15 Around the world
guyanatimesgy.com
saturday, november 2, 2013
Pakistan Taliban chief killed in drone strike
Hakimullah Mehsud
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U.S. drone strike in Pakistan has killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Pakistani sources have told Al Jazeera. “We can confirm Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in the drone strike,”
said the source on Friday. Four security officials confirmed his death to Reuters news agency. His bodyguard and driver were also among the dead, they said. “Among the dead, who are in large numbers, are
Hakimullah’s personal bodyguard Tariq Mehsud and his driver Abdullah Mehsud, two of his closest people,” said one intelligence source, adding at least 25 people were killed in the strike. Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamad, said that Pakistan’s Taliban has also confirmed Mehsud’s killing. As leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Mehsud was the most wanted man in Pakistan and the U.S. had a $5 million bounty on his head. Mehsud, who had been reported dead several times before, became the leader of the Pakistani Taliban in August 2009 after a drone strike killed the previous leader, his mentor. (Excerpt from
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was an employee with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which administers security checkpoints at U.S. airports. The TSA said a number of its agents were injured. At least one was in critical condition. Ciancia’s condition was not immediately known but he reportedly had multiple gunshot wounds. The Los Angeles fire department said seven people were hurt, of whom six were taken to local hospitals. The Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical Centre said it received three male casualties, one of whom was in a critical condition. Patrick Gannon, the airport police chief, told a news conference that the gunman entered Terminal Three, home to airlines including Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue, at 09:20h local time. He took an assault rifle out of a bag and began shooting at the screening area, where security agents check passengers’ travel documents. (Excerpt
from The Guardian)
Israel says two Gaza tunnels destroyed
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our Palestinian fighters were reported killed in clashes with the Israeli military in Gaza early Friday as the Israelis destroyed what they said were two “terror tunnels” there. Four fighters with the al Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza – were killed in the incidents, the militant
group’s website said. Israel said five of its soldiers were injured. One of Israel’s targets was a tunnel, discovered on October 7, that the Israeli military said reached from Gaza into Israel and might have been intended to help Palestinian militants kidnap Israelis. Israeli military engineers early Friday detonat-
ed a segment of that tunnel, which it said stretched 1.7 kilometres (1.06 miles) from Gaza into Israel, near Israeli communities. As that happened, Hamas fighters detonated an explosive, injuring five Israeli soldiers, the Israeli military said. Israeli soldiers then opened fire and “directly hit a terrorist,” it said. (Excerpt from CNN)
Prince Harry message was hacked
Prince Harry
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voicemail message left by Prince Harry, in which he asked an
aide for help with an essay, was hacked by the News of the World (NoW), a court has
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ankrolled by powerful outside interests, what began as a dispute aired in the pages of a town’s local newspaper next week moves to the U.S. Supreme Court where justices could potentially roll back legal precedents that limit the role of religion in public life. The battle pits two residents of an upstate New York town, backed by a civil liberties group advocating for the separation of
church and state against a town supervisor supported by a prominent, evangelical Christian organisation. Both groups – Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Alliance Defending Freedom – have multimillion dollar budgets and litigate on a variety of related issues, often against each other. Linda Stephens, 70, an atheist, and Susan Galloway, 51, who is Jewish, are both long-term residents of the
heard. The Old Bailey jury saw a transcript of the message left while the prince was at Sandhurst military academy. The 2005 document was one kept by former NoW royal editor Clive Goodman, who denies misconduct in public office. He is one of eight people who deny a series of charges. Five are former News of the World journalists. Goodman was jailed for phone hacking in 2007 and subsequently dismissed from his job. (Excerpt from BBC News)
conservative-leaning town of Greece, a Rochester suburb of around 100,000 people located about 300 miles north-west of New York City. They filed a lawsuit in 2008 against the town objecting to the public prayer that precedes town board meetings, claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition on government establishment of religion. (Excerpt from
Reuters)
Bosnia mass grave uncovered
Al Jazeera)
Gunman kills one and injures others at LAX airport in Los Angeles gunman opened fire with a high-powered rifle inside Los Angeles international airport on Friday, killing a security agent, injuring at least seven people and causing disruption to flights across the United States. A man named as Paul Anthony Ciancia, said to be in his early 20s, used an assault rifle to cause chaos in Terminal Three before being shot and captured by airport police. The victim who died
National groups send a prayer to the Supreme Court
A mass grave found in Bosnia
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nvestigators in Bosnia have uncovered a mass grave thought to contain several hundred bodies of victims of the conflict that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia two decades ago. The remains are believed to be those of victims of Bosniak and Croat ethnicity from Prijedor and its
surroundings, killed in the summer of 1992, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The site, at Tomasica in Prijedor municipality, is one of the biggest mass graves found in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the conflict, said Boris Grubesic, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.
As of Thursday, 231 complete bodies had been exhumed, as well as the body parts of another 112 people. But, he added, the number found goes up by the day or even the hour. More than 30 personal items have also been found, he said. Excavation of the mass grave, which goes to a depth of 10 metres (33 feet), began in early September and is expected to continue into next week. The remains are being taken to an identification centre in Sanski Most, where they will remain until the forensic analysis and identification process is completed, the prosecutor’s office said. (Excerpt from CNN)
Kerry admits U.S. spying “reached too far”
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ecretary of State John Kerry admitted on Thursday that the U.S. surveillance programme had in some cases “reached too far”, as he sought to ease tensions with European allies and other countries who have rebuked President Barack Obama over reports of widespread electronic spying and phone tapping. “In some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the president, that some of these actions have reached too far, and we are going to make
sure that does not happen in the future,” Kerry told a conference in London via videolink from Washington. Kerry was responding to a question addressed to both him and British Foreign Secretary William Hague about government surveillance. Leaks by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden have revealed a massive spying operation orchestrated by the United States, sometimes with the cooperation of other countries.
Thursday’s admission that the Obama administration had overstepped limits in surveillance was unprecedented, but Kerry justified his country’s actions as part of a global effort to fight terror since the September 11, 2011 attacks. “We have actually prevented airplanes from going down, buildings from being blown up, and people from being assassinated because we’ve been able to learn ahead of time of the plans,” he said. (Excerpt from France24)
Protests in Egypt ahead of Morsi trial
Ousted President Mohamed Morsi is to be tried along with 14 other defendants on Monday
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upporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi are holding a fresh wave of protests across Egypt, days ahead of his trial, with clashes being reported between his supporters and opponents. On Friday, security forc-
es fired tear gas to break up protests in Alexandria and arrested at least 60 protesters. Protests also took place in the cities of Cairo and Giza. Morsi’s supporters have called for daily protests starting on Friday until the oust-
ed president stands trial on Monday, urging crowds to gather outside a police institute near Cairo’s Tora prison, where Morsi is believed to be held. Egypt’s Interior Ministry officials have said that 20,000 policemen will be deployed on Monday to guard the south Cairo academy hosting the trial and to secure Morsi’s transport to a makeshift court room. He has not been seen since the military ousted him on July 3, and charged him with inciting the murder of protesters outside his palace in December 2012. Morsi is to be tried along with 14 other defendants. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)