LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Manslaughter charges could be filed over London’s deadly tower blaze, police said Friday after finding that exterior cladding on the building had failed safety tests and that the fire started with a faulty fridge. The government ordered immediate checks on the Hotpoint FF175BP fridge freezer model blamed for the June 14 blaze in west London, which left 79 people presumed dead. Hotpoint-branded fridge freezers were manufactured by Indesit between 2006 […]
International
Facebook launches plan to combat online extremism
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — US social media giant Facebook launched a campaign in Britain on Friday to counter the spread of online extremism following warnings from Prime Minister Theresa May after four terror attacks in three months. Facebook said it would seek to educate charities and other organisations on how to fight hate speech, in the wake of recent terror attacks in Belgium, Britain and France. The Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI) will act […]
UAE warns Qatar to take neighbors’ demands ‘seriously’
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The UAE on Friday advised Qatar to take a list of stern demands drawn up by its neighbors seriously or the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf would turn into a “divorce” with Doha. Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates state minister for foreign affairs, issued the warning more than two weeks into the oil-rich region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years. He also accused Qatar of leaking a document […]
London mosque driver charged with ‘terrorism-related murder’
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British van driver who mowed down Muslim worshippers near a London mosque this week was charged Friday with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder, prosecutors said. Darren Osborne, 47, will appear before magistrates in central London later Friday in relation to the charges, the Crown Prosecution Service said, after one man died in the incident early Monday near Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. © Agence France-Presse
China calls for restraint from all parties after North Korea rocket engine test
BEIJING, China (Reuters) — China reiterated their opposition to any violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and urged all parties to exercise restraint on Friday (June 23), a day after North Korea carried out another test of a rocket engine. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Thursday (June 22), said the test, the latest in a series of engine and missile trials this year, could be part of the isolated […]
Police mull manslaughter charges over London blaze
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)–Manslaughter charges could be filed over London’s deadly tower blaze, police said Friday after they found that outside cladding had failed safety tests and that the fire started with a faulty fridge. “We are looking at every criminal offense from manslaughter onwards,” Fiona McCormack from London’s Metropolitan Police said at a briefing on the June 14 blaze in west London, which left 79 people presumed dead. Referring to the tiles and insulation […]
Japan politician resigns after attacking aide
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A female Japanese politician has resigned after an audio tape emerged of her violently attacking a male secretary, and reportedly threatening to crush his head with a lead pipe. Mayuko Toyota, a 42-year-old Harvard graduate and up-and-coming member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), can be heard screaming at the unnamed aide, saying he should die as she mocked his thinning hair. Her 55-year-old secretary can be heard repeatedly apologising […]
N. Korea denies torturing US student Warmbier: KCNA
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Friday denied it had tortured or mistreated Otto Warmbier, the US student who died after being released in a coma from the North. “Our relevant agencies treat all criminals… thoroughly in accordance with domestic laws and international standards,” a spokesperson of the National Reconciliation Council was quoted as saying by Pyongyang’s KCNA news agency. © Agence France-Presse
Russia warships and sub fire cruise missiles at Syria: Moscow
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Two Russian warships and a submarine in the Mediterranean have fired missiles at Islamic State group targets in Syria, the defense ministry said Friday. It said that Turkish and Israeli military “were informed in a timely manner of the missile launches through communication channels,” but it did not mention the United States. Russia suspended its communication channel with the US about military operations in Syria from Monday after a US jet […]
N.Korea conducts rocket engine test: US official
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has tested a rocket engine that could be fitted to an intercontinental ballistic missile, a United States official said, in an apparent provocation ahead of a summit between United States President Donald Trump and the leader of South Korea. President Moon Jae-In heads to Washington next week to meet Trump for the first time since taking office in May, as tensions soar on the Korean peninsula over Kim […]
China’s top diplomat holds talks with Trump on N. Korea
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — China’s top diplomat told President Donald Trump that Beijing was willing to keep working with Washington to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula — days after the United States leader implied that Chinese efforts had failed. The meeting between State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Trump at the White House on Thursday also came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged China to step up diplomatic and economic pressure on […]
At least five dead in SW Pakistan explosion
QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) — An explosion targeting a police vehicle in Pakistan’s southwestern Quetta city on Friday killed at least five people and injured 14 others, officials said. The explosion occurred in front of the office of the police chief in Quetta city, which is capital of the mineral-rich southern Balochistan province rife with the separatist and Islamist insurgencies. “We have received five dead bodies from the blast site,” doctor Fareed Ahmed, Medical Superintendent at […]