Tag: Children

US to probe alleged abuse of migrant children by border agents

  LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — US authorities said Wednesday they are investigating allegations of abuse of migrant children by border agents, including the groping of a Honduran teenage girl, at a facility near the southern border with Mexico. The allegations were reported by NBC News, which cited official reports of the incidents — including the children’s accounts — at a Customs and Border Protection facility in Yuma, Arizona, where the migrants were held. […]

US border chief quits amid outcry over child detainees

  by Chris Lefkow Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The acting head of the US Customs and Border Protection agency announced his resignation on Tuesday amid a public outcry over alarming detention conditions of migrant children in Texas. John Sanders, appointed to the post just two months ago, said in a letter obtained by several US media outlets that he planned to step down as acting CBP commissioner on July 5. Sanders’ […]

Commission into French Catholic Church sex abuse claims opens

  PARIS, France (AFP) — An independent commission set up by the French Catholic Church to look at allegations of sexual abuse by clerics begins its work on Monday by launching an appeal for witness statements. France’s Catholic bishops set up the commission last year in response to a number of scandals that shook the Church in the country and also worldwide. It now has the task to shed light on sexual abuse committed by […]

Abe voices ‘strong anger’ over ‘harrowing’ Japan stabbing

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe voiced “strong anger” over what he described as a “harrowing” attack, after a knifeman on Tuesday stabbed two people to death, including a 12-year-old. “It is a very harrowing case. I feel strong anger. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the victims and hope the injured recover quickly,” Abe said in a televised reaction, his first since the attack. © Agence France-Presse

UPDATE: Two feared dead, 17 hurt after Japan mass stabbing

by Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Two people, including a child, were feared dead Tuesday in a mass stabbing attack that also injured 17 people in the Japanese city of Kawasaki, the local fire department said. “One man and one female child are showing no vital signs, said fire department official Yuji Sekizawa, employing a phrase commonly used in Japan to mean the victims have died but the death has not yet been certified […]

19 hurt, including children, in Japan stabbing attack: fire dept

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A mass stabbing attack in the Japanese city of Kawasaki on Tuesday injured at least 19 people, among them one person left with “no vital signs”, the local fire department said. “The number of injured people is now 19, including one who is seriously injured and now shows no vital signs,” Kawasaki Fire Department spokesman Keiichi Hayakawa told AFP. “A man stabbed them,” another spokesman for the department, Dai Nagase, earlier […]

Car ploughs into young children in Japan, killing two

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A car ploughed into a group of kindergarten children in western Japan’s Shiga region on Wednesday, killing two toddlers and injuring others, police said. Police said the car veered onto the pavement after making “contact” with another larger vehicle that was turning at a junction in Otsu City. The accident killed a girl and a boy, both two years old, a police spokesman told AFP. “The (smaller) car rammed into […]

Scars of torture at US reform school for boys won’t go away

  by Leila Macor Agence France Presse FORT MYERS, United States (AFP) — Jerry Cooper says he endured torture and cruelty that were everyday things for decades at a reform school in Florida, turning him into something horrible. As authorities prepare to investigate a possible new set of unmarked graves on the school grounds after dozens were found a few years ago, apologies are finally coming in. But 60 years after he was abused, Cooper […]

US ‘House of Horrors’ parents jailed for torture, abuse

by Javier TOVAR RIVERSIDE, United States (AFP) — A California couple were handed life sentences Friday after admitting to imprisoning and torturing 12 of their 13 children in a grisly “House of Horrors” case that shocked the world. David Allen Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise Anna Turpin, 50, had pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts — including cruelty, false imprisonment, child abuse and torture of their children aged three to 30 — and will […]

Air pollution to shorten life expectancy of children born today, says study

  HONGKONG, China (AFP) — Air pollution will shorten the life expectancy of children born today by an average of 20 months and will have the greatest impact in south Asia, according to a study published Wednesday. The State of Global Air report, published by the US-based Health Effects Institute and the University of British Columbia, says air pollution is the fifth leading cause of early death worldwide — responsible for more deaths than malaria, […]

Washington Post: Slain Saudi journalist Khashoggi’s children paid by kingdom

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2019 (AFP) – The children of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have received multimillion-dollar homes and are being paid thousands of dollars per month by the kingdom’s authorities, The Washington Post reported Monday. Khashoggi — a contributor to the Post and a critic of the Saudi government — was killed and dismembered in October at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh. His body has […]

French sex abuse victims seek answers from top Vatican official

  LYON, France (AFP) — A pedophilia victims’ group is calling for a Vatican cardinal to be stripped of his immunity so he can face prosecution over the cover-up of alleged sex abuse by a French priest, one of the victims said Wednesday The announcement comes a day after Catholic Church’s Pope Francis rejected the resignation of a French cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for failing to report the […]