing it.
"Therefore it is not appropriate to comment further," a spokeswoman told AFP.
Australia can prosecute war crimes committed in other countries including "acts of torture committed outside Australia by a public official, or a person acting in an official capacity or at the instigation of such a person," she added.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had also received a copy of the brief, according to his spokeswoman, who said Australia "takes allegations and investigations of war crimes seriously".
Rudd said Australia had urged Sri Lanka to act on United Nations findings of "credible evidence" of war crimes through its Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), due to report in November.
"Australia and the international community will closely examine the LLRC report, due in November 2011, before considering whether further options should be pursued," his spokeswoman said.
The UN's Human Rights Council should also "revisit the matter", Rudd added.
Dowd denied local media reports that the brief named President Mahinda Rajapakse and former Navy chief Thisara Samarasinghe, now Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia.
"We haven't talked about anybody, and we've not identified anybody, nor do we intend to in our submission," Dowd said.
"We have set out the evidence that is available and that evidence is a matter for the Australian Federal Police. It is a matter for them... to comment on who might be the person they investigate."
Samarasinghe did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment, but strongly denied any crimes when contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
"There is no truth whatsoever of allegations of misconduct or illegal behaviour," said Samarasinghe.
"The Sri Lanka Navy did not fire at civilians during any stage and all action was taken to save the lives of civilians from the clutches of terrorists."
Sri Lanka has persistently denied that its troops committed any war crimes while battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were crushed in an offensive that ended in May 2009, bringing the 26-year conflict to a close.
Prepared by the International Commission of Jurists' Australian chapter, the brief contains testimony from Sri Lankans now living in Australia that they were attacked by government forces during the conflict.
"The substance... is eyewitness evidence which shows the bombing and shelling of civilians, in particular in the no-fly zones, and a whole series of attacks on civilians, contrary to the stance taken by the Sri Lankan government that, in effect, they were not targeted," said ICJ Australia president John Dowd.
"Initially they said there was no loss of civilian life in the last few months (of the conflict), which is clearly nonsense," he added.
The evidence was initially collected for an independent war crimes tribunal but because one had not been established Dowd said the ICJ decided to pass it to Australian police "who have the power to investigate such matters".
Police confirmed they had received the submission and were reviewing it.
"Therefore it is not appropriate to comment further," a spokeswoman told AFP.
Australia can prosecute war crimes committed in other countries including "acts of torture committed outside Australia by a public official, or a person acting in an official capacity or at the instigation of such a person," she added.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had also received a copy of the brief, according to his spokeswoman, who said Australia "takes allegations and investigations of war crimes seriously".
Rudd said Australia had urged Sri Lanka to act on United Nations findings of "credible evidence" of war crimes through its Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), due to report in November.
"Australia and the international community will closely examine the LLRC report, due in November 2011, before considering whether further options should be pursued," his spokeswoman said.
The UN's Human Rights Council should also "revisit the matter", Rudd added.
Dowd denied local media reports that the brief named President Mahinda Rajapakse and former Navy chief Thisara Samarasinghe, now Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia.
"We haven't talked about anybody, and we've not identified anybody, nor do we intend to in our submission," Dowd said.
"We have set out the evidence that is available and that evidence is a matter for the Australian Federal Police. It is a matter for them... to comment on who might be the person they investigate."
Samarasinghe did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment, but strongly denied any crimes when contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
"There is no truth whatsoever of allegations of misconduct or illegal behaviour," said Samarasinghe.
"The Sri Lanka Navy did not fire at civilians during any stage and all action was taken to save the lives of civilians from the clutches of terrorists."
Sri Lanka has persistently denied that its troops committed any war crimes while battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were crushed in an offensive that ended in May 2009, bringing the 26-year conflict to a close.
Vietnamese woman cuts off Taiwan husband's penis
A woman cut off her husband's penis with a pair of scissors and threw the severed member into a river in revenge for his affair with another woman and his physical abuse, police in Taiwan said Sunday.
The 30-year-old Vietnamese woman, identified only by her surname, Pan, cut off about half her husband's penis at their home in the southern city of Tainan after he took drugs and sleeping pills and fell asleep, police said.
The woman allegedly claimed she had thrown the severed member of her drug-addicted Taiwanese husband into a river before turning herself in.
"She has been taken into custody on charges of assault," a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The woman allegedly told police she felt no regret about what she had done to her husband, who is 29 years old, jobless and a known user of illegal drugs.
Police said she claimed to have suffered beatings even though she had worked at a local karaoke shop to support the family since the pair married two years ago.
Her husband's affair with another woman, which he did not attempt to hide, prompted her revenge, the suspect said, according to police.
If convicted, she faces a jail term of up to 12 years.
The 30-year-old Vietnamese woman, identified only by her surname, Pan, cut off about half her husband's penis at their home in the southern city of Tainan after he took drugs and sleeping pills and fell asleep, police said.
The woman allegedly claimed she had thrown the severed member of her drug-addicted Taiwanese husband into a river before turning herself in.
"She has been taken into custody on charges of assault," a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The woman allegedly told police she felt no regret about what she had done to her husband, who is 29 years old, jobless and a known user of illegal drugs.
Police said she claimed to have suffered beatings even though she had worked at a local karaoke shop to support the family since the pair married two years ago.
Her husband's affair with another woman, which he did not attempt to hide, prompted her revenge, the suspect said, according to police.
If convicted, she faces a jail term of up to 12 years.
Italian priest shot dead in southern Philippines
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — An Italian Catholic priest who was about to travel to a clergy meeting was shot dead Monday in his remote southern Philippine parish, police said.
The Rev. Fausto Tentorio was approaching his car when a gunman shot him several times within the church compound in North Cotabato province's mountainous Arakan township, said Chief Inspector Benjamin Rioflorido.
Tentorio, a native of Santa Maria Hoe town in Italy's Lecco province, was dead on arrival at hospital. He was 59.
Rioflorido said that according to a witness, the gunman ran from the scene after the shooting and fled toward an adjacent town on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
Investigators have not yet identified suspects or possible motives, Rioflorido said in a telephone interview. He said Tentorio had been a longtime parish priest in Arakan, spoke the dialect fluently and had good ties with the people there.
The priest had been about to travel to the provincial capital, Kidapawan city, to attend a clergy meeting of his diocese.
Kidapawan Bishop Romulo dela Cruz strongly denounced the killing and called on the police and military to solve the killing quickly.
Tentorio belonged to the Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. PIME said he had worked with indigenous people in the south for more than 30 years and was the third PIME missionary to be killed on southern Mindanao Island, the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. The resource-rich but impoverished region has seen Muslim rebellions for decades.
"We are very sad because we lost already two other priests here in Mindanao," Rev. Julio Mariani, director of PIME's Euntes Mission Center in Zamboanga City, told The Associated Press.
Mariani said Tentorio received unspecified death threats around seven years ago, but had not mentioned new threats when they last met in July.
He said Tentorio's killing could have been related to his work defending the rights of indigenous people and helping them hold on to their ancestral land.
"It was a delicate mission because when you deal with the marginalized and the poor, you are bound to step on the toes of some people and this could have been the source of the problem of why he was killed," Mariani added.
Rioflorido said they did not know of any death threats received by Tentorio.
He said police would interview Tentorio's colleagues and other possible witnesses including teachers at a preschool within the church compound who were attending a flag-raising ceremony when the attack took place.
Italian Ambassador Luca Fornari condemned the killing and expressed shock, sadness and dismay.
"Killing someone who is doing good things is something that we cannot understand," he added.
He said the embassy has asked police to increase security for missionaries.
Italy has warned its nationals, including priests, not to go to Mindanao, but missionaries have disregarded the advisory in order to help people, Fornari said.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario called on police "to immediately bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to justice" and offered condolences to Tentorio's family and congregation.
The Rev. Fausto Tentorio was approaching his car when a gunman shot him several times within the church compound in North Cotabato province's mountainous Arakan township, said Chief Inspector Benjamin Rioflorido.
Tentorio, a native of Santa Maria Hoe town in Italy's Lecco province, was dead on arrival at hospital. He was 59.
Rioflorido said that according to a witness, the gunman ran from the scene after the shooting and fled toward an adjacent town on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
Investigators have not yet identified suspects or possible motives, Rioflorido said in a telephone interview. He said Tentorio had been a longtime parish priest in Arakan, spoke the dialect fluently and had good ties with the people there.
The priest had been about to travel to the provincial capital, Kidapawan city, to attend a clergy meeting of his diocese.
Kidapawan Bishop Romulo dela Cruz strongly denounced the killing and called on the police and military to solve the killing quickly.
Tentorio belonged to the Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. PIME said he had worked with indigenous people in the south for more than 30 years and was the third PIME missionary to be killed on southern Mindanao Island, the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. The resource-rich but impoverished region has seen Muslim rebellions for decades.
"We are very sad because we lost already two other priests here in Mindanao," Rev. Julio Mariani, director of PIME's Euntes Mission Center in Zamboanga City, told The Associated Press.
Mariani said Tentorio received unspecified death threats around seven years ago, but had not mentioned new threats when they last met in July.
He said Tentorio's killing could have been related to his work defending the rights of indigenous people and helping them hold on to their ancestral land.
"It was a delicate mission because when you deal with the marginalized and the poor, you are bound to step on the toes of some people and this could have been the source of the problem of why he was killed," Mariani added.
Rioflorido said they did not know of any death threats received by Tentorio.
He said police would interview Tentorio's colleagues and other possible witnesses including teachers at a preschool within the church compound who were attending a flag-raising ceremony when the attack took place.
Italian Ambassador Luca Fornari condemned the killing and expressed shock, sadness and dismay.
"Killing someone who is doing good things is something that we cannot understand," he added.
He said the embassy has asked police to increase security for missionaries.
Italy has warned its nationals, including priests, not to go to Mindanao, but missionaries have disregarded the advisory in order to help people, Fornari said.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario called on police "to immediately bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to justice" and offered condolences to Tentorio's family and congregation.
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