VANGUARD, MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2016 — 45
50 dead, 53 injured in Orlando gay club shooting •'Gunman motivated by homophobia’
•Omar Mateen, the suspected gunman who killed 50 people in a gay night club was killed after taking hostages. IFTY people are now It is the worst mass known to have died in shooting in recent US a shooting in a gay history. Florida governor nightclub in Orlando, Rick Scott said it was Florida, and a state of “clearly an act of terror”. emergency has been Officials said the declared, the city’s mayor killings were likely to be Buddy Dyer has said. ideologically motivated, The gunman, named by though there was no officials as Omar Mateen, information that the was killed after taking gunman was associated with a particular group. hostages. However, US Another 53 people were Alan injured in the shooting at Congressman Grayson said it was “no the Pulse club.
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coincidence” the attack happened in a gay club. “It may be we’ve seen the commission of an awful hate crime,” he added. Mateen’s father Mir Seddique said the incident had nothing to do with religion, but may have been triggered by the sight of a gay couple kissing in Miami. French President Francois Hollande condemned the mass killing “with horror” and expressed the “full support of France and the French with America’s authorities and its people in this difficult time”, a statement by his office said. It is believed that the suspect, who was a US citizen from the Florida town of Port St Lucie and was of Afghan descent, was not on a terrorism watch list, although he was being investigated for an unrelated criminal act. Relatives have been gathering at local hospitals desperate for news of their loved ones. Many had received calls and texts from loved ones inside the club as the siege began, and some have heard nothing since.
Secret US report on 9/11 ‘ll absolve Saudi—CIA also central to a dispute has said that Saudi
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HE probable publication of classified parts of a 2002 congressional report into the 9/11 attacks will clear Saudi Arabia of any responsibility, CIA chief John Brennan has said. Keeping 28 pages of the report secret has sparked speculation that the attack had received official Saudi support. The classified pages are
over whether the families of 9/11 victims should be able to sue the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia denies any involvement. Fifteen out of the 19 hijackers in 2001 were Saudi citizens. Former senator Bob Graham, who headed the Senate intelligence committee that compiled the classified report in 2002,
officials did provide assistance to the 9/11 hijackers. But Mr Brennan said this was not the case. “So these 28 pages I believe are going to come out and I think it’s good that they come out. People shouldn’t take them as evidence of Saudi complicity in the attacks,” Mr Brennan said in an interview with Saudi-owned Arabiya TV.
Muhammad Ali’s ex-girlfriend attempts to sell sex tape of boxing legend Speaking to the paper,
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WOMAN who claims that she is the former girlfriend of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Barbara Mensah, has made a sick attempt to cash in on the star’s death earlier this month by offering the sale of tapes that she alleged show the star at sex parties.
She wanted a six-figure sum for the footage. Barbara also claimed that her daughter Kiiursti is the lovechild of Muhammad, and has spoken to The Mirror just two days after Muhammad was laid to rest at his funeral.
Venezuela’s President rules out referendum till next year
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E N E Z U E L A’ S President Nicolas Maduro has insisted no referendum on ending his term will be held until next year, amid mounting pressure as the country teeters on the brink of economic collapse. Maduro’s opponents are racing to call a referendum before
January 10, as a successful recall vote before that deadline would trigger new elections rather than transfer power to the vice president. If the opposition meets all requirements with their bid to oust him, “the recall referendum will be held next year.
she said: “I know the value of the footage. No one has anything like this. I’d like to get as much as I can for it.” The 70-year-old is also attempting to get the film transferred onto a CD to make it easier to sell, admitting that she’s looking for around $100,000 to make the sale. Speaking about the contents of the footage, Barbara claimed they were taken after fights at “Gumbo parties”, explaining: “There would be Ali and a few of his guys and then about a dozen or more girls. “All of them were stunning. Muhammad couldn’t keep away from a pretty girl whether he
Chad’s former leader Habre appeals conviction for atrocities crimes committed country’s domestic courts HAD’S former ruler during Habre’s rule. have prosecuted the C Hissene Habre has New judges will be former leader of another appealed against his conviction for crimes against humanity and war crimes, a spokesman for the Special African Chamber that conducted his trial in Senegal said on Saturday. Habre, 73, an ally of the West during the Cold War, was sentenced on May 30 to life in prison for rape and ordering the killing and torture of thousands of political opponents during his eight-year rule. “The lawyer ’s commission have submitted the paperwork for Habre’s appeal,” said Marcel Mendy, a spokesman for the Chamber, a tribunal created in 2013 by Senegal and the African Union for human rights
appointed and the appeal will take at least seven months with no start date set, Mendy said. So far, the court has only tried Habre and the case marks a milestone for African justice. It is the first time in modern history that one
Libyan forces ‘retake Sirte port from IS militants’
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IBYAN forces say they have retaken control of the port in the city of Sirte, after fierce fighting with militants from so-called Islamic State. Sirte is the most significant IS stronghold outside Iraq and Syria.
Benin steps up security in face of militant threat
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ENIN stepped up security patrols and roadblocks and increased border security on Saturday in the face of a threat from Islamist militants, the army chief of staff and a senior security official said. A statement by the army chief of staff gave no details of the threat. We s t Af r i c a n countries are increasingly concerned about al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its allies. The groups have expanded a campaign in northern Mali in the last year to stage high profile attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. At the same time, Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in the northeast of Benin’s eastern
country on rights charges. Other such cases have been tried by international tribunals. The verdict capped a 16-year battle by victims and rights campaigners to bring the former strong man to justice in Senegal, where he fled after being ousted in a 1990 coup.
neighbour Nigeria, has killed thousands in an insurgency that began in 2009. It has also launched deadly a t t a c k s i n N i g e r, Cameroon and Chad.
Air and missile strikes have hit IS positions this week, officials said. A spokesman said troops were moving closer to the city centre. The forces, aligned to the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli, began the battle to retake the city last month. A spokesman, Ahmed Hadia, told the BBC IS forces had weakened, but “not totally broken down”. Clashes centred on the Ougadougou conference centre, which was once a venue for international summitsbuthasnowbecome an IS command centre.
UN, Nigeria agree to Cameroon’s return of 80,000 refugees BY FAITH AGBI
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IGERIA says it has agreed to Cameroon’s voluntary return of 80,000 Nigerian refugees who have fled the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency. Nigerian officials had said Cameroon was threatening to force the repatriation. Cameroon previously has dumped thousands on the border. Nigerian emergency agency spokesman Sani Datti says Sunday that an agreement for their return “voluntarily and
in a dignified manner” has been signed by the UNHCR refugee agency, Nigeria and Cameroon. Last month, Nigerians who had returned home were blocked from returning to Cameroon though they complained they did not have enough water as temperatures soared over 100 degrees (42 degrees Celsius). A new influx will tax Nigerian officials struggling to cater for 2.1 million people displaced within the country. The U.N. says another 600,000 are displaced in the region.
From left : Filiz Toprakkar, Intensive Care Unit Nurse, Huseyin Toprakkar, Perfusionist, Dr. Mustafa Kirman, Cardiovascular Surgeon, Dr. Goksel Bahadir Specialist of Anesthesiology, and Zafer Elbistan, Surgery Nurse, all members of the Open Heart Surgery Team of the Nigerian Turkish Nizamiye Hospital Abuja upon arrival to the country from Turkey.