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Tag: InternationalNews

  • India Rape Victim Mom Calls for Death Penalty

    {{The mother of a 23-year-old student who died after being brutally gang-raped in a moving bus in the Indian capital says all six suspects, including one believed to be a juvenile, deserve to die.}}

    In her first published comments, the mother told The Times of India newspaper that the youngest suspect participated in the most brutal aspects of the rape.

    Five men have been charged with the student’s rape and murder and face a possible death penalty if convicted.

    The sixth suspect says he is 17 years old.

    If that is confirmed, he is likely to be tried in a juvenile court where the maximum sentence is three years in a reform facility.

    The names of the victim of the Dec. 16 attack and her family have not been released.

    {Wirestory}

  • Israel PM Denies Wasteful Spending on Iran Attack Plan

    {{Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday dismissed allegations by predecessor Ehud Olmert that he wasted billions of dollars preparing for a strike on Iran that did not take place.}}

    Olmert, who once led the centrist Kadima party, told Israel’s Channel 2 television on Friday that 11 billion shekels (about $3 billion) were wasted on “illusionary security escapades that have not been implemented and will not be implemented”.

    Olmert, prime minister from 2006 to 2009, did not mention Iran by name but Israeli media said his meaning was clear in the attack on Netanyahu in the run-up to a January 22 parliamentary election.

    Israel and the West suspect Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Tehran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes only.

    “Last year they (Israel’s leadership) frightened the whole world and in the end nothing was done,” Olmert added, appearing to allude to warnings by Israel that it might strike Iran if Western sanctions failed to curb its nuclear activities.

    Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party and is widely forecast to win the election, has set out a mid-2013 “red line” for tackling Iran’s uranium enrichment project.

    Asked by Army Radio about Olmert’s comments, Netanyahu said: “This is a strange and irresponsible statement. I will not specify the sums of our defense expenditure.

    “I will say that we have developed offensive and defensive capabilities for close and distant theatres and I think that this is a very important investment for the state of Israel.”

    Agencies

  • Saudi Arabia Beheads Sri Lankan Woman

    {{Rizana Nafeek, a young nanny from Sri Lanka, was beheaded by sword this week in Saudi Arabia, punishment for allegedly killing a baby in 2007 when she was believed to be just 17.}}

    The execution has spurred international outcry, given Nafeek’s age at the time of the incident and her limited access to a defense attorney.

    The beheading has also shined a light on the Arab kingdom’s medieval system of punishment, which includes cutting the hands off thieves, executing women accused of adultery, and flogging men accused of being gay.

    Few details of Nafeek’s execution have leaked from the country’s tightly controlled media, but the interior ministry said her head was severed from her body in public in Dawadmy, a dusty suburb of the capital Riyadh.

    In modern times, women in saudi Arabia condemned to death were traditionally executed by gunfire, but in recent years they have routinely been beheaded, an historic form of execution ordered under sharia, or the Muslim religious law that governs the country.

    ABCnews

  • Britney Spears Breaksup with Fiance

    {{Britney Spears and her fiancé, Jason Trawick, will not be getting married and, instead, will be going “their separate ways.”}}

    “Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement. I’ll always adore him and we will remain great friends,” Spears said in a statement.

    The singer got engaged to her former agent in December 2011.

    “As this chapter ends for us a new one begins,” Trawick said in the statement. “I love and cherish her and her boys and we will be close forever.”

    The couple started dating in 2009.

    Trawick told “Access Hollywood” in December 2011 that he got down on one knee to pop the question and Spears’ sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, witnessed the proposal.

    But Spears’ representative, Jeff Raymond, said they’ve now decided to be just friends.

    “Britney Spears and Jason Trawick have mutually agreed to end their one-year engagement,” Raymond said. “As two mature adults, they came to the difficult decision to go their separate ways while continuing to remain friends.”

    The news of the break-up came after Spears announced earlier today that she would not be returning as a judge on the TV show, “The X Factor.”

    “I’ve made the very difficult decision not to return for another season,” Spears said in a prepared statement.

    The reason: She wants to start making new music.

    Agencies

  • Largest Structure in Universe Detected

    {{Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.}}

    The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes.

    This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.

    “While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe,” lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement.

    “This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe.”

    Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For decades, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge groups, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide.

    But the record-breaking quasar group, which Clowes and his team spotted in data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, is on another scale altogether.

    The newfound LQC is composed of 73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.

    To put that mind-boggling size into perspective, the disk of the Milky Way galaxy — home of Earth’s solar system — is about 100,000 light-years wide.

    And the Milky Way is separated from its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, by about 2.5 million light-years.

    The newly discovered LQC is so enormous, in fact, that theory predicts it shouldn’t exist, researchers said.

    The quasar group appears to violate a widely accepted assumption known as the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a sufficiently large scale.

    Calculations suggest that structures larger than about 1.2 billion light-years should not exist, researchers said.

    “Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge, and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena,” Clowes said.

    {The new study was published (Jan. 11) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.{}}

  • US Awards Medal of Honor to Afghanistan War Hero

    {{A former Army staff sergeant who helped repel one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan will receive the Medal of Honor. }}

    Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, 31, becomes only the fourth living recipient of the nation’s highest award for valor from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The White House announced Friday that on Feb. 11 Romesha will receive the medal for his actions in repelling the deadly attack on Combat Outpost Keating on Oct. 3, 2009. At the time Romesha was serving as a Section Leader with Bravo Troop, 3d Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

    The attack by hundreds of Taliban fighters on the remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan killed 8 American soldiers and left 22 others wounded.

    The attack was profiled in the book “The Outpost” by Jake Tapper, formerly of ABC News.

    Romesha will become the 11 th veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be awarded the medal. Seven of them have been awarded posthumously.

    Combat Outpost Keating was a small base in Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province, located at the bottom of a valley surrounded on all sides by steep mountain ridges.

    Plans to close the base had been delayed for months when the attack was launched by 300 Taliban fighters, hiding in the rugged terrain.

    According to the citation accompanying his award, Romesha took out an enemy machine gun team and was injured by a rocket propelled grenade as he engaged a second one.

    ABCnews

  • China Landslide Kills 32

    {{At least 32 people have died and dozens remain missing after a landslide swept through a village in the mountains of southern China, local government and state media have said.}}

    The landslide smothered 16 homes on Friday morning in Zhaojiagou village, and hours later more than 40 people were missing, said a notice posted on the website of Zhenxiong county in Yunnan province, where the village is located.

    Rescuers recovered 32 bodies, among them a family of seven, said a report on the website of the Yunnan Daily, the official newspaper of the provincial government.

    Photographs posted on the news site showed rescue crews in orange jumpsuits using construction machinery to sift through massive piles of mud and earth.

    Behind them stood hillsides and pine trees covered in snow, signs of the unusually cold winter that has hit all of China.

    Reports did not say what triggered the landslide, but such events do occur periodically in the region, which is prone to earthquakes and heavy rains.

    In a nearby county, 81 people died after an earthquake in September.

    A month later, a landslide buried a primary school, leaving 18 students and one other person dead.

  • UN Calls for Quick Deployment of Troops in Mali

    {{The UN Security Council has called for the “swift deployment” of an international force to Mali.}}

    The call comes after Islamist militants said they had entered the key central town of Konna, advancing further into government-held territory.

    The UN has approved plans to send some 3,000 African troops to Mali to recapture the desert north, which is controlled by the militants.

    Mali’s president has asked the UN and France for help, diplomats say.

    France would respond to the request on Friday, France’s ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud said.

  • Rebels Capture North Syria Airbase

    {{Syrian Rebels are reported to have taken control of a strategic military airbase in north-western Syria after weeks of fierce fighting with government forces.}}

    Opposition activists said the Free Syrian Army was in full control of Taftanaz airport. Videos purportedly showed fighters inside the facility.

    Helicopters based there have been used to bombed rebel-held areas.

    Meanwhile, top US and Russian officials will later attend talks in Geneva with the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.

    BBC

  • China Denies Ignoring Investment Scams

    {{The Chinese government pushed back at suggestions that its officials have been uncooperative in U.S. efforts to crack down on stock swindles that have cost American investors billions of dollars.}}

    “Groundless accusation will not conduce to our friendly cooperation,” said Karen Kang, a spokeswoman for the Chinese consulate in New York.

    Kang’s comments came in reaction to an ABC News interview with the outgoing chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary L. Schapiro, who saw a spike in alleged fraud by Chinese companies that had been listed on major American stock exchanges.

    An ABC News report Wednesday found that since 2010 more than 70 companies have been kicked off or left the NASDAQ and the two trading floors run by the New York Stock Exchange after reports surfaced alleging fraud and financial irregularities.

    “Dozens of companies have been delisted from our exchanges due to economy irregularities and outright fraud,” said Dan David, vice president of GeoInvesting, LLC, a firm that monitored the Asian investment craze.

    “They raised hundreds of millions, some companies, that is outright money that was taken from investors that they’ll never see again.”

    Read More….http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/chinese-deny-turning-blind-eye-investment-scams/story?id=18180171