Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Suspected suicide bomber injured 15 in Istanbul
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A suspected suicide bomber injured at least 15 people in Istanbul's
central Taksim Square on Sunday, Turkish media reported.
Among the 15 injured, six were police and nine were civilians and the attacker appeared to be male, Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin said. It was unclear if the bomber had been killed by the explosion.
"It appears to be a suicide bomber. At the moment there are six citizens and nine police injured. We have no martyrs," he said, referring to any victims. Two of the wounded were in a serious condition, he said.
Capkin said the blast targeted the police but it was unclear who was behind the attack. PKK rebels as well as other groups have in the past set off bombs in Istanbul.
Al Qaeda militants were behind bomb attacks in Istanbul in 2003 that killed 57 people and wounded hundreds.
Television pictures showed security forces directing emergency services toward the scene of the blast. A bomb disposal unit was also at the scene in case of a second explosive device, Turkish media said.
Taksim Square was sealed off.
The square is a major tourist attraction and transport hub, surrounded by restaurants, shops and hotels, and at the heart of modern Istanbul. It houses the Republic Monument which was built in 1928 to commemorate the creation of the Turkish Republic.
central Taksim Square on Sunday, Turkish media reported.Among the 15 injured, six were police and nine were civilians and the attacker appeared to be male, Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin said. It was unclear if the bomber had been killed by the explosion.
"It appears to be a suicide bomber. At the moment there are six citizens and nine police injured. We have no martyrs," he said, referring to any victims. Two of the wounded were in a serious condition, he said.
Capkin said the blast targeted the police but it was unclear who was behind the attack. PKK rebels as well as other groups have in the past set off bombs in Istanbul.
Al Qaeda militants were behind bomb attacks in Istanbul in 2003 that killed 57 people and wounded hundreds.
Television pictures showed security forces directing emergency services toward the scene of the blast. A bomb disposal unit was also at the scene in case of a second explosive device, Turkish media said.
Taksim Square was sealed off.
The square is a major tourist attraction and transport hub, surrounded by restaurants, shops and hotels, and at the heart of modern Istanbul. It houses the Republic Monument which was built in 1928 to commemorate the creation of the Turkish Republic.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Review: Ruffins' 'Happy Talk' is infectious
Kermit Ruffins, "Happy Talk" (Basin Street Records)
Go ahead, just try and listen to New Orleans trumpeter Kermit Ruffins' latest release without moving — no foot tapping, finger snapping or head nodding. A plate of red beans and rice says you can't do it.
"Happy Talk" cheerfully marches, swings and bops listeners through classic covers and original tunes, led all the way by Ruffins' distinctively brassy bravado.
It's the first release for the co-founder of the Rebirth Brass Band since his appearance on the HBO series "Treme," and he gives a nod to the neighborhood of the same name with the swingy and sometimes silly "I Got a Treme Woman."
"If I Only Had a Brain" gets a smartly Latin-infused treatment, Ruffins seems to channel Louis Armstrong with the appropriately sweet "Sugar," and even the sometimes mournful "La Vie En Rose" gets an upbeat makeover with vocals from Ruffins.
Rapid-fire percussion and piano lend a dancy urgency to "Shine" and a full-bodied brass section helps make "More Today Than Yesterday" deliver.
Twangy electric guitar gives a bluesy feel to "New Orleans (My Home Town)," a last track that's equal parts love song and lovers' stroll.
During a musical era when Auto-Tune seems to reign, Ruffins offers a refreshing return to a simpler time of raw vocals, in-your-face instrumentation and clever composition.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: Listeners looking to be transported directly to Bourbon Street without paying any baggage fees need look no further than the album's first song, the rollicking ragtime tune "Panama."
Go ahead, just try and listen to New Orleans
trumpeter Kermit Ruffins' latest release without moving — no foot tapping, finger snapping or head nodding. A plate of red beans and rice says you can't do it."Happy Talk" cheerfully marches, swings and bops listeners through classic covers and original tunes, led all the way by Ruffins' distinctively brassy bravado.
It's the first release for the co-founder of the Rebirth Brass Band since his appearance on the HBO series "Treme," and he gives a nod to the neighborhood of the same name with the swingy and sometimes silly "I Got a Treme Woman."
"If I Only Had a Brain" gets a smartly Latin-infused treatment, Ruffins seems to channel Louis Armstrong with the appropriately sweet "Sugar," and even the sometimes mournful "La Vie En Rose" gets an upbeat makeover with vocals from Ruffins.
Rapid-fire percussion and piano lend a dancy urgency to "Shine" and a full-bodied brass section helps make "More Today Than Yesterday" deliver.
Twangy electric guitar gives a bluesy feel to "New Orleans (My Home Town)," a last track that's equal parts love song and lovers' stroll.
During a musical era when Auto-Tune seems to reign, Ruffins offers a refreshing return to a simpler time of raw vocals, in-your-face instrumentation and clever composition.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: Listeners looking to be transported directly to Bourbon Street without paying any baggage fees need look no further than the album's first song, the rollicking ragtime tune "Panama."
Friday, June 11, 2010
China sentences school attacker to death
BEIJING — A Chinese court sentenced to death on Friday a man who injured 16 children and a teacher in a stabbing spree, the third such punishment after a series of school attacks that shocked the nation.
State media also reported a death sentence had been handed to a man who killed eight people including his wife, daughter and elderly mother in a knife rampage in Jiangxi province.
An intermediate court in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced Chen Kangbing to death for the attack in April at a primary school in the city of Leizhou, Xinhua news agency reported.
The assault was one of a number of school attacks that took place from March to May and left 17 people -- including 15 children -- dead and more than 80 injured.
"Chen hacked at the children and teacher in a very cruel manner, causing great harm," the report quoted the court in the city of Zhanjiang as saying, noting he was convicted of "murder" even though no one died.
Chen admitted his guilt during the trial, according to Xinhua. It was not immediately clear if he would appeal.
Aged in his early 30s, Chen is a schoolteacher who was reportedly on sick leave due to mental health problems.
The attacks have prompted emergency measures including stronger school security and stricter monitoring of people known to have mental illnesses, out of fears of copy-cat crimes.
Extra police and security were posted this week outside high schools and road blocks were set up outside test venues as nearly 10 million students sat the country's university entrance exams.
Experts say the assaults show China is paying the price for focusing on economic growth while ignoring problems linked to rapid social change.
Studies have cited a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders in China, some of them linked to stress as society becomes more fast-paced and socialist supports wither.
Other than Chen, two school attackers have already been sentenced to death and executed. Two other attackers committed suicide after their crimes.
One assailant who was executed last month, Xu Yuyuan, said at his trial his motive was to vent rage against society after losing money gambling and in business dealings, and suffering setbacks in his personal life.
The unemployed Xu carried out a bloody assault on 32 people, mostly small children, at a kindergarten in Jiangsu province in April.
A former doctor who stabbed to death eight children and injured five others on March 23 in southeast China was also executed last month.
State media also reported Friday the sentencing to death of 36-year-old Zhou Yezhong, who went on a killing spree in May in the coastal province of Jiangxi.
Court spokesman Long Xiaomao said Zhou had gambling problems and began his bloody rampage after a fight with his wife.
At the time of the attack, Xinhua cited witnesses as saying Zhou first killed his 10-year-old daughter and then his mother, aged in her eighties, even though she fell to her knees begging for mercy.
He then rushed to another house where he killed his wife and two neighbours before stabbing two other villagers who were running for help, and a migrant worker.
Premier Wen Jiabao said last month long-standing social concerns such as unemployment and a growing gap between rich and poor were partially to blame for the string of attacks.
"We need to resolve the deep-seated causes that have resulted in these problems," Wen told Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television. "This includes handling social contradictions, resolving disputes and strengthening mediation at the grassroots level."
court sentenced to death on Friday a man who injured 16 children and a teacher in a stabbing spree, the third such punishment after a series of school attacks that shocked the nation.State media also reported a death sentence had been handed to a man who killed eight people including his wife, daughter and elderly mother in a knife rampage in Jiangxi province.
An intermediate court in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced Chen Kangbing to death for the attack in April at a primary school in the city of Leizhou, Xinhua news agency reported.
The assault was one of a number of school attacks that took place from March to May and left 17 people -- including 15 children -- dead and more than 80 injured.
"Chen hacked at the children and teacher in a very cruel manner, causing great harm," the report quoted the court in the city of Zhanjiang as saying, noting he was convicted of "murder" even though no one died.
Chen admitted his guilt during the trial, according to Xinhua. It was not immediately clear if he would appeal.
Aged in his early 30s, Chen is a schoolteacher who was reportedly on sick leave due to mental health problems.
The attacks have prompted emergency measures including stronger school security and stricter monitoring of people known to have mental illnesses, out of fears of copy-cat crimes.
Extra police and security were posted this week outside high schools and road blocks were set up outside test venues as nearly 10 million students sat the country's university entrance exams.
Experts say the assaults show China is paying the price for focusing on economic growth while ignoring problems linked to rapid social change.
Studies have cited a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders in China, some of them linked to stress as society becomes more fast-paced and socialist supports wither.
Other than Chen, two school attackers have already been sentenced to death and executed. Two other attackers committed suicide after their crimes.
One assailant who was executed last month, Xu Yuyuan, said at his trial his motive was to vent rage against society after losing money gambling and in business dealings, and suffering setbacks in his personal life.
The unemployed Xu carried out a bloody assault on 32 people, mostly small children, at a kindergarten in Jiangsu province in April.
A former doctor who stabbed to death eight children and injured five others on March 23 in southeast China was also executed last month.
State media also reported Friday the sentencing to death of 36-year-old Zhou Yezhong, who went on a killing spree in May in the coastal province of Jiangxi.
Court spokesman Long Xiaomao said Zhou had gambling problems and began his bloody rampage after a fight with his wife.
At the time of the attack, Xinhua cited witnesses as saying Zhou first killed his 10-year-old daughter and then his mother, aged in her eighties, even though she fell to her knees begging for mercy.
He then rushed to another house where he killed his wife and two neighbours before stabbing two other villagers who were running for help, and a migrant worker.
Premier Wen Jiabao said last month long-standing social concerns such as unemployment and a growing gap between rich and poor were partially to blame for the string of attacks.
"We need to resolve the deep-seated causes that have resulted in these problems," Wen told Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television. "This includes handling social contradictions, resolving disputes and strengthening mediation at the grassroots level."
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Berlusconi corruption trial adjourned for a month
ROME — A court in Milan Saturday adjourned for a month the trial of Silvio Berlusconi accused of corrupting his former tax lawyer, as the Italian prime minister pursued efforts to get the judges off his back.
Berlusconi, who did not attend the hearing, is on trial for allegedly paying 600,000 dollars (440,000 euros) to British tax lawyer David Mills in exchange for false testimony during two trials in the mid-1990s.
Mills' parallel trial for the same crime was thrown out by Italy's appeals court on Thursday because the statute of limitations had expired, even though judges decided the crime had taken place.
Italian law sets a 10-year limit for prosecution of judiciary corruption crimes and terms for Berlusconi's trial are set to expire in early 2011.
Berlusconi's lawyers on Saturday asked the court to suspend the trial until details on the Mills ruling were published, but judges refused because "the trial cannot be suspended for an undetermined amount of time".
The prime minister launched a fresh attack on the country's judges Friday, likening them to Afghanistan's Taliban and accusing them of using the judiciary for political purposes.
Citing ongoing reforms to the justice system which critics say are designed to make him harder to prosecute, Berlusconi remarked: "I don't think it will please the Taliban in the judiciary."
The secretary of Italy's magistrates' union Giuseppe Cascini replied, saying that "this escalations of insults and attacks against Italian magistrates is intolerable".
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday called on the prime minister and the magistrates to tone down the "very serious accusations" which fuel "dangerous tensions" between branches of government.
Tens of thousands of Italians congregated on Saturday in Piazza del Popolo in central Rome to protest against Berlusconi under a banner reading "Enough. The law is the same for everyone."
Organisers put the turnout at some 200,000.
"We are starved of legality," said Angelo Bonelli, the head of the Greens party. "Today, the real Taliban is Berlusconi who wants to tie up the hands of the magistrates."
Berlusconi's battles with the law have marked his public life since he burst on to the political scene in the mid-1990s.
The media tycoon has faced charges including corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties.
He was initially a co-defendant in the Mills trial, but proceedings against him were suspended after parliament approved a law shielding him from prosecution while in office, shortly after he returned to power in 2008.
However Italy's Constitutional Court struck down that legislation last year.
Meanwhile new laws are going through parliament which would have the effect of keeping Berlusconi out of the courts.
One would allow the prime minister or any member of his cabinet to be automatically granted the suspension of legal process for at least 18 months.
Passed by the lower house after a stormy debate, it is to be debated by the senate on March 9.
More legislation would quash any legal action if a final verdict is not handed down within six years of it being launched -- which would end a large number of ongoing cases, not just those against Berlusconi.
Since a separate trial against the prime minister restarted in December, he has not appeared in court in the two hearings so far, citing government commitments.
Berlusconi has never been definitively convicted: in some trials he was acquitted, while in other charges were dropped because the statute of limitations expired.
Saturday adjourned for a month the trial of Silvio Berlusconi accused of corrupting his former tax lawyer, as the Italian prime minister pursued efforts to get the judges off his back.Berlusconi, who did not attend the hearing, is on trial for allegedly paying 600,000 dollars (440,000 euros) to British tax lawyer David Mills in exchange for false testimony during two trials in the mid-1990s.
Mills' parallel trial for the same crime was thrown out by Italy's appeals court on Thursday because the statute of limitations had expired, even though judges decided the crime had taken place.
Italian law sets a 10-year limit for prosecution of judiciary corruption crimes and terms for Berlusconi's trial are set to expire in early 2011.
Berlusconi's lawyers on Saturday asked the court to suspend the trial until details on the Mills ruling were published, but judges refused because "the trial cannot be suspended for an undetermined amount of time".
The prime minister launched a fresh attack on the country's judges Friday, likening them to Afghanistan's Taliban and accusing them of using the judiciary for political purposes.
Citing ongoing reforms to the justice system which critics say are designed to make him harder to prosecute, Berlusconi remarked: "I don't think it will please the Taliban in the judiciary."
The secretary of Italy's magistrates' union Giuseppe Cascini replied, saying that "this escalations of insults and attacks against Italian magistrates is intolerable".
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday called on the prime minister and the magistrates to tone down the "very serious accusations" which fuel "dangerous tensions" between branches of government.
Tens of thousands of Italians congregated on Saturday in Piazza del Popolo in central Rome to protest against Berlusconi under a banner reading "Enough. The law is the same for everyone."
Organisers put the turnout at some 200,000.
"We are starved of legality," said Angelo Bonelli, the head of the Greens party. "Today, the real Taliban is Berlusconi who wants to tie up the hands of the magistrates."
Berlusconi's battles with the law have marked his public life since he burst on to the political scene in the mid-1990s.
The media tycoon has faced charges including corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties.
He was initially a co-defendant in the Mills trial, but proceedings against him were suspended after parliament approved a law shielding him from prosecution while in office, shortly after he returned to power in 2008.
However Italy's Constitutional Court struck down that legislation last year.
Meanwhile new laws are going through parliament which would have the effect of keeping Berlusconi out of the courts.
One would allow the prime minister or any member of his cabinet to be automatically granted the suspension of legal process for at least 18 months.
Passed by the lower house after a stormy debate, it is to be debated by the senate on March 9.
More legislation would quash any legal action if a final verdict is not handed down within six years of it being launched -- which would end a large number of ongoing cases, not just those against Berlusconi.
Since a separate trial against the prime minister restarted in December, he has not appeared in court in the two hearings so far, citing government commitments.
Berlusconi has never been definitively convicted: in some trials he was acquitted, while in other charges were dropped because the statute of limitations expired.
Friday, January 15, 2010
11 killed in US missile strikes in NW Pakistan: officials
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — Two US drone missile attacks killed at least 11 militants in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border Friday, destroying their compounds, Pakistani officials said.
The first attack took place Friday evening in Zanini village near the town of Mir Ali, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of restive North Waziristan tribal district.
"US drones fired four missiles at a militant compound and at least five militants were killed," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Two intelligence officials in the area and a local administrative official also confirmed the attack and the toll.
The officials said that five US drones flew over at low altitude above the area and two of the drones descended further and fired four missiles at the militants' compound, destroying it completely.
It was the eighth missile strike by an unmanned US spy plane so far this year, as the administration of US President Barack Obama puts Pakistan at the heart of its fight against Al-Qaeda and Islamist extremists.
The second drone attack, and the ninth drone strike this month, less than two hours later, killed at least six suspected militants at Bichi village in the same region.
"At least six people, believed to be militants, were killed in a US drone attack," the security official said.
"Two missiles were fired at a militant compound in the area which borders with South Waziristan," he said.
The Pakistani Taliban released an audio recording allegedly made Friday in which the group's leader Hakimullah Mehsud says he is alive, after reports he was killed in a US missile strike.
The message came after missiles from unmanned US aircraft pounded the northwest tribal belt on Thursday, killing at least 15 militants, with some security officials saying Mehsud was among the dead.
The first attack took place Friday evening in Zanini village near the town of Mir Ali, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of restive North Waziristan tribal district.
"US drones fired four missiles at a militant compound and at least five militants were killed," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Two intelligence officials in the area and a local administrative official also confirmed the attack and the toll.
The officials said that five US drones flew over at low altitude above the area and two of the drones descended further and fired four missiles at the militants' compound, destroying it completely.
It was the eighth missile strike by an unmanned US spy plane so far this year, as the administration of US President Barack Obama puts Pakistan at the heart of its fight against Al-Qaeda and Islamist extremists.
The second drone attack, and the ninth drone strike this month, less than two hours later, killed at least six suspected militants at Bichi village in the same region.
"At least six people, believed to be militants, were killed in a US drone attack," the security official said.
"Two missiles were fired at a militant compound in the area which borders with South Waziristan," he said.
The Pakistani Taliban released an audio recording allegedly made Friday in which the group's leader Hakimullah Mehsud says he is alive, after reports he was killed in a US missile strike.
The message came after missiles from unmanned US aircraft pounded the northwest tribal belt on Thursday, killing at least 15 militants, with some security officials saying Mehsud was among the dead.
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