Author: admin

At least four people have been killed and three injured in a gas explosion in the central Mexican state of Puebla, officials say.

It is not yet clear what caused the blast at the natural gas storage plant at the Chachapa industrial park.

The explosion set off a fire which engulfed much of the area.

The main highway linking Mexico City and Veracruz was closed for more than four hours as firefighters brought the blaze under control.

Businesses and homes were evacuated in a 3km-radius (2 miles).

The blast occurred at 18:30 local time (23:30 GMT) at the plant owned by Tomza Gas. Local officials said most of the workers had already finished their shift, keeping the number of casualties relatively low.

It is not yet clear whether the victims were employed by Tomza or worked at nearby businesses in the industrial park.

Tomza sells and install gas tanks and cylinders for household, commercial and industrial use.

There have been a series of gas-related accidents in Mexico. More than 20 people were killed when a lorry carrying gas tanks exploded on a highway on the outskirts of Mexico City in May.

And in September 2012, 26 people died in a fire at a gas plant owned by the state oil company Pemex in the city of Reynosa.

agencies

The coffin of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has been taken to a military airport near Rome after a funeral was halted following angry protests.

Italian officials said contacts had been made with Germany, amid media reports that Priebke’s body could be flown there.

Priebke died under house arrest last week. He had been jailed for life over the killing of more than 300 civilians.

A funeral in Albano Laziale, south of Rome, was called off on Tuesday.

A senior official in the Rome province, Giuseppe Pecoraro, said it was hoped the situation would be resolved on Wednesday.

“We have initiated contacts with Germany,” he was quoted as saying by Italian news agency Ansa.

“It’s not in my remit to decide on a cremation or a place of burial, but we are working to resolve the situation according to what is most suitable.”

Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Italian authorities were in touch with the German ambassador.

Both Argentina – where Priebke lived for nearly 50 years before being extradited to Italy – and Priebke’s hometown in Germany have previously refused to take the body.

Priebke died on Friday, aged 100.

wirestory

After claiming his innocence for over two decades, William Happ finally confessed to murder as he was put to death by lethal injection in the US state of Florida.

News reports said Happ took over 15 minutes to die, as his body repeatedly made convulsive movements, as the state corrections system used a new lethal chemical for the first time.

He was pronounced dead at 6:16 pm Tuesday (2016 GMT,) said Misty Cash, a spokeswoman for the state prison system.

Happ, 51, had spent 24 years on death row for the murder of a young woman named Angela Crowley in 1986.

Happ, who had drug and alcohol problems, met Crowley in a parking lot. The woman was strangled and raped, and her body found in a canal.

He was initially arrested for an unrelated crime, and the murder probe led to him because of a footprint of his that was found by investigators.

In a statement expressing his last words as he lay on the table, Happ confessed.

“For 27 years, the horrible murder of Angela Crowley has been clouded by circumstantial evidence and uncertainty. For the sake of her family, loved ones and all concerned, it is to my agonizing shame that I must confess to this terrible crime,” Happ wrote.

He added: “I wish to offer my most sincere and heartfelt apologies not only to those concerned for Angela Crowley but also to those I deceived and allowed to believe in my innocence”.

It was the 80th execution in Florida since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976. It was the 31st this year in the country.

As stocks of the usual lethal injection drug dwindle, most US states that carry out executions are turning to new drugs. This is sparking lawsuits from death row prisoners that the changes will cause undue suffering.

wirestory

A Russian court has overturned a sentence for opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, handing him a suspended sentence instead of five years in prison.

Navalny was convicted on embezzlement charges and sentenced to five years in prison on July 18, but was released from prison the next day in what some considered a ploy to make the Moscow mayoral race, where he was registered as a candidate, look as competitive as possible.

Navalny garnered an unexpected 27 percent against the Kremlin-backed incumbent. His growing public profile has made it increasingly risky for the Kremlin to put him behind bars.

A judge in the court in Kirov, 760 kilometers (460 miles) east of Moscow, read out the decision on Wednesday.

(AP)

Any easing by Washington of sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran taking steps to scale back its nuclear program is likely to be fleeting and symbolic, with any moves for bigger concessions likely to be blocked by Congress.

At talks in Geneva on the nuclear program with six world powers on Tuesday, Iran’s negotiators presented a proposal on defusing a decade-old standoff. But both sides said it was too early to talk of a breakthrough.

Even if Iran promises to take serious steps, it is unlikely to satisfy key members of the U.S. Congress, which generally takes a harder line on Iran than President Barack Obama’s administration.

Lawmakers including Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have signaled they want Tehran to stop even low-level enrichment of uranium used in generating power before they would take steps to wind down existing sanctions, or even agree not to put through tougher ones.

“Sanctions relief is easier said than done,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, an organization that seeks to prevent and resolve conflict.

“Without a fundamental reorientation of Iran’s approach, a significant relaxation in sanctions is not in the cards.”

The sanctions Washington would likely wind down first are morsels such as easing restrictions on medical supplies, travel and the sale of spare airplane parts and service for U.S.-built aircraft in Iran.

“Many of these are low impact, they are not going to turn Iran’s economy around,” said Greg Theilmann, a fellow at the Arms Control Association, and a former top intelligence official at the State Department.

“But it’s important to at least know there are a number of things that can be done to show U.S. bona fides if the Iranians show that they are willing to take significant steps in the direction of what the U.S. and other parties say they have to do,” he said.

Deadly crashes of aging aircraft owned by Iranian airlines have become common and Iranian officials say their inability to buy new Western-built planes and parts have led to more than 1,700 deaths since those sanctions began in 1995.

Allowing access to U.S. aircraft parts could help improve relations between the two countries as negotiators work on more difficult sanctions that are crippling Iran’s economy.

reuters