Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Saturday dismissed murder charges against former President Hosni Mubarak in connection with the killing of hundreds of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his nearly three-decade rule, citing the “inadmissibility” of the case due to a technicality.

The ruling marks another major setback for the young activists who spearheaded the Arab Spring-inspired uprising nearly four years ago — many of whom are now in prison or have withdrawn from politics. It will likely reinforce the perception that Mubarak’s autocratic state remains in place, albeit led by a new president, former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.   Continue reading “Egypt court drops murder charges against Mubarak”

RT

Russia’s Northern Fleet has been conducting naval training near Dover. Two battleships and two supply vessels worked on operations and communications in conditions of adverse weather and heavy marine traffic.

“Today a squadron of warships and support vessels of the Northern Fleet headed by a large anti-submarine ship, the Severomorsk, crossed the narrowest part of the English Channel and passed into the Bay of the Seine,” said Russia’s defense ministry.   Continue reading “Russian battleships in the English Channel, say they’re training”

RT

Muslim countries are able to solve their problems on their own, the Turkish president believes. He says far from offering help, the West is actually exploiting “conflicts in the Middle East” and only cares about the region’s riches.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has urged Islamic countries to unite in order to solve “the biggest humanitarian and political crisis in their history,” according to AFP, citing the Turkish president’s speech in Istanbul on Thursday.   Continue reading “Foreigners ‘like seeing our children die’, can’t help with Mid-East, says Erdogan”

Mail.com

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — On the first day new immigration rules took effect this month in the Bahamas, officers in green fatigues swept through poor sections of the capital filling two yellow school buses with dozens of people who couldn’t document their right to be in the island chain.

The government, amid fierce criticism of the raid, later insisted the timing of the operation was coincidence. Still, the message of the surprise morning raid, in which the officers were accompanied by local media, couldn’t be clearer: The Bahamas aims to become less hospitable to its swelling population of migrants lacking legal status.   Continue reading “Bahamas fends off critics over new migrant rules”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s no free lunch — or breakfast or dinner — for President Barack Obama on Thanksgiving Day. Or any other day for that matter.

He has to dig into his pocket to pay for his holiday feast of turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, sweet and regular potatoes and six different kinds of pie. It’s a longstanding practice that a president pays for meals for himself, his family and personal guests.   Continue reading “Presidents pick up the check for their meals”

RT

A ‘unilateral decision’ was taken by OPEC not to cut production and to leave the daily output ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels, despite a major oversupply that has caused oil prices to fall more than 30%.

“We are not sending any signal to anyone, we are just trying to have a fair price,” OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.

World oil demand is expected to increase in 2015, Salem El-Badri said.   Continue reading “Oil slumps 4% as OPEC leaves output unchanged”

RT

A Reddit user from the UK has made an imagined image of a Walmart parking lot on Black Friday go viral by attracting hundreds of thousands of hits to their computer-crafted critique of the major American shopping day.

“As a Brit, this is how I imagine [B]lack Friday in America,” an individual with the Reddit handle ‘_theseacucumber’ wrote on the popular web forum on Tuesday.   Continue reading “Brit’s vision of Black Friday in America goes viral”

RT

A 17-year-old girl was charged with organizing a prostitution ring at two Florida high schools. Police say she pimped out a 15-year-old girl to a client for $40 and a bottle of liquor so a 21-year-old could have sex with the underage student.

Sarasota High School student Alexa Nicole De Armas was arrested Friday and charged with human trafficking of a person younger than 18, a felony. John Michael Mosher, 21, was also arrested, and charged with sexual battery on a minor, WWSB reported. Police told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that one more person would be arrested Tuesday.   Continue reading “17-year-old madam arrested for running high school prostitution ring in Florida”

RT

American armored vehicles sent to Poland and the Baltic States for military drills are to remain for the constant training of local troops and rotation of US forces. More fighting vehicles will be “pre-positioned” at US military bases in Germany.

The US Department of Defense intends to boost the number of its armored vehicles on the territory of the NATO member states in Eastern Europe.

Next year the number of M1 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles will reach 150 vehicles.   Continue reading “Surge in US armored vehicles next to Russian borders”

RT

The number of children among human trafficking victims has increased from one in five to one in three over the last decade, according to a newly-released UN report. It also says the number of convictions for the crime is “extremely low.”

In its latest report, released on Monday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says the child trafficking figure is particularly high in Africa and the Middle East, where it represents two-thirds of all human trafficking cases.    Continue reading “UN: 1 in 3 human trafficking victims a child, crime goes mostly unpunished”

RT

Eliminating a specific terrorist leader is a ‘targeted killing’ according to the US. However, Britain’s Reprieve human-rights group calculated that it takes about 28 innocent lives to take out a single terrorist leader, often with multiple drone strikes.

The UK human-rights group gave The Guardian the latest statistics (November 24) compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, on collateral damage from American drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.   Continue reading “It takes 28 civilian lives to kill a single terrorist leader – UK human rights group”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Missouri grand jury’s decision to spare police officer Darren Wilson from criminal charges makes his case the latest in a long line of police shootings that show the latitude that the law and the courts give law enforcement in using deadly force.

The question for the panel that decided the case was never whether Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, but rather whether the Aug. 9 killing constituted a crime. In declining to indict Wilson, the grand jury reached a conclusion that is far more the norm than the exception.   Continue reading “Most police shootings don’t end with prosecutions”

RT

The Hacktivist collective Anonymous have launched an attack on the official site for the City of Cleveland after 12-year-old Temir Rice was shot dead by local police for carrying a BB gun.

In a video released on Monday, Anonymous lambasts Cleveland City Police, whose alleged inability to train their officers properly is said to have led to the tragedy.   Continue reading “#TangoDown: Anonymous close Cleveland City govt website over 12yo shooting death”

RT

An apartment building has “completely” collapsed in the Washington Park neighbourhood of Chicago after a reported explosion, trapping people under the debris. Fire Department crews believe they rescued the only two victims, but continue their search.

Some reports suggest there was an explosion before the building went down.

“Something blew up and the whole building is pancaked,” Chicago Tribune cites Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford as saying.   Continue reading “2 people rescued from rubble of collapsed building in Chicago”

Mail.com

REDDING, Calif. (AP) — A tour bus drifted off a Northern California interstate and crashed onto its roof, killing a 33-year-old man and injuring 30 others in the vehicle’s second wreck in a day, authorities said.

The bus was en route from Los Angeles to Pasco, Washington, when it drifted off the right shoulder of Interstate 5 around 7:30 a.m. Sunday about 100 miles south of the Oregon border, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jeff Borgen.   Continue reading “California bus crash kill 1 in 2nd wreck of the day”

RT

Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian farmer near the Gaza border, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. This is the first fatality since the latest tentative ceasefire agreement in August, when the 50-day Gaza war ended.

The ministry has identified the man as Fadel Mohammed Halawa, 32. He was allegedly shot dead to the east of the Jabalya refugee camp. According to the man’s relatives, he was out in search of song birds, who inhabit trees located near the border. They are said to be quite expensive in Gaza’s markets.   Continue reading “Israeli troops kill Palestinian farmer along Gaza border”

Mail.com

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man who had made previous threats against police set his house on fire Saturday and ambushed the first sheriff’s deputy who responded, fatally shooting the deputy and wounding another before he was killed by a police officer who lives nearby, a law enforcement official said.

The man’s name and address had been entered into a law enforcement computer system because of previous threats, but the 911 dispatcher who entered the fire call put in the address of a neighbor who reported the blaze, so the alert wasn’t activated and the Leon County deputy who responded first had no warning, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.   Continue reading “Official: Man who killed deputy had made threats”

Mail.com

TOKYO (AP) — The damage from an overnight earthquake in a mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 winter Olympics proved more extensive than initially thought.

A daylight assessment Sunday found at least 50 homes destroyed in two villages, and 41 people injured across the region, including seven seriously, mostly with broken bones, officials said. The magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday west of Nagano city at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The agency revised the magnitude and depth from initial estimates. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.2. Since the quake occurred inland, there was no possibility of a tsunami.   Continue reading “Damage worse than thought in Japanese earthquake”

Mail.com

TOKYO (AP) — A strong earthquake late Saturday struck a mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 winter Olympics, knocking down at least 10 homes in a ski resort town and injuring more than 20 people, officials said.

The magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck near Nagano city shortly after 10 p.m. (1300 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake’s magnitude at 6.2. Since the quake occurred inland, there was no possibility of a tsunami.   Continue reading “Japan earthquake collapses homes, causes injuries”